Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a formal apology for California's role in slavery and the legacy of anti-Black racism as part of a series of reparations bills he signed into law Thursday.
“The State of California accepts responsibility for the role we played in promoting, facilitating and enabling the institution of slavery, as well as its enduring legacy of persistent racial disparities,” Newsom said in a statement. “Building on decades of work, California is now taking another important step toward recognizing the grave injustices of the past and repairing the harm caused.”
Although California banned slavery in its 1849 Constitution, the state had no laws that made it a crime to keep someone enslaved or require their release, allowing slavery to continue. A disproportionate representation of white Southerners with proslavery views also held positions in the Legislature, the state judicial system, and its congressional delegation.
Assembly Bill 3089, which requires the state to issue a formal apology, also requires California to install a plaque commemorating the apology at the state Capitol. Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), who introduced the bill, called it a “monumental achievement.”
“Healing can only begin with an apology,” Jones-Sawyer said in a statement. “The State of California recognizes its past actions and is taking this bold step to correct them, acknowledging its role in hindering Black people's pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness through punitive, racially motivated laws.”
Despite the bill signings, reparations advocates have criticized the governor and Democratic lawmakers for making little progress in their “first-in-the-nation” effort to study, propose and adopt remedies to atone for slavery that began in 2020.
After a state task force spent two years developing recommendations for the Legislature, the California Legislative Black Caucus in January announced a package of priority bills focused largely on implementing policy changes in education, health care and criminal justice , while omitting cash payments in light of financial problems.
Reparations advocates have criticized Newsom and Democratic lawmakers for making little progress on the issue.
(Laurel Rosenhall / Los Angeles Times)
Newsom also signed bills to provide new oversight of book bans in California prisons, require grocery stores and pharmacies to provide written notice at least 45 days before they close, expand a state law prohibiting discrimination based on hairstyle to include youth sports and try to increase and track participation in vocational education among black and low-income students, among other laws.
But the governor came under fire when the Legislature refused to vote on other bills that would have created a California Freedmen's Affairs Agency and established a Fund for Reparations and Reparative Justice to pay for and carry out approved reparations policies. by legislators.
A day before signing legislation offering a formal apology, Newsom vetoed two other reparations bills. One sought to begin the process of reversing racially motivated land and property seizures under the Freedman Affairs agency that lawmakers refused to approve. The other would have expanded Medi-Cal coverage, pending federal approval, to include food and nutrition benefits with medical support.
“This bill would result in significant and ongoing general fund costs for the Medi-Cal program that are not included in the budget,” Newsom wrote in his veto statement.
