By California Black Media
To ensure that Black communities across the state voice their thoughts and concerns and provide input, the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans is sponsoring public listening sessions.
Conducted in partnership with six grass-roots organizations, the first of the two-day sessions will be on January 27 and 28, 2022.
The virtual meetings will begin at 9:00 a.m. both days.
On Thursday, January 27, the meeting will feature testimony from experts during the segments on “Discrimination in Technology,” “Community Eligibility,” and “Public Health.”
On Friday, January 28, the California reparations task force will hear testimonies from experts discussing mental health and physical health.
California’s Assembly Bill (AB) 3121, titled “The Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans,” created a nine-member commission to investigate race-based inequity in education, labor, wealth, housing, taxation and more.
The commission is also charged with analyzing the state’s involvement in slavery, segregation, and the historic denial of Black citizens’ constitutional rights.
Current California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber authored the bill when she was a member of the State Assembly and chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus.
AB 3121 requires the task force to submit its recommendations to the Legislature no later than 2023.