Activists demand higher payments from CA reparations task force: '$200 million' per person

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Activists on Saturday demanded that the state of California pay millions of dollars to each Black resident in reparations as a way to make amends for slavery and subsequent discrimination, dismissing the mammoth proposals from California's reparations task force as too little.

The demands were made at a highly explosive official meeting of the task force, which was created by state legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020. The committee was hearing comments from the public as it considers final recommendations to submit to the California Legislature, which will then decide whether to implement the measures and send them to Newsom's desk to be signed into law.

An activist identified as Reverend Tony Pierce was one of the most outspoken people at the gathering, making reference to the famous "40 acres and a mule" promise to former slaves when he took the podium.

"You know that the numbers should be equivocal to what an acre was back then. We were given 40, OK? We were given 40 acres. You know what that number is. You keep trying to talk about now, yet you research back to slavery and you say nothing about slavery, nothing," said Pierce. "So, the equivocal number from the 1860s for 40 acres to today is $200 million for each and every African-American."

Pierce, who shouted most of his remarks, then directed his ire to the task force for in his view not pushing an ambitious enough reparations plan.

"You're not supposed to be afraid," he said. "You're just supposed to tell the truth. You're not supposed to be the gatekeepers. You're supposed to say what the people want and hear from the people."

Pierce concluded with a warning to California's top elected official: "Tell Governor Newsom we're coming. He knows me."

Economists predicted in a preliminary estimate in March that California's reparations plan could cost the state more than $800 billion. The task force, which consulted five economists and policy experts to arrive at the number, said at the time that the total didn't include compensation for property that the group says was taken unjustly or for the devaluation of Black-owned businesses.

California's total annual state budget sits at roughly $300 billion.

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