California has officially apologised for its role in slavery and the enduring impact on Black Americans within the state, under a new law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday.
The legislation forms part of a larger reparations package aimed at addressing decades of policies that contributed to racial disparities affecting African Americans.
In his statement, Governor Newsom, a Democrat, acknowledged, “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.
Building on decades of work, California is now taking another important step forward in recognising the grave injustices of the past – and making amends for the harms caused.”
The governor also approved laws aimed at enhancing protections against hair discrimination for athletes and increasing oversight over book bans within state prisons. However, despite significant efforts, the idea of direct cash payments to the descendants of enslaved people remains unpopular.
A UCLA study published last year indicated that although the concept of cash payments has limited support, most Californians favour some form of compensation to address the state’s long history of anti-Black racism.
While California’s 1849 constitution stated that slavery would not “be tolerated in this State,” it failed to explicitly make slavery a crime or protect Black people’s freedom, resulting in legal ambiguity. This allowed enslavers to continue operating with impunity.
In 1852, the state passed a fugitive slave law, which permitted the arrest of escaped enslaved people and their forced return to the South.
Although reparations efforts have struggled at the federal level, with proposals stalled in Congress for decades, several states and cities have advanced the issue. Illinois and New York have passed laws creating reparations commissions, and local officials in cities such as Boston and New York City have voted to establish taskforces to study the issue. Notably, Evanston, Illinois, launched a programme providing housing assistance to Black residents as a form of reparation for past discrimination.
California, however, has progressed further on reparations than any other state. In addition to creating the nation’s first state reparations taskforce, the state has seen local efforts such as the return of Bruce’s Beach, an oceanfront property seized from a Black family in the 1920s.
Yet, despite significant movement on the issue, widespread direct payments to African Americans have not been introduced in this year’s state legislature, which has frustrated some reparations advocates.
Governor Newsom’s approved state budget, passed in June, includes up to $12 million for reparations-related legislation. He has also signed laws aimed at improving outcomes for students of colour in K-12 career education programmes.
Additionally, a proposal to ban forced labour as punishment for crimes in the state constitution, backed by the Black caucus, will be on the ballot in November.
State Assembly Member Isaac Bryan, who authored a bill increasing oversight over banned books in state prisons, described the new law as “a first step” in reforming the “shadowy” process that the state’s corrections department uses to determine banned books.
The law enables the office of the inspector general to review the banned publications list and requires greater transparency in the process, including posting the list online.
“We need transparency in this process,” Bryan said. “We need to know what books are banned, and we need a mechanism for removing books off that list”, as reported by The Guardian.
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