The U.S. Senate's slavery apology was a long time coming

Reparations Chronicles

The U.S. Senate's slavery apology was a long time coming

By: Susan Anderson (follow this member)
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 00:00

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The apology from the United States Senate on slavery has re-opened the debate over reparations for African Americans. Believe it or not, this apology is the farthest the U.S. government has ever gone to acknowledge wrongdoing toward blacks, and it has a long history.

In 1997, white Ohio Rep. Tony Hall introduced a bill calling for an official apology for slavery to the descendants of U.S. slaves. The bill was sponsored by 12 white members of the House — six Republicans and six Democrats. It was modeled on the 1988 congressional resolution that apologized for the government's internment of Japanese Americans in military-run camps during World War II.

That's right, Congress has given many other people apologies. Not long after passing a 1988 reparations law on behalf of Japanese American survivors and descendants interned in military-run WWII camps, Congress issued a 1993 apology to Hawaii for overthrowing the sovereign kingdom of Hawaii in 1893.

Yet with Newt Gingrich as Speaker of the House, the measure to apologize to blacks for slavery met overwhelming resistance. In 2003, Hall tried again. The bill went nowhere.

It even took until 2005 for the Senate to apologize for failing to oppose lynchings in the United States.

In the 20th century, 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced into Congress. None were passed. In fact, the Senate, dominated by Southern Democrats, repeatedly and vocally blocked anti-lynching legislation in the decades when white mob violence against blacks was commonplace.

In 2008, the year of the groundbreaking presidential campaign, perhaps inspired by the example of candidate Barack Obama, the momentum picked up for long overdue apologies.

Senator Sam Brownback’s measure to "offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States” for the government's "depredation" and "ill-conceived policies" toward them passed after four years of pressure from the American Indian community.

At the same time, by 2008, six states had issued formal apologies for slavery — Alabama, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia.

And, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, successfully got his bill apologizing for slavery passed by voice vote in the House. This time, 120 lawmakers were co-sponsors. The legislation apologized to black Americans for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow" segregation.

Is the 2009 U.S. Senate apology too little, too late? Or is it the precursor to finally establishing a Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, as Rep. John Conyers has proposed every year since 1989?

We will see.

Susan D. Anderson teaches, speaks and writes about African American history, politics and culture. She is the author of Nostalgia for a Trumpet: Poems of Memory and History, published by Northwestern University Press. She has been a Visiting Professor at Pitzer College, a contributor to the Los Angeles Times Sunday Opinion since 1999, and currently manages an archival program at the USC Libraries.

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COMMENTS

by Mary Neal

I enjoyed reading "The U.S. Senate's slavery apology was a long time coming" by Susan Anderson and learned many intresting facts. Of particular interest was the revelation that over 200 anti-lynching bills were presented in Congress in the 20th century without any passing. The link to Ms. Anderson's article is http://theloop21.com/blogs/the-us-senates-slavery-apology-was-long-time-...

Slaves were property of their owner and had no recognized right to life or liberty. My brother was secretly arrested by Memphis Shelby County Jail during mid-July 2003 and detained Guantanamo-style while the jail repeatedly denied having him for almost three weeks, then returned to his family as a corpse. For six years, we have asked Shelby County Jail, county, state, and federal officials for an explanation and records regarding Larry's secret arrest and wrongful death, but all requests have been denied or ignored. On May 7, we sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the USDOJ, hoping for open disclosure and equal justice under the Obama administration. The agency's response is now several days overdue. Michael Vick's dogs' abuse and deaths got investigated and Vick was prosecuted, but black American citizens, especially disabled persons, apparently count less than dogs in 21st century America. See http://WrongfulDeathOfLarryNeal.com

Larry Neal was a nuisance to police. The lifelong mentally ill heart patient was treated as any slave whose master got tired of him - he was killed. Families of lynched persons did not press charges in the 40's; they knew it would make them targets for the same abuse. Because I dare ask "WHAT HAPPENED TO LARRY NEAL," I suffer such persecution that I am practically a prisoner in my own home. Google "Cochran Firm Fraud" and see my YouTube videos 1 and 2.

In 21st century America, lynching still happens, with the majority of such deaths relegated to the criminal justice system. Most occur during arrest events, and others follow arrest either by prisoner abuse or execution. Although African Americans are said to comprise only 16% of the U.S. population, over 40% of those on death row are blacks. The NAACP announced that it will launch a campaign to address racism related to capital punishment at the organization's centinnial celebrations in July.

According to PEW, 1 in 9 young black men is imprisoned. Roughly 2/3 of the nation's 2.3 million inmates were convicted for non-violent offenses - usually drugs, including small amounts of marijuanna. Prison labor projects use the youth and vigor of prisoners to manufacture marketable goods that are sold in interstate trade, and private prison stock is sold on Wall Street. It is therefore my contention that slavery and lynchings merely changed key players: from the plantation masters to the sheriffs and prison wardens, and from plantation overseers to police officers and prison guards.

If H.R. 645 passes, millions more Americans may find themselves imprisoned. Six "emergency centers" have been proposed in Congress. Since the facilities that some are calling concentration camps were proposed by a black man, Rep. Alcee Hastings, there may be an intention to stock them first with black people. Slavemasters neither captured their own slaves in Africa nor did their own punishment of wayward slaves. See an article about this at this link:

American Concentration Camps Proposed in Congress - H.R. 645
http://my.nowpublic.com/world/american-concentration-camps-proposed-cong...

Crime is a reality and criminal justice is necessary; however, crime and punishment should never have become a business. The object of any business is to maximize growth and minimize overhead. Therefore, America's incarceration rate is now greater than any nation in world history, with 1 in every 99.1 persons incarcerated. Private prisons are for-profit enterprises which are kept stocked with human commidities by mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws, and the War on Drugs. To minimize the overhead expense of imprisoning 2.3 million people, many inmates live in overcrowded conditions and have substandard meals, medical and psychiatric care.

Although other races are also imprisoned at higher rates since the advent of private prisons, the rate of incarceration is far greater for non-whites than for whites.

TheLoop21.com

Reparations Chronicles