No, quiet as it may seem, even with all the other rancor and noise continuing in California’s 2026 politics, the reparations issue has not yet died here.
Silently, or at least not as loudly as the constant Trump mash-ups in the state have been, California has continued along the path jump-started by outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom’s signing of the 2020 law which established the California Reparations Commission.
That justifiably famous body generated a report that is still paying research dividends for California’s future after the commission officially disbanded. One of those dividends–without any trumpet blasts or other loud sounds–has been the little-noticed AB 2599 legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Issac Bryan.
That law, already passed and signed in March of this year, continues to try to answer one of the fundamental questions posed by the slavery commission– which currently existing companies doing business in California profited from slavery? Or, stated another way, how did slavery in California help generate wealth that extended beyond individual slaveholders and into current California industries? And, we must remember that slavery was outlawed in the original California Constitution.
Bryan’s AB 2599 (called the Truth in Disclosure Act) requires certain California corporations that generate more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts to review their own records and disclose any historical financial ties to slavery in California. Under the new law, after these self-investigations, California-based corporations must submit an affidavit of their findings to the California Civil Rights Department.
The first public database created from that law is due to be established within one year after the California legislature appropriates funding for the law. That approved funding is supposed to happen during the 2026-2027 session, if the issue does not get lost in the political cacophony that is sure to dominate this political year.
There are lots of moving parts this political year, so we must stay sharp and keep our eyes and ears wide open.
