He’s walking more than a thousand miles. She’s logging tens of hours. They’re on parallel paths for the same purpose. Righting the historical wrongs against African Americans.
Although they met for the first time for our interview, Rev. Dr. Robert Turner and state Del. Aletheia McCaskill (44-B, Baltimore County) are much alike in their passion and their work to move the needle on reparations. Last week, we showed you Rev. Turner’s monthly journey from Baltimore to D.C. For two years, he’s been making the trek to urge national action.
Del. McCaskill is pushing for reparations in Maryland, a state that once held over 150,000 slaves of African descent.
“There are still today many discriminatory practices in the state of Maryland,” McCaskill says. “A lot of it goes back to slavery. From the educational system, whether it is the redlining of the housing system, redlining of businesses, we need to correct it.”
While she is as an elected official, this effort is very personal.
“Other folks have had a leg up,” she says, “and literally, we have a had the leg on, if you will. So I would like to make sure that we are healed as a community.”