Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland supports racial reparations as a policy but criticized the bill as creating a bureaucracy rather than "continued action." (Getty)
Seen as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful, Moore said he will always defend the history of African Americans in Maryland and focus on narrowing the "racial wealth gap," increasing minority homeownership and "closing foundational disparities."
Maryland itself has a mixed history when it comes to slavery, the Civil War and the treatment of African Americans.
The state hosts the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, connecting important towns and sites on the Eastern Shore and into Delaware, where Tubman, her aligned families and groups aided runaway slaves on their way to the relative safety of the North.
Its position as an often South-friendly state just north of Washington, D.C., also complicated its position during the Civil War. John Wilkes Booth, the actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, hailed from Bel Air, and his escape from Washington after the assassination led him through Confederate-friendly southern Maryland before crossing the Potomac into Virginia.
Dr. Samuel Mudd, the physician who abetted Booth and his colleagues after Lincoln’s murder, housed them at his property near Leonardtown.
Booth felt uncomfortable enough, however, in postwar Maryland that he fled to Virginia -- where he was eventually surrounded and killed by U.S. Marshals at a barn whose foundation now sits unmarked in the middle of the U.S. 301 parkway through Fort A.P. Hill’s grounds.
Maryland’s legislative Black Caucus also released a statement Friday expressing their disappointment with Moore’s veto.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"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."
"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 Associated Press contributed to this report.
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/black-democratic-governor-vetoes-reparations-legislation