Legislative · State · MD
Maryland House Resolution Would Apologize for State's Role in Racial Terror Lynchings, Hearing Scheduled
- Direction
- +1 — benefit to freedmen
- Force
- 1.00 — enacted, vetoed, or final
- Status
- Developing
- Date
- 2026-03-11
Why this rating
The resolution targets descendants of enslaved persons who were victims of racial terror lynching in Maryland, a lineage-specific historical harm. However, as of the material provided, the measure is only at the committee/hearing stage (first reading 2/6/2026, hearing scheduled 3/16) with no floor vote, passage, or enactment. It is a joint resolution rather than a funded or force-of-law program: it commits to 'reparative actions as recommended by' the Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission but does not itself enact, fund, or specify those actions. Per the rubric, a bill still in committee/hearing stage without passage caps at 0 regardless of ultimate significance if enacted.
Summary
Maryland House Joint Resolution 8 (HJ8), introduced by Del. Jennifer White Holland and more than two dozen co-sponsors, would have the state issue an apology and acknowledge Maryland's 'complicity and negligence in allowing the perpetration of acts of racial terror lynching.' The resolution commits the state to taking reparative actions as recommended by the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Sources
- Apology and Acknowledgement of the State's Responsibility in Racial Terror Lynchings — bill text · primary · legiscan
Rated under the published impact rubric. Direction records what a measure would do if fully effective; force records how far it has actually travelled. Neither is inferred — both trace to the sources above. Think something here is wrong? Tell us and we will log the correction.