Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said he’ll pardon thousands more people with cannabis convictions and prioritize funding for communities harmed by racist government policies, part of his effort to close the state’s racial wealth gap.

The Democrat made his announcement on Juneteenth, a federal holiday memorializing the end of slavery, at a Black church in Cambridge renowned as a meeting hub for civil rights activists in the 1960s.

Thursday’s announcement comes on the heels of Moore’s vetoing a bill that would have set up a commission to study reparations, angering allies in the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and setting up an override fight the next time lawmakers return to Annapolis.

“The work of repair doesn’t require more analysis,” Moore told an audience crammed shoulder to shoulder in the rows of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Moore, the nation’s only Black governor, said in an interview he vetoed the study because he wanted to act rather than creating another commission. A rising star among Democratic leaders and a name often uttered as a 2028 presidential candidate, Moore said his decision had nothing to do with testing political winds on a divisive political issue.

“I just have a fundamental disagreement with the General Assembly on how we get to a shared objective,” he said, “which is to right these historical wrongs.”

He’s also promised to work with lawmakers next year on a legislative package addressing economic disparities for Black residents. The Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland said it still intends to overturn Moore’s reparations veto.

Moore’s proposal Thursday was pulled from laws he approved during his first term, including one he championed.

A 2024 housing law required the governor and Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day to identify census tracts upturned and divested by racist government and private sector policies, such as redlining and replacing Black neighborhoods with highways, and identify state programs that could help repair harm.

More than 400 census tracts in well over half of Maryland’s jurisdictions will benefit from the special designation, called “Just Communities,” which will give them a competitive advantage over other applicants for grants and loans, according to administration officials.

An already-budgeted $400 million will boost existing programs to strengthen community infrastructure and keep people in their homes. Some of the programs help make homes more energy efficient, repair aging buildings, start small businesses and aid in paying housing costs.

Day said ensuring new laws and policies don’t perpetuate historic harms isn’t enough.

“It’s the intentional undoing of those things that I think will produce results,” Day said in an interview.

Baltimore City and Baltimore, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties had the highest number of tracts. The state will consider the designation every five years and parameters can shift depending on the executive in charge, Day said.

Moore will add more than 6,900 pardons for people convicted of simple cannabis possession to the 175,000 he waived last year, the largest in the nation. The Maryland Judiciary found thousands more cannabis convictions incorrectly coded while researching the original batch, according to the administration.

Moore made the announcement from the pulpit of the church in Dorchester County, the birthplace of formerly enslaved Marylander Harriet Tubman, who led dozens of enslaved people to freedom.

“Maryland is home to some of the most legendary Americans,” he said. “And Maryland is also home to some of the most racist laws in American history.”

Tackling generations of divestment, Moore said Wednesday, requires boosting “access and assets,” and he called the Just Communities program “one of the most aggressive actions in our state’s history” intended to “reverse decades of racist and discriminatory policies.”

This month, Moore launched a grant program to improve access to capital for small businesses in low- to moderate-income communities and a public-private partnership to lift appraised home values in divested neighborhoods.

Moore said all of these initiatives are included in his “work of repair.”

Override intentions

Moore’s reparations veto angered Black lawmakers and others seeking a thorough examination of harms caused in Maryland by slavery, subsequent systemic segregation, including Jim Crow laws, and the collusion of financial institutions and government to disadvantage people based on their race and where they lived. The commission would have considered amends — not necessarily financial — and made recommendations.

Del. Jamila Woods, a Democrat from Prince George’s County and executive member of the Legislative Black Caucus, said she agreed with Moore’s desire for urgency but that a reparations commission is also necessary.

The damages done by hundreds of years of slavery and segregationist policies took time to accumulate and they will take time to undo, she said.

“This commission will assure that every possible aspect of appropriate reparations is addressed,” she said after listening to Moore’s speech.

Woods is the fifth-generation great-niece of Araminta “Minty” Ross, also known as Harriet Tubman.

Del. Jheanelle Wilkins, chair of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, said in a statement Thursday the steps Moore announced were important but “do not replace the need for reparations.”

During an online panel discussion Tuesday, Black Caucus leaders and advocates reiterated the importance of overturning Moore’s veto. They said it’s critical for a commission to set a comprehensive policy road map, rather than adopting one-off policy changes.

Overturning the veto “is unapologetically the stance of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland,” said Wilkins, a Montgomery County Democrat. The bill passed both chambers by a large enough margin to overturn a veto.

Dayvon Love, director of public policy for the think tank Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, said Marylanders need to press their lawmakers to override the veto — even if they face blowback from the governor or others.

“It’s them having a backbone to stand up against the forces that will be leveraged against folks,” Love said.

The Rev. Robert R.A. Turner, senior pastor of Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore, said the veto override needs to be “action item No. 1 and 2, 3, 4 and 5” when lawmakers return to Annapolis.