California Black Media
SACRAMENTO — A bill that would require qualifying corporations to submit affidavits disclosing whether they were engaged in or profited from chattel slavery has advanced in the state Assembly.
Assembly Bill 2599, known as the Truth in Disclosure Act, passed out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee April 14, on a 9-3 vote.
Authored by Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Culver City, the bill would require corporations in industries such as banking, insurance, railroads, shipping, textiles, and tobacco to disclose whether they profited from slavery.
“The Truth in Disclosure Act requires any company doing business in California with annual worldwide gross receipts of over $100 million to verify and search their records for any transaction related to wealth gained during chattel slavery,” Bryan said.
A coalition including the Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation and Truth, the Equal Justice Society, and the California Black Power Network participated in the Judiciary Committee hearing to support AB 2599. The bill also is supported by the California Legislative Black Caucus.
While California was admitted to the union as a “free state” in 1850, the state did not have a traditional plantation economy, and there was no single, definitive list of businesses that participated in chattel slavery.
According to a report by Durham University, California’s Reparations Task Force indicated that, through the 1850s, about 1,500 enslaved African Americans were brought to the state, with many businesses benefiting from this forced labor.
AB 2599’s affidavits, which must disclose whether a company profited from or facilitated slavery-era transactions, are subject to penalties for perjury, according to the bill’s language.
The bill requires an unspecified department to create a publicly searchable digital platform by Jan. 1, 2028, to display these affidavits.
