California’s state legislature voted Thursday to apologize for the state’s role in slavery. However, California entered the Union as a “free state” in 1850.
invoice, AB 3089was written by Rep. Reggie Jones Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) and passed as the state Legislature considered various other “reparations” bills.
The bill acknowledges that California outlawed slavery, but cites the state’s passage of the Fugitive Slave Law and other aspects of racial discrimination that took place in the state. Bay Area public radio station KQED said:
In 1852, the state legislature passed the California Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed slave traders to recapture former slaves brought to California before the state joined the Union and forcibly take them to southern slaveholding states. admitted to doing so.
Senator James Estill, a leading proponent of the fugitive slave bill in the state Senate, owned 14 slaves on a farm in Solano County.
Then, in 1854, the state legislature approved a non-binding resolution supporting the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This is an explosive federal law that allows slavery to be extended to U.S. territories throughout the United States.
The country’s apology is as follows:
(a) The State of California recognizes responsibility for all harms and atrocities committed by the State, its representatives, and entities under its jurisdiction that facilitate, promote, enforce, or permit the institution and enduring legacy of chattel slavery; accept. About the ongoing badges and incidents where systemic structures of discrimination have come into existence.
(b) California perpetuated the harm faced by African Americans by instilling racial prejudice through racial discrimination, public and private discrimination, and the unequal spending of state and federal funds; We apologize for this and declare that we will not repeat such behavior. California recognizes the work of a task force to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans, with special consideration for African Americans who are descendants of enslaved people in the United States. Established by Assembly Bill 3121 (2020), this task force detailed the harms faced by African Americans in California and provided numerous legislative recommendations, including this formal apology . California affirms its role in protecting descendants of enslaved people and all Black Californians and their civil, political, and sociocultural rights. California recognizes and affirms its responsibility to end the ongoing harm. By going beyond this apology, California is committed to healing and repairing those affected.
If the state Senate approves the bill, the apology would be affixed to a plaque in the Capitol and displayed in the state archives.
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. He is the author of a new biography, Rhoda: “Comrade Cadderly, you are an anomaly.”. He is also the author of a recently published e-book. Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 US Presidential Election. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
