Descendants of enslaved persons: reparations.

Senator Weber Pierson, with coauthors from both chambers, proposes a new Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery housed within the California Civil Rights Department to formalize a reparations-related governance structure and eligibility framework for state benefits. The core change centers on creating this bureau and three divisions—Genealogy, Education and Outreach, and Legal Affairs—and making an individual’s status as a descendant a qualifying criterion for benefits authorized by the state for descendants. The arrangement is designed to operate within an unfolding reparations framework tied to prior commission findings and future policy development.

A key mechanism is the Genealogy Division, which would verify descendant status and oversee a process for certification that draws on procedures established by separate legislation (contingent on that measure’s enactment). The eligibility standard defines descendants as individuals with direct lineage to a person enslaved before 1900, meeting specified emancipation or status criteria. Certification decisions would be subject to an appeal process. The Education and Outreach Division would implement a public education campaign on topics such as redlining, gentrification, and discriminatory urban planning, with collaboration across colleges, universities, and community organizations and alignment with existing Budget Act line items. The Legal Affairs Division would provide legal counsel to the bureau, ensure program compliance with authority, advise on legislative and regulatory initiatives, and liaison with other state entities.

The bill places strong emphasis on privacy and data protections for nonpublic personal and genetic information, requiring notices about authority, purpose, routine uses, and consequences of non-disclosure, and restricting disclosures to purposes related to the chapter with consent for outside sharing. Implementing regulations would be adopted by the Civil Rights Department, and the bureau’s ability to operate would depend on appropriations in the annual Budget Act or other statute. The measure also authorizes receiving federal, state, local grants and private donations, while prohibiting donor direction over program decisions. Its findings contend the new framework serves a public purpose and justifies limited public access to certain information to protect individual data.

Taken together, the proposal embeds reparations-related activities within a permanent state agency mechanism and ties descendant verification to a broader set of policy instruments drawn from the California Reparations Report. The ultimate scope of benefits and the pace of implementation depend on future appropriations and the enactment and timing of SB 437’s genealogical process, shaping how certification interacts with program design, education, and legal/regulatory work. The measure thus situates descendant eligibility, public-facing outreach, and interagency legal coordination within the CRD, while leaving critical policy details to be defined through budget actions, implementing regulations, and related legislation.