A lawmaker in Florida wants to make sure no government money goes to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves. On Monday, Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, filed a proposed constitutional amendment to avoid the possibility.
Then, it specifies no government would be allowed to “pay compensation in the form of reparations to an individual who is a descendant of an enslaved individual who lived in the United States before December 6, 1865.” That’s the date of the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which formally ended slavery in America, Fox Baltimore reports. Florida is a former Confederate state and it allowed slavery before the Civil War. The proposal will be considered during the 2024 legislative session, which will start in January, and it’ll need to be approved by 60% of each house before going to voters. The plan is to put it on the November 2024 ballot, which is also the presidential election.
Florida lawmakers will also be considering a bill called the “Historical Monuments and Memorials Protection Act,” which would require “public display of a specified statue,” including those honoring Confederates and specifying one Confederate general who escaped to Mexico and Cuba to avoid arrest for treason. Sen. Ingoglia is a former chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Last year, he tried to legally kill the state Democratic Party with “The Ultimate Cancel Act” by “requiring the Division of Elections to immediately cancel the filings of a political party if certain conditions exist.” Among those conditions: “If the party’s platform has previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.” The possibility of reparations to descendants of slaves has been under consideration in some parts of the country, such as California, but not in Florida.