California to Issue Formal Apology for Historical Racism Against Black Americans Under New Law
Sacramento, California – California will formally apologize for slavery and its enduring consequences on Black Americans, according to a new law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday.
The legislation was part of a bundle of reparations laws introduced this year that seek to address decades of policies that have resulted in racial inequities for African Americans. Newsom also signed legislation to strengthen athlete hair discrimination rights and increase control of book bans in state jails.
“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,” the state’s Democratic governor stated in a press release. “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 signed the bills after vetoing a plan on Wednesday that would have assisted Black families in reclaiming or receiving compensation for land that the government had unfairly confiscated through eminent domain. The idea would not have been fully implemented because lawmakers blocked another bill that would have established a reparations agency to assess claims.
California joined the Union as a free state in 1850. In actuality, it condoned slavery and supported rules and practices that prevented Black people from owning homes or starting companies. According to a study produced by the nation’s first state reparations task force, black families were harassed, communities were rigorously policed, and neighborhoods were polluted.
Federal efforts to explore reparations have been blocked in Congress for decades. In recent years, Illinois and New York state have approved laws establishing reparations commissions. Local leaders in Boston and New York City voted to form task committees to investigate reparations. Evanston, Illinois, created a program to provide housing aid to Black people to atone for past discrimination.
California has made more progress on this issue than any other state. However, state lawmakers did not pursue legislation this year to provide extensive direct payments to African Americans, disappointing some reparations proponents.
In June, Newsom signed a $297.9 billion budget that included up to $12 million for reparations legislation, which became law.
He has already approved legislation contained in the reparations package to improve results for kids of color in K-12 career education programs. Another proposal that the Black caucus supported this year, which would prohibit forced labor as a penalty for crime in the state constitution, will be on the ballot in November.
State Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Democrat from Culver City, described legislation he sponsored to improve control over books prohibited in state prisons as “a first step” in resolving a “shadowy” process in which the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation decides which books to ban.
The prisons department has a list of disapproved publications that it bans after concluding that the content poses a security risk, contains obscene material, or violates department policies.
The new law directs the Office of the Inspector General, which oversees the state prison system, to review the works on the list and assess the department’s justification for prohibiting them. It requires the agency to notify the office of any changes to the list, and the office must display the list on its website.
“We need transparency in this process,” Bryan stated. “We need to know what books are banned, and we need a mechanism for removing books off of that list.”