Newsom Signs Law Requiring Companies to Disclose Historical Profits From Slavery

California businesses will soon have to disclose their historical and financial ties to slavery, thanks to a Democrat-backed bill Governor Gavin Newsom signed last week.

The Truth In Disclosure Act forces certain companies to swear “under penalty of perjury” that they have investigated whether they or their predecessors “bought or sold persons subjected to slavery” or engaged in other slavery-related transactions. The disclosures — required of any company that was in business on or before December 31, 1964, and has more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts — will be made available to the public in an online database.

California Democratic Assemblymember Isaac Bryan authored the bill and introduced it at the start of the year. It passed along party lines, with 60 Democrats voting in support.

While the Truth In Disclosure Act also addresses efforts “to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from its direct supply chain for tangible goods offered for sale,” critics of the bill fear this legislation is part of a larger statewide reparations initiative.

Newsom in 2020 created the nation’s first reparations task force, which recommended the state “disrupt the mental health crisis and county jail,” “adopt a K-12 Black Studies Curriculum,” and “provide property tax relief to African Americans, especially descendants, living in formerly redlined neighborhoods, who purchase or construct a new home.”

California lawmakers in the past have proposed giving black Americans upwards of $1.2 million

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