Some five years after the police murder of George Floyd, shifting political winds at both the state and national level raise the question of whether California will ever enact reparations or if the effort is destined to stall out.

Efforts to implement some legislation fell short during last year’s legislative session amid a bitter split within the Legislative Black Caucus over slow progress. This year, Gov. Gavin Newsom is widely seen as shifting politically to the right following a string of nationwide victories for President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans.

Still, the Black Caucus says it isn’t backing down from its push for equity and reparative justice legislation in 2025. But the group is not using the word “reparations” to describe its collection of 16 bills, partly because the legislation does not require cash payments as restitution for slavery. That’s a change from last year, when the group’s incremental approach led to a clash with advocates.

The slate includes second tries at measures that failed last year, such as establishing a new state agency to help implement and fund equity legislation and removing language from the state constitution that allows prison administrators to force people to work under threat of disciplinary consequences.

While a majority of Californians have said they support an official apology for the state’s role in supporting slavery, the idea of direct cash reparations is unpopular — a 2023 poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies showed Californians opposing payments by a 2-to-1 margin.
CalMatters’ reparations calculator, based on economic modeling in the task force’s report, estimates that an eligible Black resident who has lived seven decades in California could be owed up to $1.2 million.

Denise Amos of CalMatters contributed reporting to this explainer.