Bill Text: CA ACR135 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Concurrent Resolution 135

Bill Title: Human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 60-1)

Status: (Engrossed) 2024-03-06 - Referred to Com. on JUD. [ACR135 Detail]

Download: California-2023-ACR135-Amended.html

Amended IN Assembly February 21, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Concurrent Resolution

No. 135

Introduced by Assembly Member Weber
(Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Bonta, Bryan, Gipson, Holden, Jackson, Jones-Sawyer, McCarty, McKinnor, and Wilson)
(Principal coauthors: Senators Bradford and Smallwood-Cuevas)
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Kalra)

January 30, 2024

Relative to state government.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

ACR 135, as amended, Weber. Human rights violations and crimes against humanity on African slaves and their descendants.

This measure would acknowledge the harms and atrocities committed by representatives of the State of California who promoted, facilitated, enforced, and permitted the institution of chattel slavery and the legacy of ongoing badges and incidents of slavery that form the systemic structures of discrimination. The measure would affirm the State of California’s role in protecting the descendants of enslaved people as well as their civil, political, and socio-cultural rights.

Fiscal Committee: NO

WHEREAS, This resolution may be cited as the “Acknowledgment of Gross Human Rights Violations and Crimes Against Humanity on African Slaves and their Descendants;” and

WHEREAS, The State of California—its executive, judicial, and legislative branches—denied African Americans their fundamental liberties and denied their humanity throughout the state’s history, from before the Civil War to the present; and

WHEREAS, Although California entered the Union in 1850 outlawing slavery, the California Supreme Court stated that the antislavery law in the California Constitution was only a “declaration of a principle” and did not enact laws to enforce this provision and emancipate slaves; and

WHEREAS, The California Supreme Court enforced the federal fugitive slave law until the official end of enslavement in 1865; and

WHEREAS, The State of California prevented African Americans from testifying in court against a white person until 1863; and

WHEREAS, The California Legislature opposed Congress’ Reconstruction civil rights laws and delayed ratifying the 14th and 15th Amendments to the federal constitution; and

WHEREAS, The State of California disenfranchised African American citizens through racial barriers to voting such as poll taxes and literacy tests; and

WHEREAS, The California Legislature prohibited interracial marriage and passed an anti-miscegenation law in its first legislative session in 1850. ~~Interracial marriage was not allowed until 1959;~~ The Legislature repeatedly refused to repeal the law after the California Supreme Court struck it down in 1948, and only did so 11 years later; and

WHEREAS, The State of California constructed monuments, memorials, state markers, and plaques memorializing and preserving confederate culture and glorifying slavery and white supremacy; and

WHEREAS, From the brutality of enslavement to contemporary police killings, state and local government-sanctioned violence, such as lynching, coercive sterilization, torture, and property destruction inflicted death, physical injuries, and psychological harms on African Americans in California; and

WHEREAS, The State of California openly allowed segregation and discrimination against African Americans with respect to musicians, workers, and artists; and

WHEREAS, State and local governments in California enacted restrictive zoning ordinances, licensing laws, fire and safety codes, and anti-nuisance laws to disrupt African American businesses and their customers; and

WHEREAS, Discriminatory housing policies including redlining, residential zoning ordinances, and loan practices have produced persistent and longstanding housing segregation and inequities in home ownership for African Americans in California; and

WHEREAS, State and local governments in California targeted property owned by African Americans in urban renewal and development projects for unjust uses of eminent domain, often without providing just compensation; and

WHEREAS, State and local segregation laws in California historically excluded African Americans from outdoor recreation, public transit, and other public infrastructure; and

WHEREAS, The eugenics movement thrived in California and thousands of African Americans were forcibly sterilized or were the subjects of medical experiments without consent; and

WHEREAS, Black Californians experience persistent discrimination in healthcare services and access through inaccurate diagnoses, use of involuntary force, high costs, and a lack of culturally competent services; and

WHEREAS, African Americans have been routinely excluded from professional careers in California. For example, African American physicians, psychologists, and psychiatrists are underrepresented in California’s medical fields, further exacerbating the inequities in the healthcare system; and

WHEREAS, California’s child welfare system has experienced some of the worst racial disparities in the country, with African American children suffering the highest rate of system involvement and correspondingly heightened risks and harms associated with entering foster care; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the State of California recognizes and accepts responsibility for all of the harms and atrocities committed by representatives of the state who promoted, facilitated, enforced, and permitted the institution of chattel slavery and its legacy of ongoing badges and incidents of slavery that form the systemic structures of discrimination; and be it further

Resolved, That the State of California now affirms its role in protecting the descendants of enslaved people as well as their civil, political, and socio-cultural rights; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.