Reparations for Black Land Loss

The scale of the historical injustice of Black land loss in America, and the myriad ways that the law has been an instrument of Black land dispossession, are only beginning to be understood. For one statistic, over the twentieth century, Black families lost approximately 90% of the land they managed to acquire after the abolition of slavery, or between 1865 and 1919. These families have lost lands in a range of coercive ways, including through wrongful and uncompensated or undercompensated municipal takings; heirs’ property, or fractionation and forced partitions; the destruction of title records; direct threats and terror, and more. 

This course explores the ways that the law can be mobilized for reparations. Reparations law is a highly specific field, and involves using legal analysis to make moral, as well as legal arguments about the present and the past. In the vast majority of cases, the statute of limitations for these cases will have run. Yet the power of unearthing buried truths produces powerful new public histories and forces acknowledgement of harm for which families have been fighting for decades. Moreover, in some cases, it can bring families major monetary compensation and land restitution. Recent California examples of reparative outcomes include the return of valuable waterfront property in Manhattan Beach to the Bruce family in the well-known 2022 case, Bruce’s Beach, and major settlements for cash payouts and commitments to affordable housing and small business support from the City of Palm Springs; and compensation from the City of Santa Monica in the Ebony Beach Club case, on which this practicum worked in 2025. 

The 2-credit seminar will provide students with practical training to assist in client families’ claims with respect to land loss, alongside a discussion of substantive topics including the history, mechanisms, and consequences of Black land loss over the twentieth century and the legal landscape of reparations. Students will also enroll in 2 credits of fieldwork, to be co-taught and supervised by Professor Park and Attorney Kamilah Moore, former Chair of California’s Reparations Task Force. This year, the seminar and fieldwork may focus on early case research as well as late stage reparations negotiations. In this practicum, students will learn to conduct historical and legal research on title claims and relevant legal doctrines; produce memos on different legal questions to support client advocacy; and may gain experience serving clients through such various activities as conducting client interviews, developing advocacy theories and strategies, counseling clients, and writing briefs.