IN SUMMARY
California lawmakers moved several reparations bills, including an apology for slavery. But several other bills died.
California lawmakers voted to offer an official apology for the state’s role in supporting slavery and moved several other reparations bills but let others die.
Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat from south Los Angeles, authored AB 3089, the apology bill, after serving on a nine-member state task force that studied harms committed against Black residents.
“We were people’s properties in this state. And it was defended by the State Supreme Court and other courts,” Jones-Sawyer told the Assembly ahead of the vote.
Four Democrats and 12 Republicans did not vote on the apology bill. The Assembly approved the bill 62–0, including six Republicans who voted for it. Now it heads to the state Senate and, if approved, to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
State lawmakers embraced and applauded as soon as the bill passed. Jones-Sawyer said Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia have all enacted some form of apology for their role in slavery.
His bill is one of more than a dozen in a package of reparations bills supported by the California Legislative Black Caucus. In February the state Assembly approved a resolution acknowledging “harms and atrocities” state leaders inflicted on Black residents over the years. Assemblymember Akilah Weber, a Democrat from San Diego, authored that bill.
Other key bills in the Black Caucus’ reparations package cleared important hurdles.
A proposal by Democrat Sen. Steven Bradford of Inglewood to compensate Black residents for land unjustly taken by eminent domain moved forward.