The headliner bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom requires officials to sign and display a plaque in the state Capitol that includes the following: “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.”
Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, Senate leader Mike McGuire and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero are all named on the official apology.
CalMatters reports California joins a half-dozen states, including Alabama and Florida, in issuing such a formal apology.
Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who authored the apology bill and also served on the California Reparations Task Force, said: “Healing can only begin with an apology. The State of California acknowledges its past actions and is taking this bold step to correct them, recognizing its role in hindering the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness for Black individuals through racially motivated punitive laws.”
Slavery wasn’t officially legal in California but was tolerated in the state’s early history. The formal apology was one of more than 100 recommendations made in a 2023 report by a California task force on reparations for the effects of slavery.