Bill Text: CA AB3089 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Chattel slavery: formal apology.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-09-26 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 624, Statutes of 2024. [AB3089 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB3089-Chaptered.html
Assembly Bill
No. 3089
CHAPTER 624
An act to add Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 8301) to Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code, relating to state government, and making an appropriation therefor.
[
Approved by
Governor
September 26, 2024.
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 26, 2024.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 3089, Jones-Sawyer.
Chattel slavery: formal apology.
Former law established, until July 1, 2023, the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States. Former law required the Task Force to, among other things, identify, compile, and synthesize the relevant corpus of evidentiary documentation of the institution of slavery that existed within the United States and the colonies that became the United States, and to recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Task Force’s findings, as specified. Former law required the Task Force to submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature, as specified.
This bill would provide that the State of California recognizes and accepts responsibility for all of the harms
and atrocities committed by the state, its representatives thereof, and entities under its jurisdiction who promoted, facilitated, enforced, and permitted the institution of chattel slavery and the enduring legacy of ongoing badges and incidents from which the systemic structures of discrimination have come to exist. The bill would further provide that the State of California apologizes for perpetuating the harms African Americans have faced and affirms its role in protecting the descendants of enslaved people and all Black Californians. The bill would require a plaque memorializing this apology to be publicly and conspicuously installed and maintained in the State Capitol Building. The bill would impose various duties on the Department of General Services and the Joint Rules Committee relating to the installation and maintenance of the plaque. The bill would authorize the Department of General Services and the Joint Rules Committee to receive money from grants and private donations and would continuously
appropriate those funds for this purpose, as specified.
The bill would require the Legislature to prepare the formal apology and would request it be signed by specified state leaders. The bill would require the Secretary of State to submit a final copy of this formal apology to the State Archives, where it would be available for viewing by the general public in perpetuity. The bill would include related legislative findings.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: YES Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 8301) is added to Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code, to read:CHAPTER 4.5. Apology Act for the Perpetration of Gross Human Rights Violations and Crimes Against Humanity, with special consideration for African Slaves and their Descendants
Article 1. Findings and Declarations
8301.
This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the “Apology Act for the Perpetration of Gross Human Rights Violations and Crimes Against Humanity, with special consideration for African Slaves and their Descendants.”8301.1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) In 2020, the people of California established the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States (Task Force) and required the Task Force to address, among other things, how the State of California will offer a formal apology on behalf of the people of California for the perpetration of gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants, and how California laws and policies that continue to disproportionately and negatively affect African Americans as a group and perpetuate the lingering
material and psychosocial effects of slavery can be eliminated.
(2) Based on the Task Force’s evidentiary findings and recommendations outlined in the report to the Legislature as required by the statute, the people of the State of California hereby acknowledge being a beneficiary of the forced enslavement of African slaves brought to California and the subordination of Black Californians that continued following the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
(3) Well after California entered the Union and declared itself a free state outlawing slavery, more than 2,000 enslaved African people were brought to California from 1850 to 1860.
(4) The California Supreme Court enforced fugitive slave laws until 1865, stating that the antislavery law in the California Constitution was merely a
“declaration of a principle.”
(5) Throughout the state’s history, California’s executive, judicial, and legislative branches continuously denied African slaves and their descendants basic humanity and fundamental liberties.
(6) Moreover, California’s cities, counties, special districts, joint powers authorities, and other quasi-governmental entities exerted demonstrable undue pressure upon African slaves and Black Californians throughout the territory.
(7) California industries benefited from ill-gotten gains based on chattel slavery in the form of agricultural and other industrial production. The State of California should consider reviewing these gains in order to potentially fund reparatory efforts.
(8) California courts prevented Black citizens from
testifying in legal proceedings against a white person, and California’s Legislature vehemently opposed Congressional civil rights laws and delayed ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, hindering Black Americans the right to citizenship, due process under the law, and right to vote.
