Two historic California reparations bills stall out — sparing Newsom a tough political call

YEARS OF EFFORT went into making California the first state in the nation to get reparations laws to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. Yet in the final hours of this year’s legislative session last week, two key bills to repair harm for African American descendants of enslaved people met their bitter demise.

Although other bills in a 14-bill reparations package introduced by the Legislature’s Black Caucus passed this session, Democratic Sen. Steven Bradford of Inglewood couldn’t convince the caucus or Assembly leaders to bring to the floor the two ambitious bills he carried independently.