California’s Black legislators make case for reparations bills while launching statewide tour

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Several members of California’s Legislative Black Caucus launched a statewide tour in San Diego Saturday to promote a slate of 14 reparations bills, including a measure that could change the state constitution to end forced prison labor.

That measure and several others designed to mitigate the effects of racism and slavery will face important legislative deadlines in the next two weeks.

Caucus members and other reparations proponents said they will hold similar State of Black California community listening sessions events in six cities over the next five months.

The Black Caucus’ 14 reparations bills tackle education, business, criminal justice, health care and civil rights, and include two proposed constitutional amendments that they hope to place before voters in November.

One of the amendments, ACA 8, would ban one of the last vestiges of slavery: forced labor in jails and prisons.

The California Constitution and the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime. That exception has enabled corrections facilities to require inmates to work for little or no pay.

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