DENVER — Democrats in Colorado have condemned a Republican lawmaker for joking about lynching before saying a 18th century policy designating a slave as three-fifths of a person “was not impugning anybody’s humanity.”
State Rep. Ron Hanks was speaking on the House floor Thursday about legislation aimed at strengthening civics education in schools. He was accidentally introduced as fellow Rep. Mike Lynch.
“Being called Mr. Lynch might be a good thing for what I’m about to say. No, just kidding,” Hanks said.
Hanks, who is white, then spoke about the Three-Fifths Compromise, which was made during the nation’s Constitutional Convention in 1787 and classified a slave as three-fifths of a person when apportioning taxes and states’ representation in Congress.
“It was not impugning anybody’s humanity,” Hanks said. “Is this really racist to be talking about what the Three-Fifths Compromise was? I don’t think so, and I think it’s important. It’s part of the civics lesson here. It was brought up, and it merits discussion.”
Hanks added that the compromise was an effort by the Northern states to keep Southern states from having too much representation in Congress and push slavery beyond the South.
“It took a war to do it. It took 600,000 American lives. It took a lot of treasure. That’s the kind of thing that ought to be taught,” Hanks said.
Halisi Vinson, executive director of the Colorado Democratic Party, said Hanks’ comments were a way to “whitesplain the historical experience of Black people.”
“The fact that Representative Hanks thought it would be appropriate to make a ‘joke’ about lynching — especially at a time when we’re seeing a rise of racially motivated assaults on people of color across our country — is utterly despicable,” Vinson said in a statement.
Shenika Carter, chair of the African Diaspora Initiative of the Colorado Democratic Party, said that calling Hank’s comments “disgusting and ignorant would be a gross understatement.”
“For him to downplay the indisputable, historical fact that enslaved Black people were treated less a person’s worth both in law and in practice is offensive and beneath the dignity of our state legislature,” Carter said in a statement.
Hanks told The Associated Press that video of his comments was manipulated to make a point that he didn’t make.
“It built the union by having such a compromise. Abhorrent as we may see it in today’s terms, it took a civil war, 80 years later to settle the issue,” Hanks said.
He was speaking about legislation that requires lessons on the three branches of government, how laws are enacted and the formation and development of government at the state and federal level.
He came under scrutiny from other members of the Legislature for marching from then-President Donald Trump’s rally in Washington, D.C., to the U.S. Capitol before rioters stormed the building on Jan. 6.
Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.