House Formally Apologizes For Slavery And Jim Crow

WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.

"Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The resolution, passed by voice vote, was the work of Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, the only white lawmaker to represent a majority black district. Cohen faces a formidable black challenger in a primary face-off next week.

Congress has issued apologies before _ to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to pass anti-lynching laws.

Five states have issued apologies for slavery, but past proposals in Congress have stalled, partly over concerns that an apology would lead to demands for reparations _ payment for damages.

The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying "the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow."

It says that Africans forced into slavery "were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage" and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.

The House "apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow."

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"Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth," Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, "is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong."

Cohen became the first white to represent the 60 percent black district in Memphis in more than three decades when he captured a 2006 primary where a dozen black candidates split the vote. He has sought to reach out to his black constituents, and early in his term showed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus until learning that was against caucus rules.

Another of his first acts as a freshman congressman in early 2007 was to introduce the slavery apology resolution. His office said that the House resolution was brought to the floor only after learning that the Senate would be unable to join in a joint resolution.

More than a dozen of the 42 Congressional Black Caucus members in the House were original co-sponsors of the measure. The caucus has not endorsed either Cohen or his chief rival, attorney Nikki Tinker, in the Memphis primary, although Cohen is backed by several senior members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Tinker is the former campaign manager of Harold Ford, Jr., who held Cohen's seat until he stepped down in an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2006.

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The bill is H. Res. 194

On the Net:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

Comments

[Moshe]

Our Constitution is premised on the establishment of a federal government that is a government of LIMITED powers, having only those powers expressly granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution.

A Nation that was founded by declaring that all men are created equal should never have been in the business of upholding the vile, ignorant, practices of slavery or Jim Crow to begin with.

Nor should that government ever be involved in interning Japanese Americans, spying on its own citizens, intervening in private family matters (i.e. "Terri Schiavo"), spending money it doesn't have (and bankrupting its own people in the process), etc.

So thanks for apologizing for engaging in an evil practice that our government never had any authority to do in the first place, but in the future: 1) Please don't do it to begin with when it is not a proper function of any just government to begin with; and 2) If you do, don't wait 200 years to apologize.

FYI: You might want to put a little more attention into the things you really should be doing, like building safe levies that won't flood cities and kill thousands, etc., and next time, skip the meddling in people's personal lives, based on race, gender, religion, etc., no matter how much more interesting you may think this is than doing your real job and acting within the bounds of the Constitution you swore to uphold.

Thanks.

[08politicaljunkie]

First things first.

The first step in righting the wrongs is admitting the wrong.

The next steps will be extremely difficult.

How do you rectify stripping people of their history, their legacies, their names, their ancestries, and their families? Every other ethnicity in this country can trace their ancestry back to their original immigrants except the Americans with Black skin.

Then after they destroyed their heritages, they killed, crippled, and imprisoned the remnants for wanting to live like any and every other person in this land: Own property, trade and prosper, raise families, have pride and traditions, have culture and literacy. And although this is no longer legal, it's still done systematically.

Recognizing the wrong is good. Openly admitting the wrong is better. But what is the next step? How do you right the wrong?

[MyNameIsJames]

The US House passed this resolution because it is EASY. It required NOTHING. This isn't justice at all. Its window dressing.

You want to impress me. Create a national commission on race that reports directly to the president and Congress on the idea of reparations and other issues like inferior education, knee-jerk incarceration laws, financial & economic justice. After the reports are done, then Congress needs to MANDATE that a plan is enacted to address these issues. This would require SOMETHING - political will, financial commitment, accountability.

Until then - I'm hitting the snooze button.

[Bobrobert]

Good. Group hug.

Now pass something that stops the country from entering another DEPRESSION!!!

Get moving - time is short to save the economy.

Remember to vote all.

:-)

Pray for the troops.

[gladys46]

Did I miss something!!??? Where was this huge announcement on MSM, yesterday or this a.m.???

Perhaps most pundits are yet busy attempting to relieve O of his "self-esteem"!!? Well, that's very white of them.

[Chris]

Here is the problem with apologies. How do you justify not apologizing to Irish imiigrants for the treatment they received? Or Italians or pretty much any ethic gorup when they first immigrated to the US. Not to say that the treatments are equal but why yowuld you not apoligze for all the misdeeds.

Are we goign to apologize to the Mexicans for taking their lands? How about the Native Americans?

[FanofPaine]

They should get to them too, but geez, look how long it took them to get to black people? It might be a awhile. It seems it takes a couple of hundred years for it to occur.

[southernsepia]

Long overdue.

African slaves built the U.S. economy. African Americans fought and died in every war this nation has ever had despite Jim Crow laws.

Government sanctioned racism denied Blacks the opportunity participate in the homestead act, the GI bill and other wealth building opportunities until the civil rights struggle.

