INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The leader of Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis on Thursday said he’s considering further protests over what he calls racist comments from Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith.

Beckwith ignited a storm of controversy one week ago when he posted a video on his official X account in which he called the Three-Fifths Compromise “a great move” that ensured the end of slavery by limiting the political power of slaveholding southern states. The post followed two hours of emotional debate in the state Senate over a bill to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs in which Democrats at one point referenced the Three-Fifths Compromise.

The term refers to a provision the Framers included in the original text of the U.S. Constitution that counted three-fifths of all enslaved people toward a state’s population for the purposes of allocating seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Southern states at the time pushed to have all enslaved people counted so they could have more seats in Congress, while northern states tried to have only free inhabitants counted. The Fourteenth Amendment eliminated the provision in 1868.

Faith groups including the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, the Baptist Ministers’ Alliance, and the Indiana Chapter of the National Action Network all condemned Beckwith’s comments as racist and demanded Braun publicly rebuke them. Senate Democrats and the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus later issued similar calls. Braun said nothing publicly until News 8 asked him about the matter during a Wednesday news conference.

“I definitely wouldn’t have used that characterization and I don’t like it. I’m a believer that you’d better start thinking about what you’re saying before it comes out,” Braun said. “So, I’ll leave it at that, and I think that you don’t want to make headlines the wrong way because it takes away from the substance of what you’re trying to do.”

Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis President Rev. David Greene, Sr. told News 8 Braun’s comments made it seem like Beckwith’s wording was the issue when the real problem was the view Beckwith’s post conveyed. He said slavery and its legacy are very painful for Black Americans and Beckwith’s comments continue a narrative that slavery was somehow good or beneficial.

“Since he is the governor of all Hoosiers, he needs to make a firm statement that he condemns any language that supports three-fifths of a person because that was degrading of Black people,” Greene said. “Historical facts bear out that what the lieutenant governor said was not true. So, I hope that he will come out and be direct about that and not try to be political.”

Greene said Beckwith’s comments, along with the DEI bill itself, are part of a larger national movement to rewrite American history. He said there is no way to consider the Three-Fifths Compromise a good thing from a Black person’s perspective.

So far, Beckwith has doubled down on his comments on social media and on local radio talk shows. He has turned down multiple requests for comment from News 8. On Thursday, his office said he had nothing further to add.

Greene said clergy, including Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, plan to hold another news conference on Friday morning. That same day, he said he plans to deliver a petition to Gov. Mike Braun’s office urging him to forcefully condemn Beckwith’s remarks. He said the petition had more than 500 signatures as of Thursday morning. Greene said more actions are possible, such as a sit-in.

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