Rally to support reparations commission scheduled in Annapolis

While Gov. Wes Moore (D) continues to be noncommittal on whether he’ll sign a Maryland Reparations Commission bill into law, a group of supporters plan to rally Friday in Annapolis to show their support for the measure.

“I would not tell the governor of Maryland what he should or should not do. All the rally is about is showing why people care about the issue,” said Prince George’s County Councilmember Wanika Fisher (D), who’s organizing the rally at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis.

When asked if Moore — the only sitting Black governor in the nation — plans to sign the bill, a spokesperson Wednesday pointed to a statement from last month that the governor will work with “all partners involved to ensure that we are passing legislation that will make Maryland safer, more affordable, more competitive.”

Moore could sign the bill, let it go into law without his signature or, potentially, veto it. There are two more bill signing ceremonies scheduled, on May 13 and May 20.

Fisher said there are a number of misconceptions about the bill, approved last month in the waning days of the 2025 legislative session.

“When you talk to people about the concept of reparations, everyone has 50 million ideas,” she said. “A commission’s important because you bring in different facets of the community together to say, ‘Hey, this is what we kind of think that would work.’ Nothing is going to be perfect. But it does allow you to have a meeting of the minds.”

Fisher is a former state delegate who sponsored legislation to establish a reparations commission in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Hearings were held, but none of those bills ever made it out of a committee.

Fiscal notes with those bills said “total expenditures would likely exceed $1 million,” for hiring at least five staff members and issuing any money to “individuals whose ancestors were enslaved in the State.”

But the fiscal note for this year’s reparations bill, sponsored by Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George’s), is a much more modest $54,500 to hire one contractual archivist to help produce reports and conduct research.

Muse and Del. Aletheia McCaskill (D-Baltimore County), who sponsored a companion House version this year that did not advance out of committee, have stressed that this year’s bill is strictly a study.

The bill notes commission would assess specific federal, state and local policies from 1877 to 1965, the post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. Those years “have led to economic disparities based on race, including housing segregation and discrimination, redlining, restrictive covenants, and tax policies.”

The all-volunteer commission would also examine how public and private institutions may have benefited from those policies, and would recommend appropriate reparations, which could include statements of apology, monetary compensation, social service assistance, business incentives or child care costs.

The bill calls for a commission of nearly two dozen people, including two employees from the state’s four historically Black colleges and universities with expertise in the history of slavery; a representative from the Maryland Black Chamber of Commerce; and the state archivist or a designee from that office. Another eight people appointed by the governor could include members such as a mental health expert, an attorney with expertise in civil rights or constitutional law, and two members of the general public.

The committee would have to deliver a preliminary report of recommendations by Jan. 1, 2027, to explain any findings, and a final report by Nov. 1 of that year.

Maryland joins a handful of states including California, Illinois, New York and Colorado that have approved legislation to study reparations. But advocates say Maryland should be a leader in the effort.

“If the governor were to veto it, it would be pretty devastating to the reparation’s movement in general that has fought for years to put the issue on the table,” said Dayvon Love, public policy director for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle of Baltimore, who plans to speak at Friday’s rally.

“It’s important for a state with the largest Black caucus. It has a Black governor. That has a political environment that would be favorable to that kind of policy to demonstrate that it can be done,” he said. “Maryland is poised to be a leader on that front.”