California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed a bill into law 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 harms caused by chattel slavery and calls for the installation of a memorial plaque at 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 its enduring 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 harms caused,” Newsom said in a statement.
California’s constitution banned slavery, but the state remained complicit in the slave trade, with more than 2,000 enslaved African people being brought to the state from 1850 to 1860.
The formal apology for slavery was one of a number of California Legislative Black Caucus priority bills the governor signed this week.
Newsom also signed into law bills to
▪ Require grocery stores and pharmacies to provide advance notice to communities before closing to prevent food deserts ( Senate Bill 1089 )
▪ Strengthen employment anti-discrimination protections by clarifying that race includes traits associated with race, such as hair texture or hair style ( Assembly Bill 1815 )
▪ Empower the attorney general to go after hospitals that are out of compliance with anti-bias training ( Assembly Bill 2319 )
▪ Require the Office of the Inspector General to review and publicly post the list of banned books in prisons ( Assembly Bill 1986 )
Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, who chairs the Black Caucus, said in a statement that she was grateful to Newsom for signing the bills.
“This is a multi-year effort, and I look forward to continuing our partnership with the governor on this important work in the years to come as we push toward lasting justice and equity,” she said.
Jones-Sawyer, who served on the Californian Reparations Task Force that released a list of recommendations for state action, in a statement called the apology a “monumental achievement” that was produced after a two-year academic study of losses that Black people suffered in California due to systemic bigotry and racism.
“Healing can only begin with an apology. The State of California acknowledges its past actions and is taking this bold step to correct them, recognizing its role in hindering the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness for Black individuals through racially motivated punitive laws,” he said.
The signing came nearly a month after state lawmakers let a pair of bills die that would have created a new state agency to oversee reparations as well as a fund to support those policies.
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