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California task force launches study of slave reparations

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(Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Rich Pedroncelli/AP
FILE - In this June 11, 2020, file photo, then-Assemblywoman Shirley Weber calls on lawmakers to create a task force to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans, during the Assembly session in Sacramento, Calif. A landmark California committee to study reparations for African Americans is meeting for its first time, Tuesday, June 1, 2021, launching a two-year process to address the harms of slavery and systemic racism. Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who as an assemblymember authored the legislation creating the task force, noted the solemnity of the occasion as well as the opportunity to right an historic wrong. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
Shirley Weber
Posted at 4:25 PM, Jun 01, 2021
and last updated 2021-06-01 20:25:14-04

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A first-in-the-country task force in California to study and recommend reparations for African Americans is meeting for the first time.

Slavery did not flourish in California as it did in southern states, but African Americans were still treated harshly.

They continue to lag in home ownership, household income, health and educational attainment. Tuesday's meeting comes as President Joe Biden commemorates the lives lost a century ago when a white mob killed people and burned buildings in a successful Black part of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

California’s secretary of state said the task of its nine members is to determine the depth of the harm as well as the ways to repair that harm.

(Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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