There has been talk recently on some of the radio talk shows about reparations for Black American slavery in California. On the John Kobylt Show (KFI AM & iHeart) and the John Phillips Show (KABC 790 AM), both talk show hosts recently stated, “There has never been slavery in the state of California.”
Other talk show hosts have stated this recently and in the past. All of them have failed to go back into California history. Several years ago, I confronted Leo Terrell on his radio talk show (790 KABC) after he stated that “there has never been slavery in the state of California.” Leo Terrell is a Black American civil rights lawyer and a former public school history teacher.
I called into his show and mentioned that Spain and Mexico had African slaves in the state of California before the United States took it from them. Leo Terrell said, “That is correct, but so what!” Just like Larry Elder, Leo Terrell is a stupid Uncle Tom Black Devil who is the enemy of Black Americans! I am glad his show is not on the air in California now.
THE INSTITUTION OF SALVERY IS STILL ALIVE IN AMERICA
Not only do Black Americans want reparations and restitutions for slavery from the United States, but we also want reparations from Mexico and Spain. We also want reparations for all of the damages incurred since slavery was abolished in the United States and from the Reagan/Bush and Obama/Biden administrations that were racist against Black Americans.
The most recent atrocities committed against Black Americans are the sanctuary state and cities’ policies that have wiped out all Black American communities in Los Angeles County during the past 30 years. This is true for other large cities, including Chicago and New York.
The foreign gentrification in Los Angeles has stolen the familial wealth from Black American families who migrated to Los Angeles in the 1960s to get away from the racism in the southern states. The theft of familial wealth from Black American families by the Probate courts has been tolerated for decades in Los Angeles County. Probate judges are responsible for these crimes and are given impunity by the courts and all law enforcement agencies.
SANCTUARY CITIES ARE RACIST AGAINST BLACK AMERICANS
The corporate mainstream media does not mention the damage that sanctuary city policies have had in Los Angeles. These policies allow for illegal discrimination in employment that gives preferential treatment to foreigners. Especially Mexicans in Los Angeles County. About 90% of all law enforcement officers in Los Angeles County are Hispanics. Hispanics and other immigrants dominate all public schools and colleges. All of the fast food and other restaurants hire nothing but Hispanics (mostly Mexicans) in their kitchens. The hospitality workers in all of the major hotels are Hispanic or other foreigners.
There are racist Hispanics on the Los Angeles City Council who were exposed years ago using racist language against Black Americans and manipulating voting districts illegally against black Americans. There were two unsuccessful attempts to recall one of these racist councilmembers, Kevin De Leon, which failed. He was allowed to remain on the City Council until he lost his election at the end of his term. No criminal charges were filed against him. The corrupt government in California has turned Los Angeles County into Northern Tijuana.
According to Wikipedia.org:
HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN CALIFORNIA
The history of slavery in California began with the enslavement of Indigenous Californians under Spanish colonial rule. The arrival of the Spanish colonists introduced chattel slavery and involuntary servitude to the area. Over 90,000 Indigenous peoples were forced to stay at the Spanish missions in California between 1770 and 1834, being kept in well-guarded mission compounds. This has been described as de facto slavery,[1] as they were forced to work on the mission’s grounds amid abuse, malnourishment, overworking,[2] and a high death rate.[3] Indigenous girls were taken from their parents to be housed in guarded dormitories known as monjeríos for conversion to Catholicism and control over their sexuality.[4][5]
White colonists from the Southern and Eastern United States brought their systems of organized slavery to California. Several thousand[6] free and enslaved people of African ancestry were part of the California Gold Rush (1848–1855). Some were able to buy their freedom and freedom for their families, primarily in the South, with the gold they found.[7][8][9] This included enslaved African American Edmond Edward Wysinger (1816–1891). After arriving in the Northern mine area of the California Mother Lode with his slaver in 1849, Wysinger and a group of 100 or more African American miners surface mined in and around Mormon, Mokelumne Hill at Placerville, and Grass Valley.[10]-
Enslavement of African Americans
During this time, the 30-state nation was divided equally between 15 free states and 15 slave states. With the addition of vast new, agriculturally rich territories, including California, the debate over slavery intensified dramatically. California itself was divided over the issue, as a large number of slave-owning Southerners had travelled to California to seek their fortunes[17] in the 1849 Gold Rush, and many brought their slaves.[9] Many miners expressed concern that slaveholders accompanied by slaves had an unfair advantage in the mining camps and that slavery’s inherent inequality violated “the independent entrepreneurial sprit of the mines”.[18] However, taking slaves into California, which had no laws or enforcement mechanisms for maintaining the institution, turned out to be quite risky for the slave owners themselves. The territory had no slave patrols, nor local police interested in maintaining slavery, so slave escapes were quite common.[19]
In October 1849, the first California Constitution Convention was held. One of the most heated debates of the convention was on the status of slavery in the new state.[20] While some Southerners who had come to California were staunchly in favor of giving official sanction to slavery in California, Northern abolitionists and White-American miners (who did not want competition from the slave-holders in the gold fields) were well represented within the ranks of the convention. The chairman of the convention, William Gwin, was himself a slaveholder from Tennessee. Gwin, however, was much more interested in gaining control of the California Democratic Party than he was in favoring either side of the debate.[citation needed] To the later chagrin of his fellow Southern members of Congress, he did not write the institution of slavery into the 1849 Constitution. The Compromise of 1850 later permitted California to be admitted to the Union as a free state. Gwin and war hero/abolitionist John C. Frémont became California’s first Senators.
Although California entered the Union as a free state, the framers of the state constitution wrote into law the systematic denial of suffrage and other civil rights to non-white citizens. Some authorities went so far as to attempt to deny entry of all African Americans, free and slave, to California. The Legislature passed a bill that would ban the immigration of free blacks to California. State Senator David C. Broderick, a fierce opponent of slavery and former firefighter from San Francisco, managed to kill the bill through parliamentary maneuver.
Slavery did persist in California even without legal authority. Some slaveowners simply refused to notify their slaves of the prohibition, and continued to trade slaves within the state. Numerous state trials ruled in favor of emancipation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_California
According to Politico, Gavin Newsom approved a new state agency to administer restitution for descendants of slaves — a victory for Black lawmakers and advocates despite stopping short of providing cash reparations.
The Democratic governor signed the legislation, SB 518, five years after forming a task force in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to study the legacy of slavery in California and how the state could implement reparations policies — and more than two years after the panel released its extensive recommendations.
By Lindsey Holden
10/10/2025 06:20 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/10/newsom-reparations-agency-00602411
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is facing both praise and pushback after signing a measure to create a reparations fund for the city’s Black residents. Notably, the fund does not include any taxpayer money for direct payouts. Watch KTVU’s newscasts on https://www.ktvu.com/live.
An article from The East Bay ECHO
Mark Hedin, California Steps Up On Long March To Reparations
March 10, 2023, https://eastbayecho.com/2023/03/10/california-steps-up-on-long-march-to-reparations/
The “free state” of California never formally embraced slavery, but slavery and racist policies that derived from it helped make California what it is today – the nation’s wealthiest state, and the world’s fifth-largest economy.
“California encouraged slavery, it profited from slavery. Not only slavery, but post-slavery activities that took place – redlining, vicious attacks, stealing people’s property,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber said at a Feb. 28 press briefing.