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Advocates for racial reparations celebrated a legislative victory in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2599 — the Truth in Disclosure Act — into law. But key figures behind the effort say corporate transparency is only a starting point, maintaining that direct cash compensation remains essential.
Kristin Nimmers, policy and campaign manager for the California Black Power Network (CBPN) and the Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation, and Truth, told Digital that financial reparations must go far beyond a “single check.”
“We really focus on a harm-based approach, so whoever was harmed should be entitled to that repair,” Nimmers said. “Compensation for slavery, unpaid labor, for the 40 acres and a mule that were promised after the end of slavery — that should go to folks who have lineage and are descendants of people who were enslaved, because that is the harm that is being repaired.”
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A California lawmaker is trying to make sure reparations payments to Black residents do not get taxed if the effort becomes a reality. (iStock)
However, Nimmers emphasized that racial inequities persisted long after the end of chattel slavery.
“Black Americans were denied wages. We were denied property. We were denied access to capital. We were denied access to equal education — all of that over hundreds of years,” Nimmers added. “And so a single check is not going to holistically repair our communities.”
AB 2599 requires qualifying corporations doing business in California with more than $100 million in gross revenue to search their historical records and publicly disclose any financial ties to chattel slavery. Lawmakers and advocacy groups are now attempting to leverage the bill’s passage as momentum to turn broader recommendations from the California Reparations Task Force into law.
During the multi-year tenure of the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans (established under AB 3121), CBPN served as an official state community anchor. The coalition facilitated grassroots civic engagement across California, hosting listening sessions to gather public testimony that directly informed the task force’s landmark 1,100-page final report issued in 2023.
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Black New Yorkers demand cash reparations from the government as state officials work toward issuing some form of compensation for slavery or other past racial injustices.
However, the path forward for direct cash payouts remains difficult. While Newsom signed AB 2599, the governor has consistently taken a cautious stance on direct financial restitution, resisting high-cost payout proposals and vetoing related financial measures backed by progressive lawmakers.
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to Digital’s request for comment regarding CBPN’s support for cash payments.
Progressive coalitions also face internal ideological divisions within the broader movement. Grassroots organizations like the U.S. Freedmen Project — comprised of self-identified “Foundational Black Americans” — strongly disagree with broader, harm-based eligibility frameworks. The group aims to educate the public on the legal and historical distinctions between African Americans who directly descend from enslaved people in the U.S. and those who voluntarily immigrated to the country in recent decades.
The U.S. Freedmen Project told Digital that recent immigrants and Black Americans who do not meet its ancestry criteria should not be included in government reparations programs, arguing that left-leaning advocates are using the legacy of slavery to fund a far broader social platform.
Nimmers pushed back on lineage-only requirements, arguing that systemic discrimination in the 20th century affected a wider range of Black residents.
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The groups express reparations as a broader structural change in the “racial wealth gap,” policing and incarceration, “environmental racism,” and “underfunded schools.”
“If you are a Black person — maybe a Black immigrant who came here in the 1950s before the Civil Rights Act was passed — then you also experienced segregated schools,” Nimmers said. “If you experienced segregated schools, if you experienced redlining, and we are coming up with some sort of policy or some sort of form of repair for those things, then you should also be included in the group that is repaired. It isn’t really a lineage-based outlook, but more of a harm-based approach.”
While state-level cash proposals remain stalled, localized initiatives have moved forward. Earlier this year, the Reparations Committee in Evanston, Illinois, approved $25,000 housing grants to 44 Black residents. City officials focused on housing, calling historical redlining and discriminatory zoning “the strongest case for reparations.”
For California advocates, the long-term goal remains a comprehensive package encompassing both financial compensation and systemic policy reform.
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“Reparations is not a handout. It is about acknowledging, addressing, and repairing harm,” Nimmers told Digital. “What is the repair for that harm, and who fits within the group that was harmed? It’s necessary because we are owed that compensation for unpaid labor and historical harms.”
