On Juneteenth, Wes Moore Wants To Focus On The ‘Work Of Repair’ For Black Americans

The governor of Maryland in May vetoed a bill aimed at studying the impacts of slavery and potential reparations for Black descendants of enslaved people.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is pushing back against critics of his decision to veto a reparations bill that would have created a commission to study the impacts of slavery and potential reparations for Black descendants of enslaved people.

“There’s been a whole collection of scholarships that’s been done on this. If you look at the legislation that was passed, and again, it was important work, but if you look [at it], it’s basically saying that they’re going to take two years to be able to present recommendations to the governor,” Moore, the nation’s sole sitting Black governor, said in a phone interview. Moore vetoed the reparations bill in May.

“My point is this — I am the governor, and I don’t need two years. I’m ready to act now.”

Moore announced Thursday that his administration is taking steps toward what he believes is tangible policy aimed at closing the racial wealth gap — pardoning over 6,000 cases of simple cannabis possession and investing in disenfranchised communities that have been disproportionately impacted by decades of racist policies like redlining, mass incarceration and highway construction in majority Black neighborhoods through the new Just Communities initiative.

Over 400 neighborhoods will receive the Just Communities designation, with the majority located in Maryland’s predominantly Black regions of Baltimore City and Prince George’s County. These communities will receive priority consideration for state funding.