SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers are advancing a package of reparations measures, even as the state entered the Union as a free state where slavery was illegal.
The push stems from a 1,100-page report issued in 2023 by the state's Reparations Task Force, which found that California institutions and early lawmakers supported slavery and discriminated against Black residents.
Gov. Gavin Newsom last year signed AB 3089, which mandates a formal state apology for California's complicity in slavery and the harm inflicted on Black Californians. The apology acknowledges "the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants" and concedes that California laws and policies have continued to harm African Americans.
Other measures enacted alongside the reparations push strengthen prohibitions on discrimination based on hairstyle and hair texture, require grocery stores and pharmacies to give 45 days' notice before closing in low-income communities, and allow third-party review of book bans in state prisons.
Reparations advocates have criticized the package as largely symbolic. They argue the measures do not go far enough to address the scope of historical harm.
Bill sponsors focused their efforts on descendants of chattel slavery, targeting specific disparities Black Californians face across industries.
The Orange County Register, in an opinion piece, argued that extending reparations to all descendants of chattel slavery regardless of race conflicts with legal and constitutional standards.
California's early laws, despite the state's free-state status, enabled the capture and return of enslaved people — a history that has given the current debate much of its political force.
