FOR INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT
Hannah Greene
communications@whereismyland.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 09/26/2024
Sacramento, California – Governor Newsom has officially vetoed a sweeping land reparations bill, SB 1050. It would have provided compensation or land back to victims of racially motivated eminent domain. It was the last remaining high-cost bill in the California Legislative Black Caucus’s 14-bill reparations package.
In February 2022, his daughter, Constance White, and niece, Milana Davis, began working with Where Is My Land to secure repair for stolen land, the loss of business enterprise, and the inability to pass down generational wealth.
“We are incredibly deflated, devastated, and disgusted. When Newsom signed SB 796 granting the return of land to the Bruce family, he lauded my moral compass. Where is his if he believes it’s ‘impossible’ to provide repair for every Californian who experienced the same harm? An apology is not enough; land back and compensation is true repair,” said Kavon Ward, CEO of Where Is My Land (WIML).
When SB 1050 was announced earlier this year, WIML began working with Senator Bradford’s office to identify potential oversights in the legislation. Our involvement led to the inclusion of land back provisions and the removal of the statute of limitations.
Eminent domain was state-sanctioned land theft utilized to decimate communities and disproportionately displaced Black people. Between 1949 and 1973, governments executed nearly 2,600 eminent domain projects. Of the million people displaced, two-thirds of them were Black. (Institute for Justice) Newsom’s veto is an affront to the systematic trauma that communities like Russell City, Black Santa Monicans, and the Ebony Beach Club faced.
In his letter, Newsom stated it would be ‘impossible to implement’ since the two bills that would have established the necessary infrastructure, SB 1403 and SB 1331, died on the Assembly floor last month.
“We thought California was finally going to repay the debts they owe Black families, including mine. My father’s land was taken, and it’s land and/or compensation that needs to be returned,” said Constance White, daughter of Ebony Beach Club proprietor Silas White. Santa Monica seized White’s property in 1958, citing the need for a parking lot. The premier Viceroy Hotel now leases the property from the city.
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