Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland has vetoed legislation that sought to make recommendations on how to remedy the harms caused by slavery and racial discrimination, a notable setback in the movement for reparations delivered by the nation’s only sitting Black governor.
The move on Friday sets Mr. Moore apart from other Democratic governors who have approved similar measures in recent years and comes as the party grapples with the role that identity politics played in its widespread electoral losses last year.
The bill would have created a commission to research how many Maryland residents have ancestors who were enslaved in the state and recommend reparations that could have included formal apologies, monetary compensation, property tax rebates, college tuition waivers or assistance buying a home, among other possibilities.
Calling it a “difficult decision,” Mr. Moore said he vetoed the bill because the state had sufficiently studied the legacy of slavery.
“The scholarship on this topic is both vast in scope and robust in scale,” he wrote in a veto message.
“While I appreciate the work that went into this legislation, I strongly believe now is not the time for another study. Now is the time for continued action that delivers results for the people we serve.”
Mr. Moore said he wanted to work toward eliminating racial disparities in areas such as wealth, homeownership, education and food security, and would introduce legislation next year to address “barriers that have walled off Black families in Maryland.” In an interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Moore also said he was prioritizing legislation to help the state adjust to federal funding cuts by the Trump administration.
The bill was a priority for the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, which issued a scathing statement after the veto noting that their statehouse is “less than a mile from the Annapolis City Dock — one of the nation’s earliest and most high-traffic ports of enslavement.”
“At a time when the White House and Congress are actively targeting Black communities, dismantling diversity initiatives and using harmful coded language, Governor Moore had a chance to show the country and the world that here in Maryland we boldly and courageously recognize our painful history and the urgent need to address it,” the statement said.
“Instead, the state’s first Black governor chose to block this historic legislation that would have moved the state toward directly repairing the harm of enslavement.”
The bill had been passed by an overwhelming majority, and the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland hinted that it might override Mr. Moore’s veto, saying that “the legislature will have the final say.”
The legislation was modeled after similar measures in California and Illinois, which were signed into law amid the wave of racial justice activism that swept the nation after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd in 2020. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill in 2023 that made New York the third state to study reparations.
Like Mr. Moore, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois are also considered potential presidential candidates in 2028, which could make their support for reparations measures a point of debate in the potential field of Democratic contenders.
Polling shows that Americans generally oppose the idea of reparations, though views diverge among racial groups. In a Pew Research Center survey in 2021, 68 percent of Americans said that the descendants of people enslaved in the United States should not be repaid in some way, a feeling overwhelmingly held by those who were white, Asian or Hispanic. Among Black Americans, though, 77 percent said they supported reparations. In California, 59 percent of voters opposed cash reparations in a 2023 poll by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
California’s reparations effort has rolled out gradually and been rocked by numerous internal conflicts among Democrats. A commission created by the 2020 law produced a study that calculated reparations for health disparities, housing discrimination, mass incarceration and other damaging impacts that flowed from slavery. It deemed that an older Black Californian would be eligible for $1.2 million in reparations — a figure that applied statewide would amount to hundreds of billions of dollars, more than the state’s entire budget.
The California Legislature has never taken up a bill to consider cash reparations, instead embracing other recommendations that cost far less. Last year, it passed a bill issuing a formal apology for the state’s complicit role in slavery and other policies to improve nutrition and career training.
Laurel Rosenhall is a Sacramento-based reporter covering California politics and government for The Times.
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