LA City Releases Report to Guide Future Development of Reparations Program

NORTHRIDGE (CNS) - A Los Angeles city commission outlined several proposals that could be implemented to address the historical and contemporary harm faced by Black Angelenos Wednesday, and the full report is expected to be released next month.

The Los Angeles Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department and its Reparations Advisory Commission released on Tuesday a 56-page executive summary of its report, titled "An Examination of African American Experiences in Los Angeles." The report is intended to guide the development of a future reparations program for Los Angeles.

As part of the report, researchers from Cal State Northridge and the committee conducted a study, which involved survey responses and original historical research, covering from 1930 to 2022.

A total of 618 individuals identifying as Black and or multi-racial heritage completed the survey. Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 97 with a majority being 50 to 69.

"A lot of people say, `What's slavery have to do with Los Angeles? What do reparations have to do with Los Angeles?"' General Manager Capri Maddox of the civil rights department said at a news conference Tuesday at Cal State Northridge's Student Union.

"The dehumanization of people by Jim Crow and other policies like red lining led to some of the challenges we have today in Los Angeles."

Khansa Jones-Muhammad, the commission's vice chair, led an overview of the report, and noted the full 400-page report is expected to be released next month.

The report identifies 12 "areas of harm" Black Angelenos have experienced, such as impacts from slavery, racial terror, mental and physical harm and neglect, racism in environment and infrastructure, an unjust legal system, housing segregation, stolen land and hindered opportunity, separate and unequal education, political disenfranchisement, pathologizing the Black family, control over creative cultural and intellectual life, and the wealth gap.

"The effects of historical injustices stemming from slavery have impacted opportunities and outcomes for generations of Black people in Los Angeles," the report reads.

Muhammad spoke on the injustices Black residents faced going back decades.

The report described how the city was a "major center" for Ku Klux Klan activity between 1923 to 1935, with significant involvement from Los Angeles Police Department officers and public officials.

By the 1950s, drug wars in the city disproportionately targeted Black communities, escalating police harassment and arrests, Muhammad added. William Parker, the LAPD's chief from 1950 to 1966, used drug campaigns to "justify aggressive policing and racial segregation," according to the report.

"Over 65% of study participants reported that they or their families experienced police harassment between 1865 and 1968. From the post-Civil Rights Movement through the wake of Black Lives Matter Movement, starting in 2013, 68% of Black Los Angelenos surveyed indicated that they were impacted by over- policing," according to the report.

Muhammad later reviewed challenges Black Angelenos face to date, such as barriers to housing and home ownership, health disparities compared to white and members of other racial groups, lack of opportunities, among other obstacles.

The report highlights three recommendations for each of the 12 areas of harm that could be implemented, though the commission explained there are many more listed in the full report.

For example, to redress the impacts of slavery, the commission recommended that Los Angeles issue an official "acknowledgement and apology" for the injustices of enslavement and Jim Crow policies, as well as to document the history of slavery in the city, and fund studies to ensure the history of African Americans are not erased.

California was admitted to the United States in 1850 as a free state and fought on the Union's side in the Civil War. The legal segregation in practice in the South through the 1960s did not exist in California.

On the impacts of an unjust legal system, the commission recommended the city adopt anti-racism and racial justice training along with de-escalation training. Commissioners also recommend the city calculate and compensate Black Angelenos for the cost of over-policing, police harassment and unjust convictions.

The commission was created in 2021 and is tasked with engaging the public, and gathering academic and participatory research to develop a reparations program. A final proposal is expected to be transmitted to the City Council and Mayor Karen Bass by early 2025, according to the civil rights department.

Last year, the reparations committee met in South Los Angeles to hear from Black Angelenos about their experiences, and discuss what they'd like in a reparations program.

Michael Lawson, CEO and president of the LA Urban League, who serves as the chair of the commission, previously described reparations as a "program of acknowledgement, redress and closure for grievous injustices supported by laws and enforced by governmental agencies."

In June, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion introduced by Supervisor Holly Mitchell aimed at implementing local reparation initiatives based on the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans.

The report is expected to include recommendations on actions county departments can take to provide reparations to eligible residents, along with proposed language for a board resolution that acknowledges and apologizes to Black residents and their descendants "for the county's role in structural racism, acts of violence and other such harms."