Newsom signs first-in-nation law forcing major companies to reveal slavery-era ties: 'Make it public'

California Gov.Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law Wednesday requiring large companies doing business in the state to scour historical records and publicly disclose slavery-era transactions, advancing California's broader reparations effort through a new corporate "accountability" mandate.Newsom’s office referred Fox News Digital to an Oct.

1 interview with civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, in which the governor signed the bill on camera and framed the measure as an effort to establish accountability through public disclosure."This is a bill that requires large companies that operated before 1965 to search their records for ties to slavery going back to 1849 and then we make it public.These are insurance policies on enslaved people.

Human beings used as collateral, quite literally as collateral for loans.Accountability, as Bryan said, starts with the truth," Newsom said.CALIFORNIA COUNTY APPROVES REPARATIONS PLAN AS NEIGHBORING SCHOOL DISTRICT 'BLACK THRIVING' EFFORT STALLSGov.

Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law requiring major companies to disclose historical ties to slavery-era transactions.(Office of California Governor via AP)Assembly Bill 2599, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, applies to businesses with more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts that existed, or have a predecessor company that existed, on or before Dec.

31, 1964.Once funded by the Legislature, covered companies must submit affidavits under penalty of perjury verifying searches for records involving the purchase or sale of enslaved people, their use as loan collateral, slave-related insurance and other transactions.The law also calls for the records to become publicly accessible through a state digital platform.

For companies doing business in California as of Jan.1, 2028, the first affidavits are due by Jan.

15, 2029, or later if the state's platform has not yet been developed.Bryan framed the measure as an effort to expose corp...