ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Supporters of a measure to create a commission to study potential reparations for slavery in Maryland rallied by the governor’s residence on Friday, calling on Gov. Wes Moore to sign the legislation.
Speakers at the rally said they were optimistic Maryland’s first Black governor would sign the bill, but they wanted to underscore how significant the legislation is to them, days before Moore’s fourth bill signing ceremony and possibly the last of the year.
State Sen. C Anthony Muse, who sponsored the measure, emphasized that it only provides for a study — not “a mandate to make anyone do anything.”
“When is it the wrong time to study something? We need to study it, and we need to do it now, and we’re asking again in this context and especially in the time in which we are living now in this country: sign the bill and make it happen,” said Muse, a Democrat from the suburbs of the nation’s capital.
Moore, a Democrat who is the nation’s only Black governor currently in office, has repeatedly noted the lingering impact of racism when asked about the legislation. But he has yet to say publicly whether he would sign the bill.
“I have said and long stated that the history of racism in this state is real,” the governor told reporters as the bill neared passage, adding that the impacts “are still very much being felt, and they’ve been structurally felt within the state of Maryland.”
But the governor also has noted the state’s fiscal constraints in a very challenging budget year.
Carl Snowden, who is the convener for the Caucus of African-American Leaders, said Friday at the rally that he believed Moore would sign the bill.
“I think there are political advisers who are telling the governor the politics of signing the bill, pro and con, and I think he’s taking his time, measuring how he should respond,” Snowden said in an interview. “But I’m very confident that the bill will come into effect, either as a result of his signing it or allowing it just to become law.”
The governor could opt to not sign the measure, and it would become law without his signature. The governor’s office did not immediately return an email seeking comment Friday.
The bill passed with strong support in the General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats. The House voted 101-36 for the bill, and the Senate approved it 32-13. Both chambers approved the measure with margins large enough to override a veto.
Potential reparations outlined in the bill include official statements of apology, monetary compensation, property tax rebates, social service assistance, as well as licensing and permit fee waivers and reimbursement. Reparations also could include assistance with making a down payment on a home, business incentives, childcare, debt forgiveness and tuition payment waivers for higher education.
At the rally, Wanika Fisher, who is a member of the Prince George’s County Council and is a former Maryland House member, noted a nearby statute of former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall that faces the governor’s residence and is steps away from the Maryland State House. The Baltimore native was denied entry into the University of Maryland Law School in 1930 because of his race, but he went on to become the nation’s first Black Supreme Court justice.
“It really speaks to why this commission is so vital to address the root causes of structural racism and slavery that occurred here in Maryland,” Fisher, a Democrat, said, also noting the state’s rich Black history and birthplace of renowned abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.
Last year, California lawmakers passed some of the nation’s most ambitious legislation aimed at atoning for a legacy of racist policies that drove racial disparities for Black people. None of the bills provided widespread direct payments to Black Americans. Instead, California lawmakers approved the return of land or compensation to families whose property was unjustly seized by the government, and issuing a formal apology.
New York City lawmakers approved legislation last year to study the city’s significant role in slavery and consider reparations to descendants of enslaved people.
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