California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a formal apology on Thursday for the state’s “role” in slavery just one day after the governor vetoed two reparations bills.
Assembly Bill 3089, which Newsom signed, mandated that the state offer a formal apology along with memorializing the apology in a plaque on the state Capitol, the Los Angeles Times reported. Slavery was never legal in California after it became a state in 1850, but some argue that the state’s laws allowed slave owners to keep slaves even after the practice was outlawed in California’s 1849 Constitution.
“The State of California accepts responsibility for the role we played in promoting, facilitating, and permitting the institution of slavery, as well as its enduring legacy of persistent racial disparities,” Newsom said in a statement. “Building on decades of work, California is now taking another…
