California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill this week formally apologizing for the state’s role in the slave trade.
Assembly Bill 3089, by Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, affirms the state’s recognition of the harm caused by slavery and calls for the installation of a memorial plaque in the Capitol.
“The State of California accepts responsibility for the role we played in promoting, facilitating, and permitting the institution of slavery, as well as for the lasting legacy of persistent racial disparities. Building on decades of work, California is now taking another important step forward in recognizing the grave injustices of the past – and making amends for the harm caused,” Newsom said in a statement.
California’s constitution outlawed slavery, but the state remained complicit in the slave trade, which brought more than 2,000 enslaved African people to the state between 1850 and 1860.
The formal apology for slavery was one of a number of priority bills from the California Legislative Black Caucus that the governor signed this week.
Newsom also signed bills into law
▪ Require grocery stores and pharmacies to give communities advance notice before closing to prevent food deserts (Senate Bill 1089)
▪ Strengthen protections against discrimination in employment by clarifying that race includes characteristics related to race, such as hair texture or hairstyle (Assembly Bill 1815)
▪ Give the Attorney General authority to crack down on hospitals that fail to comply with anti-bias training (Assembly Bill 2319)
▪ Require the Office of the Inspector General to review and publicly publish the list of banned books in prisons (Assembly Bill 1986)
Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, chair of the Black Caucus, said in a statement that she was grateful to Newsom for signing the bills.
“This has been a multi-year effort, and I look forward to continuing our partnership with the Governor on this important work in the years ahead as we strive for lasting justice and equity,” she said.
Jones-Sawyer, who served on the Californian Reparations Task Force that issued a list of recommendations for state action, called the apology in a statement a “monumental achievement” that came after a two-year academic study of the losses suffered by Black people members in California due to systemic bigotry and racism.
“Healing can only begin with an apology. “The State of California recognizes its past actions and is taking this courageous step to correct them, recognizing its role in impeding the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness for Black individuals through racially motivated criminal laws,” he said.
The signing came nearly a month after state lawmakers let go of a pair of bills that would have created a new state agency to oversee reparations, as well as a fund to support that policy.
