California task force recommends billions in slavery reparations

May 7 (UPI) -- California's first-in-the-nation Reparations Task Force has voted in favor of legislation requiring the state to issue a formal apology for slavery and grant hundreds of billions of dollars in payments in compensation.

The nine-member task force held the historic vote Saturday during a public meeting in Oakland, the Los Angeles Times reported. The plan includes details on how restitution payments, which could reach $500 billion, should be handled, The New York Times reported.

The panel's recommendations will now go before state lawmakers, who will possibly craft legislation.

The recommendation comes nearly a year after the task force detailed the "innumerable harms" slavery caused Black Americans. The panel's report found that enslavement, Jim Crow laws, redlining and other government actions have created widespread exclusion of Black Americans and contributed to the current wage gap between Black and white Americans in California.

"Almost 150 years of active, conscious federal, state and local government action and neglect of duty have resulted in compounded harms that are unique to Black Americans," the report stated.

The task force was tasked with providing the state legislature a final report with recommendations by July 1.

"I'm optimistic that they'll take a look at our proposals and engage in a good-faith effort to implement them," said one of the task force members, Kamilah Moore, according to the Los Angeles Times.