California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 2599, the Truth in Disclosure Act, making California the first state to require large corporations to investigate and publicly disclose any historical connections to chattel slavery. Newsom signed the bill Sept. 30.
The law, authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Ladera Heights, applies to businesses with more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts that existed, or had a predecessor entity operating, on or before Dec. 31, 1964. Once the state legislature funds the program, covered companies will have to submit sworn affidavits, under penalty of perjury, to the California Civil Rights Department.
Those filings must detail any historical involvement in buying or selling enslaved people, using enslaved people as collateral for loans, slave-related insurance policies, and other related financial transactions. Companies covered by the law have until Jan. 15, 2029, to submit their initial disclosures.
Advocates call it a milestone
Kristin Nimmers, policy and campaign manager for the California Black Power Network (CBPN) and the Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation, and Truth, called the signing a “historic moment” and a “big, important victory” for the reparations movement.
“There are connections right now from slavery to current wealth of individuals and current wealth of corporations whose foundation and who built the start of their companies off of slavery and off of benefits gained from slavery,” Nimmers said.
Nimmers said the new law builds on the work of the California Reparations Task Force, the nation’s first state-level body of its kind, which spent years documenting the state’s role in perpetuating racial harm.
“AB 2599 is really starting the work of identifying who really benefited from this racial harm and from slavery,” she said. “It helps us move the work of the task force from recommendations toward implementation.”
A narrower path than full reparations
Newsom’s approval of AB 2599 stands apart from his record on costlier, broader reparations measures. He recently vetoed Assembly Bill 2186, which would have exempted any future state reparations payments from California’s personal income tax. Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, the bill’s author, told Fox News Digital the veto was disappointing.
Newsom has also repeatedly declined to back direct cash payments to descendants of enslaved people, an approach the state task force estimated could cost millions of dollars per eligible recipient. He rejected a broader slate of cash-focused reparations bills pushed by the California Legislative Black Caucus. He did, however, approve state funding for California universities to research and develop verification methods that would allow descendants of enslaved Americans to establish eligibility for future noncash benefits.
CBPN, a coalition of 48 Black-led and Black-serving organizations spanning 14 California counties, served as an official community anchor for the state task force created under Assembly Bill 3121. The coalition organized listening sessions across the state that fed into the task force’s 1,100-page final report, issued in 2023. Nimmers said the group now intends to use AB 2599 as a foothold to push for enactment of the task force’s remaining recommendations.
“We can’t fully and meaningfully repair harms if we’re not really willing to acknowledge and confront the truth,” Nimmers said.
Local efforts elsewhere
Reparations efforts outside California have produced mixed results. In Evanston, Illinois, Black residents received $25,000 housing grants under a municipal program meant to address historic housing discrimination. Similar local and municipal proposals for direct compensation or economic aid are being debated in other communities around the country.
