From MarylandMatters.org:
Del. Wanika Fisher (D-Prince George's) is sponsoring a bill this session that would look into the possibility of distributing reparations — financial compensation for the descendants of enslaved Africans. She believes such legislation could get to the root of a lot of the state’s inequities.
“It’s my first term in office, and a lot of the issues that we talk about — whether it’s Kirwan [education reform], whether it’s criminal justice reform — sometimes it can just seem like symptoms of the real illness, which is systematic racism and injustice and slavery,” Fisher said.
The legislation, if enacted, would create the Maryland Reparations Commission, comprised of a group of governor-designated appointees, the state archivist and representatives from organizations like the Maryland Historical Society and the NAACP, among others.
The bill would mandate that a fund be created by the state and its institutions that have benefited from the labor of enslaved Africans to compensate modern-day Marylanders upon the receipt of an application that supplies adequate proof that they are the descendants of Maryland-based slaves.
Click here to read more of Hannah Gaskill's account of Fisher's legislation and the support she's trying to build for it.
Del. Wanika Fisher (D-Prince George's) is sponsoring a bill this session that would look into the possibility of distributing reparations — financial compensation for the descendants of enslaved Africans. She believes such legislation could get to the root of a lot of the state’s inequities.
“It’s my first term in office, and a lot of the issues that we talk about — whether it’s Kirwan [education reform], whether it’s criminal justice reform — sometimes it can just seem like symptoms of the real illness, which is systematic racism and injustice and slavery,” Fisher said.
The legislation, if enacted, would create the Maryland Reparations Commission, comprised of a group of governor-designated appointees, the state archivist and representatives from organizations like the Maryland Historical Society and the NAACP, among others.
The bill would mandate that a fund be created by the state and its institutions that have benefited from the labor of enslaved Africans to compensate modern-day Marylanders upon the receipt of an application that supplies adequate proof that they are the descendants of Maryland-based slaves.
Click here to read more of Hannah Gaskill's account of Fisher's legislation and the support she's trying to build for it.
