Two years after theCalifornia Legislature formally apologized to Black Californians for the state’s role in slavery and systemic discrimination, lawmakers have approved a parallel acknowledgment of atrocities committed against Native Americans.
Assembly Bill 2115, authored by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland), passed the Assembly on Aug. 26 by a unanimous 79-0 vote after clearing the Senate 40-0. Enrolled Aug. 30, the measure awaited action by Gov. Gavin Newsom as of Sept. 7.
The measure closely mirrors AB 3089, the 2024 reparations-package bill apologizing to Black Californians for California’s role in perpetuating chattel slavery and systemic discrimination. Both measures require plaques memorializing the apologies to be prominently displayed in the State Capitol.
California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) member Sen. Laura Richardson (D-Inglewood) said, “The permanency (of the plaque) is so important that (Indigenous) people will continue to be remembered and recognized and do better,” Richardson said during a Senate committee hearing.
The connection extends beyond the plaques. During California’s formative years, the state enacted laws authorizing violence, forced labor and land theft against Native Americans while denying Black Californians fundamental rights and enabling slavery in a state admitted to the Union as “free.”
California’s first governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, called for a “war of extermination” against Native Americans. During the same era, California enforced fugitive slave laws, permitted enslaved people to be held within its borders and prohibited Black residents from testifying against White people in court.
“In 1851, California’s first governor, Peter Burnett, addressed the Legislature where he openly declared a war against California’s first people,” said Ramos, a member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe and the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation. “That war was paid for using taxpayers’ dollars to eliminate the Native American people of this land.”
Formally known as the “Rowena Mae Ramos Act,” AB 2115 states that California recognizes and accepts legal and moral responsibility for harms and atrocities committed against Native Americans by public officials since 1850.
If signed, the apology would bear the Great Seal of the State, be signed by state leaders and remain permanently in the State Archives, Ramos told California Black Media (CBM)/
“While we cannot undo the wrongs of the past, the state has a responsibility to confront it with honesty and pave the way for the true account of history to be told,” Ramos said.
AB 3089, authored by former Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-South Los Angeles), was signed Sept. 26, 2024. Although California entered the Union as a free state in 1850, more than 2,000 enslaved African people were brought into the state between 1850 and 1860, according to the law. California courts enforced fugitive slave laws until 1865, while lawmakers opposed federal civil rights laws and delayed ratifying the 14th and 15th amendments.
The bill is named for Ramos’s mother, Rowena Mae Ramos, a tribal elder who taught Native American history and culture.
“My mom grew up at a time when racism wasn’t hidden. She went through a lot,” Ramos said. “I thought that it was only fitting to honor her with this bill, a formal apology on behalf of the state of California, that would now carry her name.”
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