Newsom signs formal apology for California’s role in slavery

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a formal apology for California’s role in slavery and legacy of racism against Black people as part of a series of reparations bills he approved Thursday.

“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,” Newsom said in a statement. “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.”

Though California banned slavery in its 1849 Constitution, the state had no laws that made it a crime to keep someone enslaved or require that they be freed, which allowed slavery to continue. A disproportionate representation of white Southerners with pro-slavery views also held office in the Legislature, state court system and in its congressional delegation.

Assembly Bill 3089, which requires the state to issue a formal apology, also mandates that the California install a plaque memorializing the apology in the state Capitol. Assemblymember 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 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.”

Despite the bill signings, advocates for reparations have criticized the governor and Democratic lawmakers for making meager progress on its “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 announced a package of priority bills in January focused largely on enacting policy changes in education, healthcare and criminal justice, while omitting cash payments in light of the state’s financial troubles.

Advocates for reparations have criticized Newsom and Democratic lawmakers for making meager progress on the issue.

(Laurel Rosenhall / Los Angeles Times)

Newsom also signed bills to provide new oversight of book bans in California prisons, require that grocery stores and pharmacies give written notice at least 45 days before closing, expand a state law prohibiting discrimination based on hairstyle to include youth sports and to try to increase and track participation in career training education among Black and low-income students, among other legislation.

But the governor took heat when the Legislature refused to take up other bills for a vote that would have created a California American Freedmen Affairs Agency and established a Fund for Reparations and Reparative Justice to pay for and carry out reparations policies approved by lawmakers.

A day before signing the legislation issuing 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 declined to approve. The other would have expanded Medi-Cal coverage, pending federal approval, to include benefits for medically supported food and nutrition.

“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.