Maryland lawmakers approve measure to study reparations for slavery

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland lawmakers voted Wednesday to create a commission to study and recommend potential reparations for slavery and the lingering effects of racial discrimination in the state.

The 101-36 vote in the Maryland House sends the bill to Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who says he will consider the legislation.

Potential reparations outlined in the bill include official statements of apology, monetary compensation, property tax rebates, social service assistance, as well as licensing and permit fee waivers and reimbursement. Reparations also could include assistance with making a down payment on a home, business incentives, child care, debt forgiveness, and tuition payment waivers for higher education.

The measure was a top priority of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, which has 66 members and is the largest Black caucus in the nation's state legislatures.

“The commission will carefully examine and evaluate a range of reparations proposals that will not only consider financial restitution, but will also explore strategies to support and uplift vulnerable communities that continue to suffer the lingering and evasive effects of discriminatory practices rooted in systematic racism,” Del. Aletheia McCaskill, a Baltimore County Democrat, said when the caucus outlined its priorities for the legislative session in January.

Moore, who is the state's first Black governor and nation's only Black governor currently in office, has declined to say whether he will sign the measure, noting the lingering impact of racism while also acknowledging the state's difficult budget conditions.

“I have said and long stated that the history of racism in this state is real,” the governor told reporters, adding that the impacts "are still very much being felt and they’ve been structurally felt within the state of Maryland.”

Moore also noted the state's fiscal constraints in a tough budget year, saying he's viewing legislation through the lens of growing Maryland's economy, making the state more business-friendly and investing in the state's people.

Last year, California lawmakers passed some of the nation’s most ambitious legislation aimed at atoning for a legacy of racist policies that drove racial disparities for Black people. None of the bills provided widespread direct payments to Black Americans. Instead, California lawmakers approved the return of land or compensation to families whose property was unjustly seized by the government, and issuing a formal apology.

New York City lawmakers approved legislation last year to study the city’s significant role in slavery and consider reparations to descendants of enslaved people.

Maryland Del. Aletheia McCaskill, a Democrat, speaks about a bill to create a state commission to study potential reparations for slavery during a news conference with members of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, Jan. 16, 2025, in Annapolis, Md. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

The Taliban’s morality police have detained men and their barbers over hairstyles, and others for missing prayers at mosques during Ramadan, a U.N. report said Thursday, 6 months after laws regulating people’s conduct came into effect.

The Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws last August covering many aspects everyday life in Afghanistan, including public transport, music, shaving and celebrations. Most notably, the ministry issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public.

That same month, a top U.N. official warned the laws provided a “distressing vision” for the country’s future by adding to existing employment, education, and dress code restrictions on women and girls. Taliban officials have rejected U.N. concerns about the morality laws.

Thursday’s report, from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, said in the first 6 months of the laws’ implementation, over half of detentions made under it concerned “either men not having the compliant beard length or hairstyle, or barbers providing non-compliant beard trimming or haircuts.”

The report said that the morality police regularly detained people arbitrarily "without due process and legal protections.”

During the holy fasting month of Ramadan, men’s attendance at mandated congregational prayers was closely monitored, leading at times to arbitrary detention of those who didn't show up, the report added.

The U.N. mission said that both sexes were negatively affected, particularly people with small businesses such as private education centers, barbers and hairdressers, tailors, wedding caterers and restaurants, leading to a reduction or total loss of income and employment opportunities.

The direct and indirect socio-economic effects of the laws’ implementation were likely to compound Afghanistan’s dire economic situation, it said. A World Bank study has assessed that authorities’ ban on women from education and work could cost the country over $1.4 billion per year.

The Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has emphasized the primacy of Islamic law and the role of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue in reforming Afghan society and its people.

In a message issued ahead of the religious Eid Al-Fitr festival that marks the end of Ramadan, Akhundzada said it was necessary “to establish a society free from corruption and trials, and to prevent future generations from becoming victims of misguided beliefs, harmful practices and bad morals.”

More than 3,300 mostly male inspectors are tasked with informing people about the law and enforcing it, according to the report.

Nobody from the Vice and Virtue Ministry was immediately available for comment about the report.

FILE -An Afghan street barber man, left, trims the mustache of a customer, as snow is seen the back ground in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq, File)