Still grappling with the fallout from the defeat of two bills in the Legislature’s final hours, backers of reparations geared up for a grinding fight they said could last a decade and debated whether new divisions amongst them are best resolved through reconciliation or open political warfare. 

Some supporters of the bills, which would have established a fund and an agency to administer reparations in California, are even promising payback, possibly by campaigning to recall legislators who blocked the bills.

The defeat of the legislation caused a deep schism between the reparations advocates who backed the bills and the California Legislative Black Caucus, which wants to take a more incremental approach and successfully kept those bills from coming to a vote on the Assembly floor Saturday.

The caucus prioritized 14 other pieces of legislation, drawing on the recommendations of a state reparations task force. Many passed the Legislature and are headed to the governor’s desk. Caucus leaders pointed to the package as a concrete achievement; it includes one bill that establishes a process to restore property to victims of racially motivated eminent domain.