Sacramento, California - A California lawmaker has introduced the first piece of legislation based on the policy recommendations from the state's two-year reparations study!

State Senator Steven Bradford on Tuesday introduced SB 490 to create the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency, a body tasked with overseeing the administration of reparations initiatives and helping to improve the quality of life for descendants of enslaved people.

The step is the legislative effort to implement one of the 115 proposals outlined in the recently released final report of the California Reparations Task Force, of which Bradford was a member.

"This historic legislation lays the groundwork for the future," the senator said in a press release. "My fellow task force members and I have documented the harm, detailed its generational impact, and determined the way forward to right these wrongs."

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"The Freedman Affairs Agency will establish the instrumental infrastructure California will need as our state takes responsibility for the historical harms that have been committed."

The creation of a 21st-century Freedmen Affairs Agency is meant to fulfill the promise of the Freedmen's Bureau, established in 1865 to provide food, land, and other resources and services to newly emancipated people. Congress terminated the program in 1872.

"Each year, the California State Legislature introduces legislation to stop and prevent wage theft because we know workers have a right to fair compensation. Over our history, this land and nation have benefited from 250 years of wage theft through slavery. Just as my colleagues support those bills relating to wage theft, they should also support reparations-related legislation," Bradford said.

"Reparations are not a gift. They are not a hand-out or charity, but they are what was promised, owed, and overdue."