Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary

All right. Senate Judiciary Committee will come to order. Good afternoon. We're holding this Committee hearing in room 2100 in the swing space. I ask that all Members of the Committee be present. Room 2100 so we can establish our quorum before we hear presentations on today's Bill. We're going to actually proceed as a Subcommitee. I noticed that we have 50% of the Republicans that are here, and we have not reached that level of attendance on the democratic side.

Because they fit in a neo suv.

Yeah. I want to note that we're going to permit two primary witnesses, as is our custom, in support, and two primary witnesses in opposition. Each primary witness will have two minutes to speak. After the primary support, I'll invite other supporters to state their name, their affiliation to position. I will do the same for the opposition. After we hear from support and opposition, we'll turn to comments from the Committee.

If you wish to further expound on your position, you can submit a letter to the Committee using one of the methods described on the Judiciary Committee's website. All right. And for those of you who may be participating, virtually all testimony will be live and in person here today and as we proceed throughout the course of the rest of this year. All right, I see that Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas is here. The floor is yours.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, and thank you, colleagues. Good afternoon. It is my great honor to put before you SCR 113. This is the state's recognition and acknowledgment of California's role in perpetuating the harms and ongoing effects of slavery of black people across the state and this nation. The resolution contains numerous factual, cited references to egregious acts associated with slavery and the enduring institutional enhancements and enactments over the years that further impede the ability of black Californians to lawfully participate as full Members of society.

While we cannot fully comprehend the total impact and magnitude of the lost opportunity within the black community over the last three centuries. And I want to show you what our California task force on the study of the proposal of development of reparations. This is the scholarship. These are the findings that lay out exactly how, over centuries, California, based on an American value system, enacted brutalized chattel slavery and disenfranchised communities for at least 12 generations of black families.

So I want to say that this is sacred work that I'm doing here today to ask this body to recognize that the least thing we can do to begin the healing is to recognize and acknowledge these facts. I do not have witnesses today with me, but I want to simply close by saying that this resolution is a first step, that this is a process that we are going to do today, acknowledging the need for reparations in California. But this is not a binding document.

This is simply a resolution acknowledging the findings, acknowledging the work of the task force, and beginning to set the foundation for the real work of building legislation that begins to repair the harm. And with that, I respectfully ask for your. I vote Arnie.

Thank you. Other witnesses or witnesses in support of SCR 113, please approach the microphone.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Tasia Stevens. I am a legislative advocate with Catalyst California and on behalf of the alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation and truth, we strongly support this measure.

Thank you.

Hello, Members. My name is Sadalia King, also with Catalyst California and a lifelong constituent of Senator Niello's district, in strong support. Thank you.

Thank you. Others in support. Seeing no one else approach the microphone, let's now turn to the opposition. If you're in opposition, please approach the microphone. Please approach the microphone. Seeing no one approaching the microphone, we'll now bring it back to Committee. Members of the Committee. Yes, Senator Durazo.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I might be speaking for a little bit longer than the author did, and that's, I think, quite unusual, but I think this is such a critical issue that I felt compelled to do so. The State of California took an active part in permitting, enacting, and enforcing laws and policies that had this multi generational impact to African Americans. The state prohibited interracial marriage. The state constructed monuments and plaques memorializing confederate culture and glorifying slavery.

The state permitted racially restricted covenants, redlining and zoning ordinances that still have damaging effects on African Americans home ownership rates. Today, the state openly allowed segregation and discrimination and employment, housing and health care policies. The state targeted African Americans through their use of, quote, unquote, tough on crime measures and using the criminal justice system, and resulted in the quadrupling of the prison population over a 20 year period.

It is long past time for the state to acknowledge their role and responsibilities and the atrocities they advanced that promoted and facilitated the institution of slavery. State of California is and should continue to affirm its role in protecting and uplifting the descendants of enslaved people who've been harmed by a legacy of state sanctioned policies. Thank you for all of your work, and I move the resolution.

Thank you, Senato Durazo. Other comments by Committee Members? Once we have a quorum, Senator Durazo, we will accept your motion. So, Senator Laird. Okay. Senator Caballero.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for your deference. Senator, I just want to say that I really appreciate the work that you've done on this and the work that's been done by the Committee as well. I think the part that jumped out at me the most was how pernicious the work was to exclude African Americans, black people in the State of California, from the rights and privileges of those that we expect and that we enjoy, and that it lasted up until the 60s. It's shocking.

It's shocking. And when you have a legal system that is set up to deny rights and to exclude people and to target them in a way that has lasting impact, way beyond slavery. Way beyond slavery, it's really disturbing. And I say that having, one of the reasons that I became an attorney was to be able to work with people who felt like they had no choice in their life because they didn't know how the law worked.

And on the theory that if you just knew how the law worked, then it would be fair. But if it's set up against you, it doesn't matter how many defenders you have, you're still going to end up on the losing end. And so to realize how long it took to get amendments passed, I knew the history of California being a non-slave owning state.

And there's a book that's written about the Latino community, in particular the Mexican American community, being on the side of African Americans in the civil war. So, you know that there were people that believed in the rights of all humans, but that the state was still acting with intent is really disturbing. So I appreciate the work that's been done, and I'll obviously support this resolution today. Thank you for bringing this forward.

Thank you, Senator. Caballero, let's establish a quorum here before we get much further. Madam Secretary, would you call the role.

Roll Call

All right, we have a quorum. And I know, Senator Durazo you wanted to make a motion. Senator Durazo has moved the Bill. Senator Laird.