(9) California further disenfranchised Black Californians by enacting deliberate racial barriers such as poll taxes and literacy tests, prohibiting interracial marriage, and passing antimiscegenation laws in its first legislative session in 1850.
(10) California constructed monuments, memorials, markers, and plaques to preserve and memorialize Confederate principles, glorifying subjugation, slavery, and white supremacy.
(11) From the brutality of enslavement to extrajudicial police
killings, state-sanctioned violence at all levels of government, such as lynching, coercive sterilization, torture, and property destruction inflicted death, physical injury, and psychological harm on Black Californians.
(12) California openly sanctioned widespread segregation and discrimination against African Americans in workplaces, educational facilities, and public spaces, and enacted predatory licensing laws, fire and safety codes, and antinuisance laws to disrupt African American businesses and patrons.
(13) Discriminatory housing policies, including redlining, residential zoning ordinances, and loan practices, produced persistent housing segregation and longstanding inequities in home ownership for Black Californians.
(14) State and local governments targeted property owned by African Americans for renewal
and development projects employing unjust uses of eminent domain, often without providing just compensation, yet those same authorities enacted and enforced laws that historically excluded African Americans from outdoor recreation, public transit, and other public infrastructure.
(15) The eugenics movement thrived in California and thousands of African Americans were forcibly sterilized or were the subjects of medical experiments without valid consent.
(b) According to the United Nations Principles on Reparation, an apology, when combined with material forms of reparations, provides an opportunity for communal reckoning with the past and repair for moral, physical, and dignitary harms.
Article 2. Recognition and Acceptance of Responsibility for Harms and Atrocities Committed: Formal Apology
8301.2.
(a) The State of California recognizes and accepts responsibility for all of the harms and atrocities committed by the state, its representatives thereof, and entities under its jurisdiction who promoted, facilitated, enforced, and permitted the institution of chattel slavery and the enduring legacy of ongoing badges and incidents from which the systemic structures of discrimination have come to exist.(b) The State of California apologizes for perpetuating the harms African Americans faced by having imbued racial prejudice through segregation, public and private discrimination, and unequal disbursal of state and federal funding and declares that such actions shall not be repeated. The State of California acknowledges the work of the Task
Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States. This task force, established by Assembly Bill 3121 (2020), detailed the harms faced by African Americans in California and provided numerous legislative recommendations, including this formal apology. The State of California affirms its role in protecting the descendants of enslaved people and all Black Californians as well as their civil, political, and sociocultural rights. The State of California humbly asks for forgiveness from those affected by past atrocities, both deliberately and negligently, and acknowledges and affirms its responsibility to end ongoing harm. The State of California commits to restore and repair affected peoples with actions beyond this apology.
8301.3.
(a) A plaque memorializing this apology, including the contents of Sections 8301.1 and 8301.2 shall be installed and maintained publicly and conspicuously in the State Capitol Building.(b) The Department of General Services, in consultation with the Joint Rules Committee, shall plan a plaque pursuant to this section in the State Capitol Building.
(c) The Department of General Services, in consultation with the Joint Rules Committee, shall complete all of the following goals:
(1) Review of the preliminary design plans to identify potential maintenance concerns.
(2) Ensure Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12101, et seq.) compliance and other safety concerns.
(3) Review and approval of California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code) documents prepared for work at the designated historic property.
(4) Review of final construction documents to ensure that all requirements are met.
(5) Prepare a maintenance agreement outlining the Department of General Services responsibility for the long-term maintenance of the plaque due to aging, vandalism, or relocation.
(d) The Department of General Services shall, in consultation with the Joint Rules Committee, establish a schedule for the design, construction, and dedication
of the plaque, implement procedures to solicit designs for the plaque, devise a selection process for the choice of the design, and establish a program for the dedication of the plaque.
(e) The Joint Rules Committee shall approve the design and any other aspect of the plaque and the Department of General Services shall provide for the continuous maintenance and upkeep of the fixture.
