28-04-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
What Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith said about the Three-Fifths Compromise, how clergy responded
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The Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, a group founded as part of the Civil Rights Movement, is asking Gov. Mike Braun to condemn Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith 's statement that the Three-fifths Compromise was "a great move" as he argued that it worked against slavery rather than promoting it.
Here's what happened.
What was the Three-Fifths Compromise?
The 18th-century law counted an enslaved person as 60% of a free person. The agreement made during the 1787 Constitutional Convention counted an enslaved person as three-fifths of a person when measuring states' populations for taxation and congressional representation, giving the enslaved labor-reliant southern states more political power and requiring less in taxes of them than if the enslaved population were counted as full citizens.
The measure was rendered unconstitutional in 1868 by the 14th Amendment, which granted equal protection and due process to all American citizens.
What Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith said about the Three-Fifths Compromise
Beckwith posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, what he called a history lesson for Indiana's Senate Democrats.
"I would like to share with you, the Three-Fifths Compromise is not a pro-discrimination compromise. It was not a pro-discrimination or a slave-driving compromise that the founders made. It was actually just the opposite," Beckwith says in a video clip just under four minutes long.
The compromise gave slave states less representation than they would have had if slaves were counted as people, preventing the constitutional enshrinement of slavery, he argues.
He does not address the fact that the law increased slaveholding states' representation in U.S. Congress relative to their number of voters, making it difficult — if not impossible — to pass an amendment abolishing slavery.
Beckwith's statements came after an emotional debate over Senate Bill 289 on April 24. The bill curbs diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, allowing people to sue publicly-funded schools or government entities if they're required to undergo trainings that use a characteristic like race or sex to blame one group of people for actions in the past.
During the debate, opponents said the bill ignores the U.S.'s historical legacy of discrimination, citing examples such as the Three-Fifths Compromise, Jim Crow laws and real estate redlining.
Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis condemns Beckwith's Three-Fifths statement
In their statement condemning Beckwith's interpretation of history, members of the faith coalition demanded Braun publicly denounce the remarks, mandate that Beckwith issue a formal retraction as well as an apology and affirm Indiana's commitment to an accurate education of history.
"This language is not merely insensitive, it is an affront to human dignity and an echo of a racist ideology that sought to legitimize the inhuman treatment of Black people in America," a Friday news release from the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis reads in part.
A representative for Braun has not responded to a request for comment.
More Beckwith controversy
Beckwith — who is himself a pastor — has landed in hot water over social media activity before.
A Feb. 6 post also about Senate Bill 289, which described "taxpayer-funded race hustling," caused a stir on the Senate floor. In October 2024, during his campaign for the lieutenant governor position, Beckwith called his female election opponent a "Jezebel spirit," while in a livestreamed interview, referring to the Bible's archetypal evil woman.
Senate Bill 289 has passed through both chambers of the Indiana legislature with the House voting 64-26 and the Senate voting 34-16. It now awaits Braun's signature.