I wanted to make a brief comment, and I wanted to add on to what the Senator just said. And I read the Executive summary. I have yet to read that full volume. It's powerful. And while there's been discussion about the legalities, some of us are old enough to have experienced, some of these things in daily life in the sense that when I was at my elementary school, you could look from the Playground just four doors down and across the street was an African American neighborhood.

But they weren't drawn in the same line to be with our elementary school. And when I was in high school, I won a speech contest regularly from the Elks club. But the Elks club had two in our town, one that discriminated and one that didn't. So the one that didn't was 98% African American. The one that did was 100% white. That just went on as a normal order of things as we did things.

I mean, my father, who was not very political, put a no on the repeal of the Rumpford Housing Act sticker on the car, and you'd thought that we had declared war on all our neighbors, and so it's like this was an experience. This wasn't just the legal, this is what was going on culturally and around. And so I think that this step in this resolution is important. It's the first step, but it's important because I think it really means something to anybody that has experienced that.

And, of course, people were experiencing it to this very day. But nevertheless, I just appreciate you for bringing it, and I look forward to supporting the motion.

Thank you, Sen. Niello

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's certainly true that African Americans have been discriminated against in California and this country and have been disadvantaged. I don't oppose this resolution, but neither can I support it, for two reasons. Number one, even though it isn't binding, I'm troubled by the fact that it could be grabbed onto by certain attorneys that practice in this state that could utilize that as a civil rights liability suit.

But more importantly, what jumped out to me in the resolution was what didn't jump out to me. What is excluded, and, in my opinion, considerably compromises African Americans from overcoming these issues, is the abject failure of our education system, our K-12 system. In a recent article by CalMatters, in 2023, black students had the lowest level of achievement and accomplishment in the state in English language arts. Fully. Well, 64% fully 36% less than all students and 54% less than all students in math.

This certainly is not because of native ability. That has nothing to do with it, nor is it because of any per pupil spending. Per pupil spending has increased over 6% a year from the time that I left the Legislature, when I was termed out of the Assembly. And that's during a time period when inflation was virtually zero.

The abject failure of the K-12 system to provide the same quality of education to black students as to white students and other students is a failure that I could almost characterize as scandalous. And it just seems to me that regardless of what we are able to do relative to past practices, and again, certainly African Americans have been disadvantaged, discriminated against.

But in forward looking in terms of opportunities, unless we fix this, unless we fix the failure of our K-12 system to serve the needs of black students and the achievement of black students, we're going to continue to struggle with this. And I'd welcome having a separate discussion with you, Senator Smallwood-Cuevas, as to what could be done about that, but I think that is perhaps overridingly important relative to future opportunities for black Californians.

Thank you. Other comments questions first, let me respond to Senator Niello on a couple of points. I appreciate you pointing out the disparity in terms of opportunity and education. The disparities, as I'm sure Senator Smallwood-Cuevas is going to point out, exist in many other areas as well, whether it's healthcare, employment, other opportunities in education, that all need to be addressed, number one. Number two, in terms of your point concerning liability, I think what we do today creates legislative history and legislative intent.

Senator Smallwood-Cuevas pointed out in her opening that this is not intended and does not create liability on the part of the state. And I think the analysis on page eight also further illustrates that and sets that out. Thank you for bringing this forward. I am concerned that Californians don't know of our own legacy, our own history. I'm concerned that it's not taught in schools.

I'm concerned that other states today are trying to deny the history of the United States, the history of slavery and its implications both then and now. And I'm proud of the fact that we in California are beginning that process, the process to at least recognize our history and teach our history so that young people understand the legacy. That's the only way we can grow. It's the only way we can heal. And this is not just something, a remnant from the ancient past.

I mean, this continues, as Senator Laird points out, that in our own lived experience, in my own lived experience, I prosecuted skinheads for bringing a cross on the front lawn of an African American family in Westminster, California, for the purpose of driving them out of their neighborhood. That was a few years ago, but it was in our lifetimes, certainly within our lifetimes. And so that legacy continues. So I commend you for bringing this forward.

I commend you for making sure that we as a body, we speak as a policymaking body now for California, that we have an opportunity to recognize and move forward. So, having said that, other questions? Comments? Did you want to close, Senator Smallwood-Cuevas

Well, first, I want to thank my colleagues for such rich personal accounts, but also your commitment to California, leading the way on ensuring a process by which we acknowledge the harms of the past, and we recognize how those harms, the institutional footprint that's left by those harms, impacts so many communities well beyond the black community. It is time, as you said, Senator Durazo, it is time for us to address our past.

And as you say, Mr. Chair, those who don't know the history are doomed to repeat it. And that's what this is about. It's about setting California on a pathway forward that says we do not believe in this level of racism, discrimination, brutal and brutalized economic disenfranchisement, that we believe that California has to do better and leave the past behind. That's what this acknowledgement is today, that we are ready to start a path that recognizes the harms that have been done.

So with that, I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

Thank you. All right. Senator Durazo has moved the resolution. Madam Secretary, if you would call the role.

Roll Call

We're going to leave the roll open here for a few moments. This is the only matter that we have before us here today. I understand that some Members are in the building and some Members are not available to vote, but we'll leave the roll open here for a little while. Thank you, Members.

Roll Call

We're going to put it back on call for a few more moments. Thank you, Senator Allen. Madam Secretary, if you would open the roll.

Roll Call

Eight to zero. The resolution is adopted. We're adjourned. Thank you.