Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed five people to the newly formed Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.
The nine-member task force was created in a bill by then-Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, now California’s secretary of state.
The appointees include Loyola Marymount University professor Cheryl Grills, attorney Lisa Holder of Los Angeles, a reverend, Amos C. Brown of San Francisco, anthropologist and geographer Jovan Scott Lewis of Berkeley and attorney Don Tamaki of Piedmont.
The task force will inform Californians about slavery and explore ways the state might provide reparations. Its members will meet over the next year and conclude their work with a written report, along with recommendations which will be provided to the legislature.
The bill creating the task force required that one of its members to be from academia with expertise in civil rights.
Two additional members of the task force will be appointed by the state Senate and two others by the Assembly.