---
type: "Bill"
title: "Primary and Secondary Education - Black History Month - Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass"
description: "Primary and Secondary Education - Black History Month - Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "SB 879"
citation: "Maryland SB 879 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Primary and Secondary Education", "Curriculum", "Education", "Historical Matters", "Holidays and Special Dates", "Human Rights", "Minorities", "Public Schools"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Griffith"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 18
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2019-02-08"
last_action: "2019-04-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/34d5b0a9-b8f5-46ab-a6d2-e1b6431e0df3"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=SB879&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2019rs"
source_hash: "41486deba8eab8150f7f475b2794b49579d06dbdd43b5a20a63af738cd118db7"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland SB 879 (2019) — Primary and Secondary Education - Black History Month - Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2019RS/bills/sb/sb0879f.pdf)

## Votes

- On Third Reading — **46–0** (pass) · upper
- On third reading — **45–0** (pass) · upper
- On Third Reading — **136–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Griffith — primary (person)
- Augustine — cosponsor (person)
- Bailey — cosponsor (person)
- Beidle — cosponsor (person)
- Benson — cosponsor (person)
- Carozza — cosponsor (person)
- Carter — cosponsor (person)
- Cassilly — cosponsor (person)
- Eckardt — cosponsor (person)
- Edwards — cosponsor (person)
- Elfreth — cosponsor (person)
- Ellis — cosponsor (person)
- Feldman — cosponsor (person)
- Ferguson — cosponsor (person)
- Gallion — cosponsor (person)
- Guzzone — cosponsor (person)
- Hayes — cosponsor (person)
- Hershey — cosponsor (person)
- Hester — cosponsor (person)
- Hough — cosponsor (person)
- Jennings — cosponsor (person)
- Kagan — cosponsor (person)
- Kelley — cosponsor (person)
- King — cosponsor (person)
- Klausmeier — cosponsor (person)
- Kramer — cosponsor (person)
- Lam — cosponsor (person)
- Lee — cosponsor (person)
- McCray — cosponsor (person)
- Miller — cosponsor (person)
- Nathan-Pulliam — cosponsor (person)
- Patterson — cosponsor (person)
- Peters — cosponsor (person)
- Pinsky — cosponsor (person)
- Ready — cosponsor (person)
- Reilly — cosponsor (person)
- Rosapepe — cosponsor (person)
- Salling — cosponsor (person)
- Serafini — cosponsor (person)
- Simonaire — cosponsor (person)
- Smith — cosponsor (person)
- Waldstreicher — cosponsor (person)
- Washington — cosponsor (person)
- West — cosponsor (person)
- Young — cosponsor (person)
- Zirkin — cosponsor (person)
- Zucker — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-02-08** First Reading Senate Rules `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-08** Motion Rules Suspended Referred (Senator Benson) Adopted
- **2019-02-08** Referred Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-08** Hearing 3/06 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2019-03-11** Favorable Report by Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-12** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-12** Second Reading Passed
- **2019-03-14** Third Reading Passed (46-0) `passage`
- **2019-03-14** First Reading Ways and Means `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-15** Hearing 3/21 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2019-03-28** Favorable with Amendments Report by Ways and Means `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-28** Favorable with Amendments {955760/1 Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-28** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2019-03-29** Third Reading Passed with Amendments (136-0) `passage`
- **2019-04-02** Senate Concur - House Amendments
- **2019-04-02** Third Reading Passed (45-0) `passage`
- **2019-04-02** Passed Enrolled
- **2019-04-30** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 313 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/34d5b0a9-b8f5-46ab-a6d2-e1b6431e0df3`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).