Lawmakers renew push for reparations commission Moore vetoed.
Gov. Wes Moore plans to grant up to $400 million to Maryland communities harmed by decades of discriminatory government policies like redlining, urban renewal and mass incarceration, which have disproportionately hurt Black and Brown communities.
The governor’s Juneteenth announcement, which also included plans for more than 6,900 new cannabis-related pardons, has been accompanied by renewed calls from the legislature to establish a state reparations commission that Moore vetoed last month.
More than 400 census tracts will receive priority consideration for the grant funding, which the governor and his team set aside for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.
Baltimore city and Prince George’s, Baltimore and Montgomery counties have the highest number of census tracts that are expected to receive the priority designation, though 17 of the state’s 24 jurisdictions have areas that the administration has labeled “Just Communities.”
State officials are planning to target the grant funding to areas that have been altered by urban renewal or highway projects, high incarceration rates, exposure to environmental and health hazards, and racial segregation policies like redlining, according to the governor’s office.
“Maryland is home to some of the most legendary Americans, and Maryland is home to some of the most racist laws in American history,” the governor said in his prepared remarks. “Maryland is the birthplace of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, and Maryland is also the birthplace of redlining.”
Moore announced funding for the grant program, which passed into law in 2024, during a Juneteenth event at the historic Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Cambridge.
The governor also used Thursday’s event to sign an executive clemency order making more than 6,900 cases of cannabis possession eligible for pardon.
Last year, Moore issued about 175,000 pardons for more than 100,000 people with low-level cannabis use and possession convictions. Some people had multiple convictions.
He said in a phone interview at the time that the pardons, which he called the most sweeping state-level clemency act in U.S. history, were part of a thread of actions his administration has taken to shrink Maryland’s stark racial wealth gap and combat child poverty.
The additional 6,900 pardons weren’t included in the governor’s initial clemency order because of case coding errors, according to the governor’s office.
The announcements came about one month after Moore — the first Black governor of Maryland and currently the only Black governor in the country — vetoed a bill to create a commission to study potential slavery reparations in the state, saying at the time that, while it was a difficult decision, more research on an extensively studied issue would delay progress.
Critics of the decision have questioned whether Moore, widely considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, made the move to distance himself from a divisive issue that studies show most White voters oppose.
Moore alluded to his veto decision during his prepared remarks Thursday, saying that a “remarkable lineage of scholarship” on the issue already exists.
“The work of repair doesn’t require more analysis,” he said. “We cannot afford to simply ‘meet’ about the situation before us and delay progress.”
The state would have established a commission to evaluate a range of reparation proposals and consider financial restitution, as well as resources for communities that have been prevented from accumulating generational wealth and achieving economic stability because of discriminatory policies and practices.
Moore’s decision to strike the bill, which passed with a veto-proof majority, prompted swift backlash, led by members of the state’s powerful Legislative Black Caucus. The legislature’s presiding officers, House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson, have not yet indicated whether their respective chambers will move to override the governor’s decision.
In a prepared statement following the Juneteenth announcements, Legislative Black Caucus members praised the governor’s commitment to improving the lives of Black Marylanders and highlighted “unprecedented progress” made during his term.
The members, though, said that while the steps Moore announced Thursday are important, “they do not replace the need for reparations.
“As we celebrate Freedom Day and reflect on meaningful progress, we remain focused on our unfinished work — particularly the creation of the Maryland Reparations Commission,” caucus members said in their statement.
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