What will it take for black people to thrive in California?

By Kaci Patterson, especially for CalMatters

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June is both a mirror and a question, reflecting the unfinished promises of the past and demanding answers for the future we are building now. This June, as California faces mounting economic pressures, climate volatility and an intense backlash against capital-driven work, we must ask ourselves: Is California willing to shift from celebrating freedom to building the structural conditions for lasting black prosperity?

“Black Resilience” is a vision in which Black communities do not simply survive, but are firmly established, rooted, and anchored by the resources and conditions to thrive for generations. This is also a rejection of erasure across the countryin classrooms, in language, in data, in Narratives of American History. It is a declaration that black communities existed long before slavery, that we belong in American history not just as victims but as survivors—that our stories deserve to be preserved and told by us, and that our future should not depend on whether institutions deem us worthy of investment.

Over the past 18 months, federal policy has pushed black women out of workforce with more than three times that of other workersbut black-led organizations continue to serve as community first respondershanding out food, providing housing vouchers and filling gaps left by government cuts.

Recent disasters, including the Los Angeles wildfires, have revealed what black communities have long known: Disaster does not affect all communities equally, and recovery does not. In Altadena, a historic center of black homes, community leaders expressed concern about whether rebuilding efforts will preserve the community’s historic black identity and allow families to stay. Who can stay, belong and pass stability forward?

At its core, this is the question that Black permanency seeks to answer.

The philanthropic sector made big promises after the killing of George Floyd. Most of them have not been conducted. Black-led nonprofits, two-thirds of which are run by Black women, remain the most underfunded in the sector. It’s more than a gap. This is a model. Housing instability, displacementon loss of cultural institutions and black-led organizations forced to continue operating outside their core missions are symptoms of structural underinvestment that philanthropy and politics have reinforced for decades.

The question for California is how to move from temporary progress to lasting transformation—systems that outlast political cycles and institutions that serve generations. This requires civic courage: a willingness to match California’s progressive identity with proof points, not talking points. Sustainable investments designed by the community. Reparations. Donations in our institutions. An education that affirms our humanity. Capital moving to black founders, innovators and cultural advocates. Pay fairly so black women don’t have to wait until mid-July 2026 to earn the equivalent of what white men earned in late 2025.

It also means shifting philanthropy to multi-year general operating support and shared decision-making authority, and government paying nonprofits at market rates so they don’t subsidize the safety net on their own balance sheets.

This need goes beyond racial justice. This is an imperative for economic and workforce development. Black-run organizations in California employ more than 4,000 people and generating more than $335 million in payroll in fiscal year 2023 alone. When Black Women – who give back to their communities at exceptionally high levels — are economically stable, entire community networks are strengthened.

When black-led organizations are adequately funded, entire local economies benefit.

June tenth marks the moment when emancipation became a realitymore than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This lag between law and living freedom is the defining story of black life in America. I don’t have to determine the next chapter.

California remains the only state that established a reparations task force. While parades and picnics are nice, consistency is better. Funders, elected officials, and civic leaders must treat black resilience as a civic engagement and a tool to protect democracy.

The arc of justice does not bend itself. It bends because people refuse to let it stand up. On this June 16th, California must choose to orient its future toward black perseverance.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.