Blacks were legally barred from participation in many unions and therefore denied higher paying trade work.

This is reality and any one who thinks that this doesn't affect the Black community today and deserve at least an apology needs to examine themselves.

It's one thing to benefit from an unfair advantage. It's another thing to believe that you deserve it.

[luvangelHussein330]

FINALLY!!! So what are they going to do now? Is this a turning point or smoke blown up my brown rear end.

[theotocopolous]

It seems that instead of apologizing for something that no white person in this country did and that no black person in this country has experienced, that Congress should be attempting to fix the fact that something like 1 in 4 black men are in prison. (I'm not sure of that statistic)
Symbolism is all well and good, but this is just a way for Congress to claim that they're fixing race relations without actually having to do anything. Deal with the present first. Terrible schools, gang violence, massive prison population, widespead disease and drug abuse. Fix that, and then start with the apologies and symbolism.

[robXdion]

What happened then effects mentalities today. Acknowledging the truth of the past helps to understand the present. For example, the nagging inability of O's poll numbers to rise despite being the best candidate for president in decades. The fact he's called "uppity" for doing what white men have always done, etc. Or the fact that I as a black male can't visit certain areas, get certain jobs, live certain places, or drive select vehicles without being stared at or harassed. But you don't have that problem. Formally recognizing the past is TRUE and has bearing on present attitudes is the first step toward correcting the problems you pointed out.

[luvangelHussein330]

My Mother, Father, Aunts Uncles, Grandmother and Great grand parents are still alive and lived through the Jim Crow error and worked on share cropping farms which was just anothe form of slavery. They are owed an apology from government for there government run segregation program. Righting off your history as a non issue is dangerous. Like the old sayig goes if you don't know your history you are bond to repeat it...no matter who you are. Just look at our current administraion. Didn't we see the same things happened during the Vietnam war and both world wars? Besides our government apologized for the japanese internment camps, they apologized for the native American injustice...why all of s sudden when it comes to African American we need to get over it...it was no big deal?

[TheSecularist]

I agree with your assessment that the apology is symbolism. nevertheless, it is welcomed and needed. A well-placed apology can be a first step toward healing, especially for the perpetrator (the U.S. government, state governments, etc). Non-blacks are fond of asserting that no whites in this country committed slavery, therefore no apology is justified. The US government DID perpetrate slavery. State governments DID perpetrate slavery and later Jim Crow laws. And, many black persons living today personally experienced those jim Crow laws. Every black descendant of slaves is still living with the effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws. Particularly telling is that no one really objects to apologies to the Japanese or Native Americans. But mention an apology for hundreds of years of slavery, rape, and oppression, white people become indignant. I believe white people are as much in need of the apology as the slave descendants. Whites are stuck in the past of ancestral and national guilt along with the black descendants. Only with a well worded, sincere apology can black and white communities begin to heal.

[VSamuels]

Your statement is inaccurate; there are millions of African-Americans still living who experienced Jim Crow and there are millions of whites living who participated in this practice and benefited from a society which gave them an edge daily in pursing their lives in this unequal system. Moreover, there are many organizations and corporation still in business today, who benefitted from both slavery and Jim Crow practices; as well as the disparity in wealth throughout this nation reflects who had access to insurance policies, jobs, housing and access to loans.

Confined in this issue, is the mis-information and self-denial of the reality of the problem which has taken on a defensive mechanism in much of the white community to paint a rosy face on the issue and re-define the results as an issue of 'work ethic' which is wholly unfair in light of the many folks who did hold these sentiments even as they claimed they believed in fairness. Honesty on both sides of this issue will be a lot more effective in the long term of getting folks out of their bunker mentalities and dealing with the vestiges of an unfair playing field that has never been eradicated. Race is an extremely complicited issue that can only be resolved with pragmatic solutions, rather than the emotional baggage which often gets in the way of expressing the reality of it, and how we as a nation move forward.

[JUSTME]

Of course we have to deal with the here and now. But acknowledging a wrong done in the past--and which continues to have consequences in our time--is no barrier to remedial action. The crime was committed, the acknowledgment has long been overdue.

[steamboat]

So when are these same people going to apologize to Mexican-Americans? For taking what is today Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California from them. Well, where is the apology?

So when are these same people going to apologize to the mormons? For taking away their properties in Illinois, performing genocide on them, which is why they fled to what is today Utah. Well, where is the apology?

[Twentylaws]

First President Bill Clinton apologized for Slavery...then Virginia and Missouri made their apologizes to Blacks earlier this year beckoning others states to follow suit. NOW the House has come forward! What's next? The United States need to come correct and take this to next level! This is has been a slow healing process that has taken more than 400 years.

R E P A R A T I O N S...NOW! NOW! NOW! BLACKS WERE PROMISED 40 ACRES AND A MULE!

