Supervisors advance slavery‑era disclosure ordinance on first reading

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Oct. 31 approved on first reading an ordinance requiring contractors that provide insurance, financial or textile services to the city to disclose any participation by the company or predecessor companies in the transatlantic slave trade.

Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, the ordinance’s sponsor in the Rules Committee, said the measure follows California’s recent law and similar city ordinances in places including Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, New York City and Philadelphia. “As an African American, I believe it is important that we educate ourselves, that we educate our children to what happened during slavery,” Maxwell said. “When there is a wound, it’s important that we acknowledge that and we move forward.”

The local ordinance would add chapter 12W (sections 12W.1–12W.7) to the San Francisco Administrative Code. It requires contractors that provide insurance, insurance services, financial services or textiles to the city to research archival records and disclose any information linking their company or predecessors to the slave trade. The ordinance also creates an account to receive voluntary contributions and directs that money donated to that account be used to fund economic‑development and educational initiatives aimed at addressing the historical effects of slavery on San Francisco residents, according to the committee report read into the record.

Supervisor Maxwell cited California Senate Bill 2199 as providing a model and said the new state effort had produced a “wealth of information” now available to researchers. She and several supervisors thanked local organizations, including the African American Historical Society and an advocacy coalition led by John Dumas, for research and outreach that shaped the ordinance.

Multiple supervisors signed on as cosponsors before the board approved the ordinance on first reading; the clerk recorded that the measure passed on first reading.