By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
During the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session, members of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland (LBCMD) led an effort to establish a reparations commission in Maryland to address the harms of the enslavement of African Americans in the state. On April 2, the LBCMD succeeded.
“This is the first time that we have formally come together and made a call for reparations in the state of Maryland,” said LBCMD Chair Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Md.-20) in a recent press conference. “We do events all across the state and one of the themes has always been, from Black Marylanders, that it is past time for Maryland to address the issue of reparations.”
Senate Bill 587, “Maryland Reparations Commission,” if fully enacted, will create a commission to study and propose various recommendations on how Maryland can set right the harms of the enslavement of African Americans and what types of reparations would be appropriate. Reports of the commission’s findings and recommendations would not be expected until 2027.
Senate Bill 587 was passed in the House by a 101-36 vote. The bill is now on its way to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
The bill was cross-filed in both the Senate and the House to help ensure it would be passed before the end of the session on April 7. Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Md.-26) was lead sponsor for the Senate version, Senate Bill 587, while Del. Alethia McCaskill (D-Md.-44B) headed the House version, House Bill 1422. However, her version of the legislation did not pass out of the Health and Government Operations Committee.
Though the initiative passed, it faced last-minute opposition through several proposed amendments from Republican legislators in the House that failed.
“All the amendment would do is limit the ability of the commission to recommend relief to people who are Maryland residents,” said House Minority Leader Del. Jason Buckel (R-Md.-1B). “As much as we would like to, we cannot remedy the entire problem of the United States of America.”
Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Md.-21) urged legislators to resist the amendment as eligibility requirements are already written into the bill for the commission to consider and to ensure the commission’s work is not limited.
Buckel’s amendments ultimately failed. Del. Lauren Arikan’s (R-Md.-7B) proposed amendment to have the commission study reparations for people who were sexually abused as youth “while in the care and custody of the State” also failed.
“Before enslavement, people of Africa had highly functional societies, where we had our own judicial systems, food distribution systems transportation. We controlled the life-preserving institutions that governed our lives,” said Dayvon Love, director of public policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, who supported the bill. “People of African descent in this society occupy a station where we are reliant on the benevolence of White folks and people outside of our community.”
The commission would include two senators, two delegates, the Maryland comptroller, the state treasurer, the state archivist and several others.
Despite rollbacks and other reductions from the 47th president’s administration regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion, legislators forged forward, believing this was the year this initiative would be passed.
“Our issues don’t give us the luxury of waiting until we have somebody sympathetic to our issues in office,” said the Rev. Dr. Robert Turner, pastor of Empowerment Temple A.M.E. Church. “We have to fight. Whoever’s in office, we still need to make sure Maryland does right by her citizens.”