A supermajority of Maryland General Assembly Democrats nullified Gov. Wes Moore’s veto of a reparations study on Tuesday, securing a top priority for Maryland’s Legislative Black Caucus.
Though the overwhelming rebuke of Moore’s decision was expected during Tuesday’s special session, lawmakers again deliberated their positions on examining and repairing the generational harm caused by the country’s history of slavery and state-sanctioned discrimination.
Democrats decried the need to further examine and consider solutions to racist policies, while Republicans questioned the study, the costs to the state and how to determine who would receive reparations.
“This state should be leading every other state on reparations, but we’re not,” said Del. Gabe Acevero, a Democrat from Montgomery County, as he stood in support of the override. “But today is a day that we can all be proud because what we’re doing is ensuring that we are correcting a historical injustice.”
Del. Terri Hill, a Democrat representing Howard and Baltimore counties, told the body the bill was not to be taken personally.
“This is a bill that requires us, as an arm of the Maryland government, to look at the things that government policy allowed to happen and enabled,” she said.
The physician compared the reparations study to caring for a stubborn wound. First, a healer must examine the damage to find the most effective path toward healing. Lawmakers should not withhold care out of “fear” of what lies beneath the wound, she said.
Moore, in a statement, said he still has concerns about unfunded mandates and multiyear analyses.
“As the Trump Administration advances a full-scale assault on Maryland and Marylanders,” Moore said, “I still believe we must prioritize policies that protect our people, here and now, while the lives of Marylanders unravel in real time as a result of White House decision-making.“
Moore said he hopes to partner with the General Assembly in the new year.
Del. Jason Buckel, a Republican representing Allegany County, wanted Moore’s veto to stand. He said the “stain of slavery is gone” because people have changed their perspectives and also changed the law to prohibit discrimination.
“We have already changed the perspective of this country,” he said.
Slavery and discrimination have been recognized as “evil” in past state studies. He said he agreed with Moore that he didn’t need another one to tell him that.
Baltimore County Democratic Sen. Charles Sydnor rose ahead of his chamber’s vote to reject the executive’s veto. He quoted Moore’s comments in a recent podcast.
The governor told the “Higher Learning” podcast earlier this month that reparations were “something I don’t need to study” and called the commission the bill would have created a “paternalistic” structure to do the government’s work.
If there was “paternalism” involved, Sydnor said, it was not the legislature asking for a study but “the notion that one person — no matter how well-intentioned — can decide that the people of Maryland do not deserve a structured, open examination of how centuries of state-sanctioned racial harm continue to shape disparities today."
The bill to study the lingering harms of slavery and state-sanctioned discrimination became a friction point between Moore and the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland. Their final proposal was the culmination of a year’s worth of planning, which according to lawmakers, had been communicated to Moore and his team.
But as the vote neared, lawmakers learned Moore had crafted his own reparations plan in the form of an executive order. According to lawmakers who read the draft, Moore’s order was similar to what was included in lawmakers’ bill.
The governor’s veto prompted an immediate call to overturn his decision the next time the legislature convened.
Today’s vote marked closure for lawmakers, said Del. Jeffrie Long, a Democrat representing Calvert and Prince George’s counties.
“Now we can work together with our governor to move forward and address the needs of every neighborhood,” he said.
Lead House sponsor Del. Aletheia McCaskill of Baltimore County said she felt like a “ton of bricks” had been lifted off her shoulder. The Democrat said she’s received threats and lost relationships since proposing the bill earlier this year.
“I never said I wanted to carry reparations, but in leadership duty calls,” she said.
Moore, a rising star among Democratic leaders and often included as a potential 2028 presidential contender, said his decision had nothing to do with testing political winds on a divisive political issue but that he had a “fundamental disagreement” with lawmakers about whether a study was needed.
Maryland’s first, and currently the nation’s only, Black governor said he and his family have experienced firsthand the generational harms inflicted by the country’s history of slavery and Jim Crow laws.
His administration has already plowed ahead, he said. Included on the governor’s list is his record-setting blanket pardon of more than 180,000 misdemeanor cannabis possession convictions, creating pathways for minority-owned businesses to win state contracts, and a state program giving competitive advantage on grants and loans to historically Black and disenfranchised communities.
Moore traveled to a historic Black church on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to announce those decisions on Junteenth, a national holiday celebrating the end of slavery.
Moore told the audience packed into Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church: “The work of repair doesn’t require more analysis.”
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