Congress considering slavery apology
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28
UPI
The U.S. Congress is considering an apology for slavery, something five states have done in the past year.
While it has apologized before, Congress never apologized for slavery, USA Today reported Thursday.
“We’ve seen states step forward on this,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, noting resolutions in Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia. “I’m really shocked, just shocked” that the federal government hasn’t apologized. “It’s time to do so.”
Harkin said he and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., will propose an apology for slavery and subsequent “Jim Crow” laws that furthered racial segregation. Among the bill’s backers are Democratic Sens, Hillary Clinton of New York, the party’s first female presidential candidate, and Barack Obama of Illinois, the party’s first African-American candidate.
A similar House measure introduced in 2007 has 120 co-sponsors.
Congress apologized to Japanese-Americans in 1988 for imprisoning them in camps during World War II, giving each survivor $20,000. In 1993, Congress apologized to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of their kingdom a century earlier. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to enact anti-lynching laws.
Wild Thing’s comment…….
It is the democrats who enslaved the black man all those years who fought a costly war to keep that right and it was the democrats who did all they could to keep the black man down. Hence the 13th 14th and 15th amendments were enacted It is the Democrat party party that held on to slavery. It was their party that passed Jim Crow laws. It was their party that fought integration. It was their party that fought equal rights.
The 15th Amendment
Amendment XV (the Fifteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution provides that governments in the United States may not prevent a citizen from voting based on that citizen’s race[1], color, or previous condition of servitude (i.e. slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870.
That was enacted because the democrats tried to keep the black man from voting and when they did vote and voted republican, they would beat if not kill the black man for doing so.
Has that changed? I don’t think much pi$$es off a democrat more than a black republican. Just look at the smears they have for Clarence Thomas, J.C. Watts, and Condi Rice and many others for escaping from the plantation the democrats built for them.
I REALLY hate this stuff. The Democrats work so hard to keep rascism alive and they were the ones to blame more then anyone else for slavery of the blacks.
Tell politically correct & corrupt Congress that the US Navy didn’t navigate the MIDDLE PASSAGE in the 1600’s, 1700’s and 1800’s…the DUTCH & PORTUGUESE ships did for the most part! The old abolitionist movement has been replaced by the new ‘PC Apologist’ movements!!
They’ll say or do anything to hold the black vote even if it means teaching them that Abraham Lincoln was a Democrat. Next the slimeballs will want to apologize to the mexicans for resisting the seige at the Alamo and for the successfull campaign against General Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. The Democrats want the black vote but the have a funny way of showing it. “Sheets” Byrd has voted against Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. One liberal, one conservative, one thing in common, both men were black. Last time I checked ‘Sheets’ Byrd was still in office and still a Democrat. How long do you think it will take for them to apologize to the muzzies for the actions of the Christians during the Crusades?
No one today had anything to do with slavery.
No one alive that was a slave to apologize too.
I think the United States Apologizing for slavery, will send a message, that all Americans had slaves or wanted them, Which is not the case. The US government giving a universal apology will mean you speak for all.
Slaves were all races and brought from many continents. English, American Indian, Spanish, African, and poor white Americans.
That should be put on a ballot, to get everyones approval, since not all states had slavery. And to see how to incorporate a document including all races, colors and creeds who were slaves.
Are those who were descendant of slaves going to Publicly Thank all the soldiers family’s that die, wounded from the union army to free them?
Then, that would lead to more with other issues along the same lines, like the draft.
Speaking for MANY of my Black friends…”Oh, just get over it”.
Speaking on behalf of my MANY Jewish friends, including my Father…Jews are the MOST enslaved and slaughtered race in the world. You don’t see them crying and whining in their Manachevowitz.
You’re right Steve. I’m part Jewish and I’m not asking the Germans for an apology. My hubby is part Cherokee and my nieces part Apache–what about what we did to them? We took their lands and forces them onto reservations and when we found out about the gold, precious stones and oil, we tried to take it back.
And it was a Republican who freed the black man.
So many forget that.
It was the Democrats who fought the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was the Democrats who formed the KKK. It was the Democrats who fought integration during the 60’s.
The Democrats fought tooth-n-nail to keep Black folks down but for some reason Blacks always supported Democrats. Even the NAACP supported George Wallace. I’ve never been able to figure it out.
I think the Irish need an apology too.
Yeah and the Irish. In fact the New York draft riots of July 1863 were caused by the Blacks and the Irish The Blacks were getting the better jobs and the Irish wanted equal time. Soldiers from the recent Battle of Gettysburg were sent to New York City, to quell the riots. That took two weeks.
