By LaKeshia N. Myers
Dr. LaKeshia N. Myers
When Maryland’s Wes Moore became governor, Black folks across the nation celebrated. Here was a Black man who understood the struggle, who had walked in our shoes, who would surely be an ally in the fight for justice. But this month, Governor Moore showed us that being Black doesn’t automatically make you an advocate for Black liberation. His veto of a bill that would have required the state of Maryland to define the economic harms of chattel slavery and recommend remedies, dealt a blow to reparations supporters who counted on the nation’s only Black governor to be an ally.
To be clear, this wasn’t radical legislation demanding immediate cash payments. This was a study bill – a modest first step to examine the damage done by centuries of slavery and discrimination in Maryland. The legislation would have launched a two-year examination into whether the state should provide reparations to Black Marylanders. Instead, Moore’s veto has raised eyebrows among Black leaders in Baltimore and beyond, and rightfully so.
While Maryland’s governor was busy disappointing his own people, other states have been moving forward with courage and conviction. California has led the charge, establishing a reparations task force that issued its comprehensive report in 2023. In 2024, California issued a formal apology for its role in slavery and implemented a budget that included $12 million for its reparations bill. Illinois has also passed similar measures, proving that progress is possible when leaders have the political will to act.
At the federal level, HR 40 – the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act – continues to gain momentum in Congress. The bill establishes a commission to examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present, providing the blueprint that states like Maryland could follow. A study bill is especially important in the state of Maryland, as it was one of the original thirteen colonies. Established as a haven for English Catholics, slavery in Maryland lasted over 200 years, from its beginnings in 1642 when the first Africans were brought as slaves to St. Mary’s City, to its end after the Civil War.
The work of organizations like N’COBRA (the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America) has been instrumental in keeping this issue alive. Since 1987, N’COBRA has advocated for reparations compensation to be in the form of community rehabilitation and not payments to individual descendants of slavery. Their vision of “full repair” goes beyond individual checks to encompass comprehensive community investment and systemic change.
This isn’t about handouts – it’s about justice. America has a clear precedent for paying reparations to groups it has wronged. Japanese Americans received reparations for their internment during World War II through the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided $20,000 to each survivor and a formal apology. Native American tribes have received land and monetary settlements for broken treaties and stolen territory. From 1945 to 2018, the German government paid approximately $86.8 billion in restitution and compensation to Holocaust victims and their heirs. Even American