Lauren Boebert Reparations Remarks Trashed by Historians—'Mangling History'

Lauren Boebert's claim that paying reparations to Black residents of San Francisco is "a joke," as California "never had slavery," has been dismissed by some prominent historians, with one accusing the House Republican of "mangling American history."

Under the proposals, put forward by the city-appointed African American Reparations Advisory Committee, each Black person living in San Francisco would be entitled to a lump sum of $5 million; their debts would be wiped out and they would be guaranteed a salary in line with the area's medium income, which was $97,000 in 2022.

If the proposal is approved, San Francisco would become the first large city in the nation to fund reparations. However, many state conservatives oppose the proposal, noting Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom recently projected that California will have a budget deficit of $22.5 billion for the fiscal year.

There has been fierce debate across the United States, and internationally, over whether the descendants of slavery should be compensated for their ancestors' suffering.

Responding to the San Francisco proposal, Boebert tweeted: "The fact that supposedly serious people in San Francisco are considering a plan that would give $5,000,000 in reparations to every Black resident in their city in a state that never had slavery is a joke.

"If they want to make the racial divide in this country worse than ever before, they'll certainly achieve that goal!"

The tweet was widely shared by social media users, accumulating more than 4,000 retweets and being viewed 2.2 million times. Newsweek has contacted Boebert for comment by email.

However, according to historians, some slaves were held in California, despite the region being admitted to the union in 1850 as a free state.

Speaking to Newsweek about Boebert's statement, Kevin Waite, an associate professor of U.S. history at Durham University in the U.K., accused the House Republican of "making false claims and mangling American history."

He said: "The simple fact is, California did indeed have enslaved Black people—hundreds of them, at the very least. Most of them were hauled into the state during the Gold Rush years and forced to work in small-scale mining operations.

"California had technically outlawed human bondage, but state lawmakers turned a blind eye to various forms of slavery all around them. In addition to enslaved Black people, about 20,000 Native Americans labored in bondage in 19th century California."

Waite added: "The deck was stacked heavily against Black people in California in the mid-19th century. They weren't legally allowed to testify against whites in court (nor were Chinese people or Native Americans). And so, in dozens of cases, California courts ruled in favor of slaveholders and returned freedom-seeking Black people to slavery."

The historian noted "one early California pioneer" said the region was "as intensely Southern as Mississippi or any other of the fire-eating states." adding: "What Lauren Boebert doesn't know about American history could fill the Library of Congress."

Waite is also the author of West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire.

A similar view was expressed by Professor Thomas Holt, an expert in African American history at the University of Chicago.

He told Newsweek: "Slavery existed in the California territory before its admission to statehood and continued on a smaller scale after, notwithstanding its status as a 'free state.'"