The Irish were enslaved to dig the Erie barge canal, thousands died from lack of food or just plain drowned.
The NINA(No Irish need apply) laws were as bad as the laws in the South regarding the Blacks.
But the Irish fought back and worked their way up the social ladder. Tha Paddy wagon was named after the Irish, there were so many Irish on the New York City PD that the Police wagons were re named ‘The Patty Wagon’.
But the crowning achievement came during the 1912 Olympics in London England. All of the countries had to pass in review in front of the Queen , and as they did they would dip their National flags in respect for the Queen. The Irish contingent of the Americans were in charge of the ‘colors’. ( knowing of course how the Irish feel about England) The flag bearer was told that if he dipped that Flag, the Stars and Stripes, he would spend the night in the hospitol. There was a huge uproar of coures but it passed. Hence since then our National Colors has not dipped to any Royalty or nation.
As a matter of fact I think the Irish should get an apology and a Thank You. Since this ‘do-nothing congress has nothing better to do than apologize for slavery, which we, today, had absolutely nothing to do with. But have been paying for it since the Civil War, first in blood and now in Taxes. When do the American people get a congressional ‘Thank You’.
Their were almost 1 million Americans killed in the Civil War. 650,000 on the Union side, who were fighting for the Union and later-on, to free the slaves. Their music reflected this, from ‘The Battle Cry of freedom:
We will welcome to our numbers
The loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;
And although they may be poor,
Not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,
and also the Battle Hymm of the Republic:
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on. (by the way this line is now left out of the song.)
If congress does anything it should be to show some gratitude to the men and women who fought so hard to win that war and to win freedom for everyone.
Who is going to apologize for blacks committing a disproportionate amount of violent crimes in the country?
Who is going to apologize for blacks not wanting to be part of the great melting pot of this country opting instead to be hyphenated Americans in their own victimhood boiling pot?
Who is going to apologize for blacks being the new racists doing everything that they can to make the country a house divided against itself?
Who is going to apologize for racist Michelle Obama who for the first time became proud of this country when her husband, a black, ran for President?
If blacks want to open the apology door then they can start with themselves. They have more to apologize for then any other group of people.
If Congress wants to open the apology door then they can start with themselves too? They have plenty to apologize for.
Here’s something you never hear or read in history books.
According to federal census reports, on June 1, 1860 there were nearly 4.5 million Negroes in the United States, with fewer than four million of them living in the southern slaveholding states. Of the blacks residing in the South, 261,988 were not slaves. Of this number, 10,689 lived in New Orleans. The country’s leading African American historian, Duke University professor John Hope Franklin, records that in New Orleans over 3,000 free Negroes owned slaves, or 28 percent of the free Negroes in that city.
http://americancivilwar.com/authors/black_slaveowners.htm
Darth, thanks and your right.
Jack exactly! They can tell Byrd to do it and end it with that.
seah, I agree….”Slaves were all races and brought from many continents”….
SSgt Steve, DITTO to all you said!!!
Lynn that is very true about the Indians.
Bob your absolutely right about the Democrats.
Mark that gave me goosebumps…. OH my gosh they are leaving the last line of the song? That is terrible.
And I agree with you about the Irish too.
Congress better wake up not just to this thing they want to do but to ev everything else they want to do that is not a good idea.
Les……
“If Congress wants to open the apology door then they can start with themselves too? They have plenty to apologize for. ”
They sure do, Murtha, Pelosi, Reid and the rest of them!!
Bob thank you and thanks for the link. That is really interesting….amazing.
The Mel Brooks 1976 western “BLAZING SADDLES” anybody? A CLASSIC, eh? “Iz it TWOOOO vat day say about you…..?” “It’s TWOOOOO…. It’s TWOOOO!”
Darth, LOL that movie was so funny.
Yes, and the line left out of the movie that was in the book: something to the effect of “well, ma’am, you’re suckin’ my arm!”
OK: give the apology. Add and amendment to the bill revoking all affirmative action programs, special loan programs, midnight basketball and all the rest of the goodies. The apology, along with the trillions spent, is enough. You’re on your own. Sink or swim.
Sorry bout your land, bro
See also: 10 Intrepid Travel Tips From Christopher Columbus, A Big White Lie About Race and Hiring, Congress Considering Slavery Apology, Natural Born Citizen? What the phrase means, and African-American heritage tours.
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