BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 539
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB
539 (Glazer)
As Amended July 16, 2015
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: 37-0
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Judiciary |9-1 |Mark Stone, Weber, |Gallagher |
| | |Wagner, Alejo, Chau, | |
| | |Chiu, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Cristina Garcia, | |
| | |Maienschein, Thurmond | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |14-3 |Gomez, Bloom, Bonta, |Bigelow, Gallagher, |
| | |Calderon, Chang, |Jones |
| | |Daly, Eggman, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Wagner, Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
SB 539
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SUMMARY: Prohibits, as of January 1, 2017, naming any school,
park, building or other public property after certain persons
associated with the Confederate States of America, and requires
removal of existing Confederate names by January 1, 2017.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Finds and declares the following:
a) The Confederate States of America's secessionist
movement was rooted in the defense of slavery and that to
this day Confederate symbols sow racial divisions in our
society.
b) Using names of Confederate leaders to name California
schools, parks, buildings, roadways, and other public
property is antithetical to California's mission for racial
equality and that California is opposed to enshrining names
associated with the Confederate States of America.
c) Other individuals, such as the escaped slave,
abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesmen, Frederick
Douglas, better represent our aspirations for social good.
1)Provides that on and after January 1, 2017, the name of an
elected leader or senior military officer of the Confederate
States of America shall not be used to name state or local
public property. If such a name is used to name state or
local public property prior to January 1, 2017, the name shall
be changed and any sign associated with the name shall be
removed.
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2)Provides that nothing in this section shall be construed to
require renaming a city, county, or other political
jurisdiction that was named after an elected leader or senior
military officer of the Confederate States of America prior to
January 1, 2016, nor shall this section be construed to
require the renaming of any school, building, park, roadway,
or other property that incorporates the name of the city,
county, or political jurisdiction in which it is situated.
EXISTING LAW prohibits the State of California from selling or
displaying the Battle Flag of the Confederacy, also referred to
as the Stars and Bars, or any similar image, or tangible
personal property, inscribed with such an image unless the image
appears in a book, digital medium or state museum that serves an
educational or historical purpose.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, minor reimbursable costs to replace signage on
impacted properties. (According to the Assembly Judiciary
Committee's analysis of this bill, there are two elementary
schools in the state named after Robert E. Lee, one in Long
Beach and the other in San Diego, and another in Stockton named
after the 10th President of the United States, John Tyler, who
later in life served in the House of Representatives of the
Confederate States of America.)
COMMENTS: This bill would prohibit naming any school, building,
park, roadway, or other state or local property, after an
elected leader or senior military officer of the Confederacy.
It would require that any existing Confederate names be changed
by January 1, 2017. While names honoring Confederate leaders
may be as common as mint juleps in the southern states of the
United States, they are (not surprisingly) relatively rare in
California. To the best of the Judiciary Committee's knowledge,
there are two elementary schools named after Robert E. Lee, one
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in Long Beach and the other in San Diego, and another in
Stockton named after the 10th President of the United States,
John Tyler, who later in life served in the House of
Representatives of Confederate States of America. There are
also plaques in Southern California and along stretches of
Highway 99 that allegedly contain tributes to Jefferson Davis,
the President of the Confederate States of America; however, it
is not clear whether these plaques are on public land, or
whether government or private entities placed them there. This
bill expressly states that any towns or cities named after
Confederate political and military leaders (such as the city of
Fort Bragg, California, named after Confederate General Braxton
Bragg) would not be covered by this bill. Similarly, no school,
park, building, roadway, or other public property that shares a
name with the city in which it is situated would be subject to
this bill.
According to the author, the "use of Confederate-associated
names in California public schools, buildings, parks, roadways,
and other public property is antithetical to California's
mission for racial equality." The author contends that "the
Confederate States of America and its secessionist movement were
rooted in slavery," and therefore "California has no interest in
enshrining the names of those associated with the Confederacy,
its secessionist movement, or their ideals in our public
schools, buildings, parks, or other state property."
Practical Implications and Local Efforts. It is difficult to
assess the impact of this bill because the Assembly Judiciary
Committee has only limited information about how many parks,
buildings, schools, or other public properties are named after
Confederate leaders. There are two Robert E. Lee Elementary
schools: one in San Diego and the other in Long Beach.
According to news reports, there have already been local efforts
to change those names. For example, Assembly Member Lorena
Gonzalez wrote a letter to the school board in San Diego
requesting that the school be named after someone more
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appropriate for California's history. Citizens in Long Beach
have reportedly already begun a petition drive to change the
name of that school. As for other schools, it may not be easy
to determine the source of the names. For example, Tyler Skills
Elementary School in Stockton was formerly called John Tyler
Elementary School. Tyler was the 10th president of the United
States, but later in his career was elected to serve a term in
the House of Representatives of the Confederate States of
America. It is not entirely clear whether Tyler Skills
Elementary would need to change its name again under this bill,
or if it's earlier name change had anything to do with the fact
that John Tyler deserted the Union and joined the Confederacy.
Why Stop with Confederates? The premise of this bill appears to
be that because Confederate elected officials and senior
military officers led a cause dedicated to the preservation of
slavery and racial hierarchy, their names should not sully our
public places. This may not be an unreasonable demand, but it
begs the question of why the bill should single out
Confederates. Our earliest United States Presidents, Washington
and Jefferson, among others, were slave owners. Removing their
names from public places would require massive changes, starting
with re-naming our nation's capital. Numerous places in
California are named for Junipero Serra, the priest who led the
Franciscan missions. Some believe that Serra should be
canonized; others believe that Serra was a genocidal maniac.
Many others no doubt hold more complicated views that fall
somewhere in between. Many buildings and places in California
are named after former Governor Earl Warren, who as state
Attorney General led the charge to intern persons of Japanese
descent, including American citizens, during World War II. In
short, if we start looking too closely at the backgrounds of
persons whose names are on our parks, streets, buildings, and
schools, we may find that not all of them are worthy of
commemoration.
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Analysis Prepared by: Thomas Clark / JUD. /
(916) 319-2334 FN: 0001406