[robXdion]

He did that in Liberia. Far away from American soil and media to avoid offending white sensibilities.

[stepintothelight]

Seems like someone has a pretty out-of-control Karma train traveling on a shrinking circular track!!!

[BEHM777]

"The resolution, passed by voice vote, was the work of Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, the only white lawmaker to represent a majority black district. Cohen faces a formidable black challenger in a primary face-off next week."

Alas, it is pure politics.

""Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus."

I'd be remiss if I left her out. She's Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's mother. Yeah, THAT Kwame.

In conclusion, no warm and fuzzy feeling from me or for me. I HATE being patronized.

BEHusseinM777

[PuffDragon]

This is one act of Congress that I feel sincerely proud of, and gives me hope that we may yet turn things around in this country towards treating people with greater humanity.

Isn't that what "civilization" really means? Acting with greater humanity towards others?

May it begin a new day in America where the quality of a person's heart, mind and social contributions mean more than the color of a person's skin.

[arspar183]

I don 't knowthat this apology is necessary. As an A-A I must say that without slavery none of us A-As would be here in this country. Our parentrs would never have met, their parents would never have met etc...... I remeber a term from my high school history books, "America's manifest destiny"..... Perhaps slavery was God's way of ensuring that this country would become the melting pot that it is, and a testiment that people from all over the world can live as one nation at peace. No it ain't perfecrt but it's still the best country in the world. Corny perhaps, but I don't need no apology.

[BEHM777]

Wow. Reading your post made my head hurt. So all of the brutality et cetera we suffered is cool because we's in The Land O' Milk An' Honey? I am ashamed FOR you.

Whether you realize it or not, you blaspheme God by assigning such petty motives to Him.

Manifest Destiny was code for "Murder the Indians and whoever else stands in our way." Well, that is how it seems to have played out.

Simplistic perhaps, but accurate. It is late.

BEHusseinM777

[UNR]

I had to take a shower after reading this.

[FanofPaine]

Are you f***ing serious? Let's see none of my ancestors would have been stolen, maimed, separated from their families, beaten, worked for no money and bred as well as continued to be denied rights for years. I'm thinking your joking. Also, tons of Africans come to America where they excel, but the catch is they come willingly. Imagine that? And thanks, I'll take your part of the apology too cause I'm feeling like I needed one.

[tiffj01]

You are kidding right? This is the biggest piece of nonsence I've heard in regards to slavery.

[several]

That they did this is good.

That it is only happening now, in 2008, is horrendous and stomach-turning. Decades overdue.

[starfire426]

I must say that the TIMING of this is nothing short of extraordinary...kinda makes me wonder, why now? But, then I'm just naturally mistrustful of people's motives.

[Serfie]

The British, Spanish and Portuguese brought slavery to the Americas. There was no America during most of the slave trade, which was outlawed in 1809, only 20 years after the Constitution was ratified.

The British brought it; America ended it. Blame the British. After all, they have been responsible for most of the most horrific racial injustices the last 500 years.

[steamboat]

Have the Ashanti tribesmen of East Africa and North African muslims who captured and sold the people they captured to the Europeans for the purpose of slavery ever had to apologize? And have they ever apologized? Just asking.

[VSamuels]

Borrowing a line from robXion, what book are YOU reading? The muslims you refer to were interested in eliminating their external competitors and in some cases, their enemies by trading them to European traders. Many documents of this time points to their initial thoughts were not to condemn them to brutal slavery, nor did the European traders indicate that this was the purpose of them desiring the captives. When the European traders found that this practice was becoming profitable in the America(s) they began to subvert the process and actively sought to confine these Africans without assistance from other Africans. The many European built prisons along the west African coasts document the effort made to steal and capture Africans beyond mere trading.

But, the more interesting error in your statement is how you on the one hand assign blame for slavery on the African, while ignoring that these East and North Africans played no role in Europeans defining 'race' and setting in motion the notion of their superiority over them based upon race. But, your simplistic reading of one sliver of history is consistent with the mis-information that is consistent with how many whites have revised history to rationalize its behavior to scapegoat the 'African' for first trading with them.

Slavery is inhumane and has little to do with any aspect of how it originates.

[Fudgefase]

Of course not.
BUT here in the UK, there is some evidence to suggest that some black on black violence (with ref to killing of a young boy a couple of years ago) is related to the fact that those from the caribbean, who tend to be descended from slaves, bear a great deal of resentment towards those who have emigrated more recently, from Africa, the idea being there is an ancestral guilt due to involvement in the slave trade. This was cited in some commentary at the time of the killing.
It was an interesting angle that I hadn't seen before.

[robXdion]

uhhh, the British ended their slave trading in 1807. The US did in 1863. What book are YOU reading?