The California Assembly voted Thursday to issue an official apology for the state's role in slavery and the systemic racism that followed, but other bills aimed at offering reparations died soon after in the Senate.
The apology is found in a bill authored by Assemblyman Reggie Jones Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) that accepts responsibility for “all harms and atrocities committed by the state” and is part of a hard-fought legislative package to obtain reparations for those of African descent. Americans who were enslaved.
“Not only is the apology letter important, but what we do afterward is whether we move forward and fulfill the dream that my ancestors wanted, which is to become fully part of the American dream,” Jones-Sawyer said on the Assembly floor. receiving hugs and applause after the passage of AB 3089. The bill now moves to the Senate.
Less than an hour later, other reparations-related bills died in a key fiscal committee as the state grapples with a massive budget deficit.
The Senate Appropriations Committee held up two bills from Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena). The legislation would have offered property tax credits and financial help to purchase property to descendants of African Americans who were enslaved.
“We know that we build generational wealth through homeownership, and African Americans have been denied homeownership since the Emancipation Proclamation. Their freedom had to do with the land,” Bradford said in Sacramento on Thursday.
Bradford said he was disappointed, but pointed to other reparations bills that survived Thursday's “suspense filing” process — the ritual selection of any legislation with a price tag that is sometimes used as a way for Democratic leaders to control the Legislature eliminate controversial bills.
Bradford's failed bills were not part of the primary reparations package promoted by the California Legislative Black Caucus, of which he is a member. Reparations advocates have been divided over what is the best strategy for success after years of deliberations, as they aim to create a first-in-the-nation plan to offer tangible benefits to descendants of the enslaved. So far, the caucus has stopped short of requiring cash payments to those eligible, a priority of some black advocacy groups but an idea that polls have shown is overwhelmingly unpopular with voters.
Major Black Caucus reparations bills are still moving through the legislative process, including proposals to limit solitary confinement in prisons and jails and compensate Californians for land taken in condemnation.
Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Merced) chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and pointed to the state's financial problems as the reason for the failure of Democratic-backed bills Thursday.
“The next two years will be difficult for the legislative and budget processes,” he said. “Finding balance will be critical to ensuring we can continue to make our government work efficiently and prudently.”
The Jones-Sawyer apology bill doesn't come with a high price tag and is the first step for the Black Caucus as it pushes for passage of the rest of its reparations legislation.
“It is undeniable that our systems of government have been complicit in the oppression of African Americans. …California's history is marred by the subjugation of black people,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Salinas) said Thursday in support of AB 3089. “It is a wound that still needs to heal.” .
The bill won unanimous support from Democrats, but several Republicans abstained from voting on it, including Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher of Yuba City, who called slavery “a terrible stain on our history,” but took issue with parts of the bill that say the state continues to deny some rights to Black residents and that police shootings are “state-sanctioned violence.”
“We have made enormous progress toward a more equal society,” Gallagher said in a statement.
