Why might reparations arrive city by city before Congress ever acts? Dr. Raymond A. Winbush, director of Morgan State University’s Institute for Urban Research, joined Rev. Dr. Kevin Peterson on Reparations Nation to break down Baltimore reparations efforts now backed by an ongoing, dedicated funding stream, not a one-time grant.
Baltimore’s Cannabis-Funded Commission
Winbush, who serves as a commissioner representing Baltimore’s District 3, described a program that began with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, led by policy director Dayvon Love, pushing the Maryland legislature to direct cannabis tax revenue toward communities harmed by the war on drugs. The resulting Community Reinvestment and Reparations Fund now holds roughly $32 million in Baltimore alone, with 35 percent of statewide recreational cannabis tax revenue flowing in on an ongoing basis rather than as a single payout.
Winbush said Baltimore’s 16-member commission, with one representative per council district, deliberately studied other cities’ models, including Evanston, California, and Boston, before designing its own grant process. Applicants pitch projects in short, Shark Tank-style presentations tying their proposals directly to the legacy of enslavement and the war on drugs’ devastation of what was once one of the largest Black-owned business districts in the country.
The State-Level Fight Behind the Maryland Reparations Commission
Winbush also serves on Maryland’s statewide reparations commission, created after the legislature overrode Governor Wes Moore’s veto in December 2025 by a 93-35 House vote and a 31-14 Senate vote. Moore, the state’s first Black governor, had argued enough study had already occurred and the state should move straight to action; Winbush said he believes Moore privately supports reparations but didn’t want it tied to his political future.
The commission, chaired by Dayvon Love, must submit a preliminary report by January 1, 2027, and a final report by November 1, 2027, building directly on Maryland’s completed Truth and Lynching Commission, which documented historical lynching harms across the state before this reparations-specific work began.
Why Winbush Starts the Timeline in 1441, Not 1619
Winbush pushed back on starting the historical narrative in 1619, pointing instead to 1441, when Portuguese traders first kidnapped Africans from Madeira Island, nearly two centuries before the first enslaved Africans arrived in the English colonies. He argues that gap matters because it undercuts the idea that reparations claims rest on a comparatively recent historical event.
He connected that history to the United Nations’ March 25, 2026 resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade a crime against humanity, noting that European nations abstained from the vote entirely while the United States, Israel, and Argentina voted against it outright.
“Torn From the Land”: Documenting a Century of Stolen Property
Winbush detailed his 2001 collaboration with the Associated Press, “Torn From the Land,” which collected over 200 firsthand accounts of Black families losing land through fraud, intimidation, and violence after Reconstruction. Black Americans owned roughly 15 million acres by the early 1900s; by the time of his research, that figure had fallen to about 2 million acres, with much of the loss traced to destroyed property deeds and courthouse arson intended to erase ownership records.
He said the study was later cited in congressional testimony on reparations, and remains available online alongside his broader body of work, including his edited volume Should America Pay and Belinda’s Petition, which traces reparations demands back to Belinda Royall’s 1783 petition to the Massachusetts legislature.
5 Key Takeaways
- Baltimore’s reparations fund grows continuously, not just once. It draws an ongoing share of cannabis tax revenue rather than depending on a single appropriated grant.
- Maryland’s state commission exists because lawmakers overrode a Black governor’s veto. Winbush believes Moore privately supports reparations but avoided the political exposure.
- Winbush dates the transatlantic slave trade’s start to 1441, not 1619. That earlier Portuguese kidnapping predates the English colonies by nearly two centuries.
- Black land ownership collapsed dramatically after Reconstruction. Winbush’s AP-backed research documented systemic fraud and violence behind that loss.
- Winbush believes reparations will arrive locally before nationally. He compares the strategy to the city-by-city legal groundwork that preceded Brown v. Board of Education.
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