Pasadena Assemblymember’s Bill Would Enhance Data on Black Californians

Assemblymember Chris Holden, who represents Pasadena, is sponsoring a bill that would require California cities and counties to collect more granular demographic data on employees, including additional categories and tabulations for specified Black or African American groups, in an effort to better support those communities.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 2089, passed the State Assembly’s Judiciary Committee this week and is now headed to the Appropriations Committee, according to a statement from Holden’s office.

The statement said it aims to “enhance the accuracy, comprehensiveness, and consistency of demographic data, enabling more effective policy planning and resource allocation at and between local and state levels.”

Holden, a Democrat who represents the 41st Assembly District which includes Pasadena, said in the statement that the bill would help address “one of the greatest injustices of American slavery that still plagues many African Americans today, is the inability to trace their ancestry.”

“Knowing where you come from in many respects can help to shape where you are going,” Holden said.

“I am proud to help refine our process for collecting demographic data, so that it may help us as a state in our efforts of equity and to be more responsible with preserving the history that the descendants of enslaved people have managed to salvage despite the stain of injustice.”

Holden himself is African American.

Chris Lodgson, the lead organizer for the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, praised the bill’s progress, calling it “a substantive step toward closing the lineage data gap, which refers to the near complete absence of any state and public data whatsoever on which California residents are descendants of those brave and heroic Americans who were subjected to, and later emancipated from, the institution of slavery.”

“The creation of a dedicated category of data collection for residents who descend from persons enslaved in the U.S. is a substantive step toward closing the lineage data gap,” Lodgson said in a statement provided by Holden’s office. “We are thrilled that the Assembly Judiciary (Committee) agrees that in order to serve this community, you must first see this community! We are thankful to Assemblymember Chris Holden for championing this important and historic work. We look forward to continued success in the state legislature and ultimately the enactment of AB 2089.”

If enacted, the bill would make California one of the first states in the nation to collect such detailed demographic data on Black residents, including those who descend from enslaved persons in the United States, a move that advocates say could serve as a model for other states looking to better understand and support their African American populations.