Black Californians hope state reparations don’t become another broken promise

By SOPHIE AUSTIN and JANIE HAR
Associated Press/Report for America

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s first-in-the-nation Black reparations task force is nearing the end of its historic work with a hefty list of recommendations for lawmakers to consider turning into action. Black residents say they hope the effort results in meaningful reparations. Many fear this will end up being another broken promise from a government offering false hope. At the end of the Civil War, newly freed people were supposed to receive up to 40 acres of land, but that never happened. Efforts in Congress to study reparations have gone nowhere for decades. People opposed to reparations say slavery happened so long ago.