Local religious groups denounce Lt. Gov. Beckwith’s recent Three-Fifths Compromise comments

INDIANAPOLIS — Local religious groups are denouncing recent comments by Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith surrounding his belief that the Three-Fifths Compromise was “a great move.”

In a video posted to his official social media earlier this month, Beckwith reacted to the Indiana Senate’s passage of Senate Bill 289 on Wednesday, a bill surrounding unlawful discrimination. The bill eliminates diversity initiatives and prevents state-funded entities from hiring and firing based on someone’s personal characteristics.

This bill is similar to an executive order signed by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun earlier this year. According to previous reports, Braun’s order removed diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives from state government, replacing those with merit, excellence and innovation, or MEI, initiatives.

In the debate surrounding Senate Bill 289, Indiana State Senator La Keisha Jackson, a Democrat from Indianapolis, said that this bill was “a slap in the face” to Hoosiers.

“Last I checked, this body represents all Hoosiers,” she said. “Not three-fifths. Not a ratified body. Not again ratified in 1870. And not when we want to selectively say ‘minorities.'”

Jackson was referencing the Three-Fifths Compromise reached during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. According to officials from Harvard University’s Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership and the university’s Center for the History of Medicine at Countway Library, the compromise stated that three out of every five slaves were counted when determining a state’s total population for legislative representation and taxation.

In response to Jackson’s argument, Indiana State Senator Gary Byrne, a Republican from southern Indiana, said the compromise was not Black people were three-fifths of a person.

It’s not true,” he said. “That’s not what that three-fifths was ever about.”

On his official lieutenant governor social media account, Beckwith’s comments surrounding Senate Bill 289 and the Three-Fifths Compromise mirrored Byrne’s. Calling the compromise “historic,” Beckwith said that the compromise was not a pro-discrimination compromise or a slave-driving compromise.

Beckwith said at the time, the southern states were attempting to use Black people’s votes to have more representation in the U.S. Congress. Beckwith said the northern states were not going to do that “because they knew that that would codify things like slavery into our nation.”

Beckwith said this caused the parties to reach the Three-Fifths compromise.

“The north stood up to the south,” Beckwith said. “…This was a great move by the North to make sure that slavery would be eradicated in our nation. They knew what they were doing.”

In his remarks on social media, Beckwith said that the Indiana Senate Democrats did not understand the purpose of the Three-Fifths Compromise, stating that the compromise was designed to make sure that justice was equal for all people.

“They think the Three-Fifths Compromise was… a scourge on Black people,” he said. “That’s not what it was. How did we get to this place? We got to this place because of DEI in education. We got to this place because you have professors at woke schools that will not teach the history of what actually happened in the foundations of our nation.”

On his personal social media account on Sunday evening, Beckwith further commented on the Three-Fifths Compromise, stating that “the Left is LOSING their minds because (he) dared to speak the truth” about the country’s history.

“As your Lieutenant Governor, I won’t stand by while radical Democrats weaponize DEI lies and woke revisionist garbage to tear America apart,” Beckwith said on Sunday. “I explained the REAL meaning behind the Three-Fifths Compromise — how our founders took bold steps to LIMIT the power of slave states and set the stage for slavery’s ultimate destruction. But the woke mob doesn’t want you to know that. The fact that my video has generated so much backlash just PROVES that our education system has been corrupted by the woke mind virus. They don’t want educated citizens — they want indoctrinated activists. We’re taking our country back with TRUTH.”

In response to Beckwith’s remarks, the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, along with officials with the Indiana Chapter of the National Action Network and the Baptist Ministers’ Alliance denounced his remarks, stating that his language was “an affront to human dignity and an echo of a racist ideology that sought to legitimize the inhuman treatment of Black people in America.”

“Let us be clear: the Three-Fifths Compromise was never about compromise; it was about control,” officials said in a news release surrounding Beckwith’s comments. “It was about counting enslaved African bodies for political power while denying them humanity, freedom and rights. To call this a “great move” is not only historically inaccurate but morally repugnant.

“The Lt. Governor’s comments dishonor the memory of those who were enslaved, disrespect the struggle of generations who fought for civil rights and display a dangerous disregard for the continuing racial disparities that still plague our state and nation,” the statement continued. “These words are beneath the dignity of Indiana’s second-highest elected office, and they are unacceptable.”

The groups called on Braun to denounce Beckwith’s remarks and “mandate a full and formal retraction” from Beckwith. The release said that Braun should also affirm the state’s commitment to accurate historical education, racial reconciliation and “the full humanity of all its citizens.”

“The words of Lt. Governor Beckwith matter — and they must be answered with truth, accountability and action,” the release said. “We will not allow historical revisionism to justify past oppression or present ignorance. We will not stand by while the pain of our ancestors is dismissed in the halls of power. Indiana must do better. It begins with setting the record straight.”

According to the Indiana General Assembly’s website, this bill was signed by the Speaker of the House on Friday.