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★Reparations Station
Maryland flag, cropped: gold-and-black and red-and-white quadrants

Maryland

Commission Created Dec 2025
Members Still Being Named
★ Official Record
Commission Page
★ The Bill
SB 587
★ The 2026 Changes
Chapter 6 (Budget Act)
★ Take Action
Write the Leaders

Maryland's General Assembly created a state Reparations Commission in 2025 over the objections of its own governor. Wes Moore, the nation's only sitting Black governor, vetoed the bill in May, saying the time for another study had passed. In a special session on December 16, lawmakers overrode him, 31–14 in the Senate and 93–35 in the House.

The commission has not yet met. Its members are still being named, the budget bill rewrote its structure and pushed its reports back to 2028, and no money for payments exists. This page is the record, and the way to reach the three leaders still filling its seats.

★ Chapter 9, 2025 Special Session
The Commission
How It Was Created
Senate Bill 587, sponsored by Sen. C. Anthony Muse, passed in April 2025 as a top Legislative Black Caucus priority. Moore vetoed it on May 16. The December 16 override cleared the three-fifths threshold in both chambers. Del. Alethia McCaskill led the House effort.
What It Studies
Federal, state, and local policies from 1877 to 1965, the post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, and how public and private institutions benefited from discrimination. It also examines the history of slavery in Maryland and how many people descend from those enslaved in the state.
What It Must Recommend
Which benefits are appropriate: an apology, monetary compensation, property tax rebates, down-payment help, business incentives, child care, debt forgiveness, and tuition waivers. It must also propose procedures for proving lineage, eligibility rules, an application process, cost estimates, and funding sources, including fees on businesses that benefited from slavery or discriminatory policy.
★ As of September 14, 2026
Who Sits on It, and When It Reports
Membership
Twenty-eight volunteers after the 2026 changes: six named by the Governor, five each by the Senate President and the House Speaker, one jointly, appointees of the Legislative Black Caucus and of history, business, and real estate groups, and three officials by law (the Comptroller, the Treasurer, and the State Archivist). The commission chooses its own chair.
Still Vacant
All five of the Senate President's seats, two of the Speaker's, and one of the Governor's. The Governor's office says the sixth appointee could come within weeks. The State Archives staffs the commission.
Deadlines
Preliminary report September 1, 2028. Final report December 1, 2028. The commission's authorization ends June 30, 2029. The original bill set January 1, 2027 and November 1, 2027.
★ Introduced Feb 12, 2026
The Funding Bill That Stalled
HB 1271
Del. Ruff's bill would have created a Maryland Reparations Board and a Reparations Fund, paid for by a 4% excise tax on private colleges and universities with endowments of $2 billion or more. It was heard on March 11, 2026, drew opposition from the state's independent colleges, and advanced no further.
Money Today
The original commission bill set aside $56,000. There is no fund and no payment program. Any funding would come only after the commission reports and the Legislature acts.
★ A Separate Report
The Lynching Commission
What It Found
The Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created in 2019, documented state complicity in 38 lynchings between 1854 and 1933 after 14 public hearings. Its final report was reported in early January 2026.
What It Recommends
Eighty-four recommendations, including $100,000 for each surviving descendant of a lynching victim and $10,000 for descendants of people who lived in communities terrorized by lynchings. A representative of that commission sits on the new Reparations Commission.
Outside Government
The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland runs its own reparations grant cycle, which it restricted in 2026 to exclude past recipients.
★ Take Action
Tell Maryland
Where We Stand

The commission is about to begin, and it is not full. The Senate President has named none of his five members, the Speaker has two seats open, and the Governor one. What these leaders hear now shapes who sits on the commission and what it is asked to weigh. Send the letter.

★ Letter in Preparation
The council is finalizing the text of the letter. Check back shortly — or use the contacts below to write in your own words now. A message you wrote yourself carries more weight than a form letter, and it carries it today.
Subject Line
Open in Email App
★ Add a sentence in your own words before you send — offices weigh identical messages as one.
★ The letter goes by email to the Senate President and to the commission's staff at the State Archives. The Speaker and the Governor are best reached by phone or their contact pages, below.

Not sure who your own legislators are? Find your delegates and senator. They vote on whatever the commission eventually recommends.

★ Who Fills the Commission

The Senate President, the House Speaker, and the Governor name most of the members. Ferguson has filled none of his five seats, and the Speaker has named three of her five.

