California is on the brink of becoming the first state in the nation to require corporations to declare under oath whether they or their predecessors profited from slavery.
With its passage in the full Senate today, the California State Legislature adopted AB 2599, The Truth in Disclosure Act, authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan and a top priority for the California Legislative Black Caucus. The bill will now be sent to Governor Gavin Newsom for his signature.
The bill requires corporations doing business in California with annual revenue of $100 million in gross receipts or more to submit sworn affidavits — subject to perjury penalties — disclosing whether they or predecessor entities engaged in or profited from slavery-era transactions, with all filings posted to a publicly searchable state database.
The measure builds on California’s existing disclosure framework. California has led the country on climate, supply chain, and pay transparency, and expands existing corporate disclosure laws requiring corporations doing business in California to engage in ethical business practices. No other state has yet required corporations to account for their historical role in the slave economy. The bill’s public database would give journalists, researchers, and reparations advocates a tool to trace historical profits to present-day corporate wealth.
The Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation, and Truth (ARRT) strongly urges Gov. Newsom to sign the bill.
Lisa Holder, President of the Equal Justice Society: “The United Nation’s formal acknowledgement this past March of the transatlantic slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity set a moral and reparative baseline for the world. AB 2599 grounds that international imperative into concrete state policy by compelling companies operating in California, the world’s fourth-largest economy, to account for historical ties under oath. Moreover it supplies the necessary paper trail, documenting predecessor entities, collateralized human property, and institutional wealth accumulation, that scholars and policymakers need to translate broad reparative goals into actionable policy.”
Donald K. Tamaki, former member of the California Reparations Task Force, and EJS board member: “Two chapters of the California Reparations Task Force report document in painstaking detail how corporations built enormous fortunes extracted from the free labor of enslaved people and how that wealth compounded for generations while Black families were locked out. The Truth in Disclosure Act follows the recommendations of the task force report by compelling corporations to publicly declare under oath how their fortunes were extracted from the stolen labor of enslaved people. This public transparency is a critical first step toward full accountability and implementing the Task Force’s broader recommendations.”
Read statements from other ARRT leaders on alliancefor.org.
Should Governor Newsom sign AB 2599, it would represent the 15th reparations bill passed since the 2023 issuance of the California Reparations Task Force report and yet another step forward in the continued momentum of implementing those recommendations.
In 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 437 (Weber-Pierson), requiring the California State University to explore options to determine how to confirm an individual’s status as a descendant, and SB 518 (Weber‑Pierson), creating the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery, housed within the Civil Rights Department.
In 2024, Gov. Newsom signed several reparations bills, including AB 3089, a formal apology by the State of California for its role in perpetuating slavery and its ongoing legacy of systemic racism.
This historic journey started with Gov. Newsom’s signing of AB 3121 into law on Sept. 30, 2020, to create the first-in-the-nation California Reparations Task Force. After two years of research and 30 public hearings, the task force in 2023 delivered a 1,100-page book of truth that documents past and continuing harm of anti-Black discrimination in every facet of American life and across every sector of California civil society, outlining 115 comprehensive policies for repairing the harm.
EJS at Day of Action Earlier in the Day
Assemblymember Issac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights), joined California racial justice, faith and advocacy leaders at the State Capitol for a Day of Action urging lawmakers to advance the Truth and Disclosure Act (AB 2599), hours before the Senate passed the bill.
Convened by the Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation and Truth (ARRT), the press conference brought together leaders from coalition partners around a shared message: Truth and disclosure are the minimum.
EJS staff Mona Tawatao, Alexandra Santa Ana, Tyler Kyser and LaRita Y. Gibson-Smith attended, as well as EJS board member Donald K. Tamaki.
Speakers called on California to confront the lasting impact of slavery and systemic discrimination, increase transparency around corporate ties to slavery, and continue the work of implementing the recommendations of the California Reparations Task Force.
The legislation builds on findings documented by California’s first-in-the-nation Reparations Task Force, which produced a comprehensive report detailing generations of state-sanctioned discrimination against Black Californians and recommendations for repair.
Don Tamaki, EJS board member and a former member of the California Reparations Task Force and convenor of ARRT, emphasized that the Task Force report was intended to serve as a roadmap for action—not simply a historical record.
“Since the report’s release, ARRT has helped carry a handful of those 115 recommendations into law: the establishment of the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery–a permanent state agency dedicated to advancing long overdue reparative initiatives, apology resolutions, expanded protections against hair discrimination, and a $6 million public education fund to shine a light on centuries of buried racial harm,” said Tamaki.
Read the full recap of the rally at https://alliancefor.org.
