California is putting corporate history under a microscope with a first-in-the-nation law requiring some major companies to disclose whether they or their predecessors profited from chattel slavery.
According to LAist, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Truth in Disclosure Act, a measure requiring qualifying companies operating in California to reveal historical and financial connections to transactions involving enslaved people.
The Laist explains that Assembly Bill 2599, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Isaac Bryan of Culver City, applies to companies with more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts. The law only applies to businesses that existed, or whose predecessor companies existed, on or before December 1964.
The measure was also a top legislative priority for the California Legislative Black Caucus this year. According to LAist, advocates say no other state currently requires corporations to account for their historical participation in the slave economy.
Corporate Slavery Disclosures Will Be Made Public
LAist reports that companies covered by the law will have to submit sworn filings detailing relevant historical connections, with the statements subject to penalty of perjury.
The first affidavits are due Jan. 15, 2029.
Under the law, California’s Civil Rights Department will establish a searchable digital database where the relevant records and corporate disclosures will be made available to the public.
Supporters told LAist that the database could become a resource for journalists, academics and advocates examining how modern corporate wealth may be connected to historical participation in slavery.
Bryan said in the LAist that the companies affected could span several industries with deep roots in the American economy.
“I’m thinking agriculture. I’m thinking banking, insurance. I’m thinking anything in the financial sector,” Bryan said.
Bryan also emphasized that disclosure is only the beginning of determining what California should do with the information.
“Once the public has this disclosure and we have a full accounting of the impact, then it’s up to us to decide what that means and what we’re going to do about it,” he said.
JPMorgan Chase Cited As An Example Of Corporate Ties To Slavery
LAist reports JPMorgan Chase as an example of the type of corporation that could potentially be required to make disclosures under the new law.
According to the California Reparations Task Force report cited by LAist, the banking giant issued a formal apology in 2005 after discovering that two banks it later acquired had accepted 13,000 enslaved people as collateral for loans in Louisiana.
The report found that when enslavers failed to repay those loans, the banks took ownership of approximately 1,200 enslaved people.
Several insurance companies opposed AB 2599 as it traveled through the California Legislature, according to LAist. The companies argued that they had already disclosed connections to slavery under a California law enacted in 2000, which resulted in a publicly available report.
California Continues Its Reparations Push
The new corporate transparency requirements arrive as California continues taking incremental action following years of research into reparations.
According to LAist, Newsom established the state’s reparations task force in 2020. After two years of study, the group released a report in 2023 documenting California’s history of enslavement and discriminatory policies while issuing more than 100 recommendations.
LAist reports that economists estimated California owes Black residents at least $800 billion for harms connected to policing, housing and health.
The state has since moved forward with some of the task force’s recommendations.
According to LAist, Newsom signed six of the California Legislative Black Caucus’ 14 priority bills inspired by the task force report in 2024, including a formal apology from the state. That same year, the caucus declined to advance two more ambitious reparations measures, creating a divide with grassroots advocates pushing for broader action.
The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Alliance for Reparations, Reconciliation and Truth applauded the passage of AB 2599.
“California has long been a state that prides itself on justice and equity and AB 2599 moves the needle closer to the transparency that is necessary to recognize and rectify these historical injustices and understand the roots of modern economic disparities,” CAIR-CA Chief Executive Hussam Ayloush said in a written statement.
While the law does not itself order corporations to pay reparations, it creates a public accounting of how some modern companies may be connected to the wealth generated through slavery, leaving California to determine what, if anything, comes next once those histories are brought into the light.