★ Commission correspondence · c/o Maryland State Archives, 350 Rowe Blvd., Annapolis, MD 21401
★ The Public Record
Bills, laws & coverage
The bills, enacted laws, and fiscal analyses behind the commission, and the reporting that tracks its appointments. The commission itself has not yet posted meetings.
Ongoing
Maryland Manual — commission membership, duties, and deadlines
Commission Page →
2025
SB 587 — Maryland Reparations Commission
Bill Page → Law, Ch. 9 →
May 2025
Governor's veto letter
Veto Letter →
February 2026
SB 476 — Muse revisions to the commission (withdrawn)
Bill Text →
2026
SB 284 — Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, which changed the commission
Law, Ch. 6 →
February 2026
HB 1271 — Reparations Board, Fund, and endowment excise tax
Bill Page → Text → Fiscal Note →
December 16, 2025
Maryland Matters — the veto override
Story →
September 14, 2026
Maryland Matters — appointments finally being named
Story →
January 2026
Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission — final report
Daily Record → The BayNet →
★ Maryland — Running Timeline
Upcoming, then newest first
★ Take Action
Open Now
Write the Leaders Who Fill the Seats
The Senate President has five seats to fill, the Speaker two, and the Governor one. The commission cannot elect its chair or do its work until enough seats are filled. Tell them who you want at the table and what the commission should weigh, including how lineage is proven.
Send the letter →
Date Not Yet Announced
Commission Convenes
Del. McCaskill said the commission will meet to begin its work. No first-meeting date had been announced as of mid-September. The State Archives is staffing it.
Source: Maryland Matters →
September 1, 2028
Preliminary Report Due
The commission's first report to the Governor and General Assembly. The original bill set this for January 1, 2027, before the 2026 budget bill moved it back.
Source: Maryland Manual →
December 1, 2028
Final Report Due
Findings and recommendations, including any eligibility rules, cost estimates, and funding sources. The commission's authorization ends June 30, 2029. Nothing binds the Legislature to act on it.
Source: Maryland Manual →
★ Past Events
September 9, 2026
Governor Names Five of Six Appointees
The Governor's Office of Appointments released its list, including the Rev. Robert Turner of Baltimore, who had testified for the bill. The sixth appointee was expected within weeks. The Speaker had named three of her five members, and the Senate President none of his five.
Source: Maryland Matters →
July 2026
Budget Law Rewrites the Commission
Chapter 6 of the 2026 Acts, the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, changed the commission's membership, meeting rules, and reporting dates. It now has 28 members, with more appointments for the Senate President and Speaker; reports are due in 2028; and authorization runs to June 30, 2029. The changes moved through the budget bill after Muse's standalone bill was withdrawn, and critics say lawmakers never voted on them separately. Supporters point to the months lost to the veto.
Source: Maryland Bay News →
March 2026
HB 1271 Heard; SB 476 Withdrawn
A House committee heard the endowment-tax funding bill on March 11 and did not advance it. Muse's SB 476, which would have moved two appointments from the Governor to legislative leaders, added members, and pushed the reports back, was postponed for a March 12 hearing and then withdrawn about March 16. McCaskill said the commission would proceed on its original $56,000.
Source: Maryland Matters →
February 2, 2026
Muse Introduces SB 476
The bill proposed to take two commission appointments from the Governor, give legislative leaders more, add a seat for the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, and delay both reports. It was the first legislative move on the commission after the override.
Source: Maryland Matters →
Early January 2026
Lynching Commission Report Recommends Payments
The Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report documented 38 lynchings and 84 recommendations, including $100,000 for each descendant of a victim. The report raised the stakes for the Reparations Commission that had just been created.
Source: The Daily Record →
December 16, 2025
Legislature Overrides the Veto
In a one-day special session, the Senate voted 31–14 and the House 93–35 to override, exceeding the three-fifths threshold. Moore said afterward that he was eager to move forward in partnership on repair.
Source: Maryland Matters →
May 16, 2025
Governor Vetoes SB 587
Moore said "now is not the time for another study" and pointed to homeownership and business programs already in place. He has said Maryland already produced several studies over two decades. Lawmakers who had passed the bill called the veto a setback, not the end.
Source: Maryland Matters →
April 2025
General Assembly Passes the Commission Bill
The House rejected Republican amendments and gave final approval to Sen. Muse's SB 587 by a wide margin. The House companion, HB 1422 from Del. McCaskill, did not advance out of committee. Maryland became one of few states with a statewide body to study reparations.
Source: Maryland Matters →
★ Note

Nothing in Maryland has been paid, promised, or funded. The commission can only recommend. Whether any of it becomes law is a separate vote by the General Assembly and a decision by the Governor, who has already said he prefers action to study.

Reporting on the commission does not always agree. Coverage as recent as mid-September described a 23-member body with 2027 deadlines, which was the bill as first passed. The State Archives' Maryland Manual, the official record, lists 28 members and 2028 reports under the 2026 budget law. This page follows the Manual.

Who qualifies is the open question. The commission must recommend how lineage would be proven and who is eligible. Some Maryland advocates want any benefit limited to descendants of enslaved people. Others argue that Black Marylanders who lived under the same segregation should be included. The commission's answer will shape everything downstream.

★ Sources & Further Reading