California has formally apologized for its role in perpetuating slavery in the state with the signing of a bill Thursday by Governor Gavin Newsom, even as a larger push for reparations faces challenges.
The governor was joined by members of the California Legislative Black Caucus for a signing ceremony at the Capitol Thursday. AB 3089, authored by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), acknowledges the state's complicity in the human chattel slavery of the nation's past and its legacy of ongoing harm to generations of Black Californians.
The new law also requires the state to install a plaque memorializing the apology in a public and conspicuous location in the State Capitol.
California became a state in 1850, declaring itself a free state which outlawed slavery. But in practice, it allowed slaves to be brought into the state and continued to enforce fugitive slave laws, with the state Supreme Court declaring the anti-slavery law was simply a "declaration of a principle." The state also opposed civil rights laws, enacted racial barriers such as poll taxes and literacy tests, prohibited interracial marriage, and openly sanctioned widespread segregation and discrimination against Black Californians.
The bill signing came a day after Newsom vetoed a Senate bill to help Black families reclaim or be compensated for property seized by the state through eminent domain.
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