Alabama Slavery Apology

[Southron]

The Alabama legislature completed passage of a slavery apology resolution yesterday, and Governor Riley said he would sign it. Alabama is the fourth former slave state to pass a slavery apology, following Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

This is the key paragraph:

"BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, BOTH HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That we express our profound regret for the State of Alabama's role in slavery and that we apologize for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its after effects in the United States of America; we express our deepest sympathies and solemn regrets to those who were enslaved and the descendants of slaves, who were deprived of life, human dignity, and the constitutional protections accorded all citizens of the United States; and we encourage the remembrance and teaching about the history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and modern day slavery, to ensure that these tragedies will neither be forgotten nor repeated."

Montgomery Advertiser: Complete text of Alabama's slavery apology

[EXBubba]

The Alabama legislature completed passage of a slavery apology resolution yesterday, and Governor Riley said he would sign it. Alabama is the fourth former slave state to pass a slavery apology, following Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

This is the key paragraph:

"BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, BOTH HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That we express our profound regret for the State of Alabama's role in slavery and that we apologize for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its after effects in the United States of America; we express our deepest sympathies and solemn regrets to those who were enslaved and the descendants of slaves, who were deprived of life, human dignity, and the constitutional protections accorded all citizens of the United States; and we encourage the remembrance and teaching about the history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and modern day slavery, to ensure that these tragedies will neither be forgotten nor repeated."

Montgomery Advertiser: Complete text of Alabama's slavery apology

[elb401]

oh and the treatment of immigrants, native Americans, indentured (sp) servents, and women. These groups were either held in bondage, descriminated against, and even almost completly destroyed. The state should have included all people in its apology. but oh well......an apology wont really change anything.

[jwh]

oh and the treatment of immigrants, native Americans, indentured (sp) servents, and women. These groups were either held in bondage, descriminated against, and even almost completly destroyed. The state should have included all people in its apology. but oh well......an apology wont really change anything.

[/quote.

I am proud of the state of Alabama for making the apology.

[rnc]

I am proud of the state of Alabama for making the apology.

[Southron]

I am proud of the state of Alabama for making the apology.

[elb401]

I think it was a good thing that AL said it was sorry. but I think that it should have included other groups too.

[jwh]

I think it was a good thing that AL said it was sorry. but I think that it should have included other groups too.

[rnc]

I'm trying to understand why people think other groups should be included. Other groups were not enslaved and sold as property or beaten and worked like a farm animal. Other groups were not lynched at a moments notice. Other groupls had the right to vote before the Voting rights act of the sixties. Other groups did not have to attend sub-par schools. Other groups did not have to sit in the balcony at the theatre, ride on the back of buses or even give that seat up if a white person were standing. Other groups were not beaten, hosed down, or billy clubbed when protesting for equal treatment in a nation that declared everyone equal. Help me understand why this apology needed to inlude others. Perhaps others deserve an apology too, but this one went to the right group at the right time!

[elb401]

I really don't care about having everybody apologized too. but I do agree that native americans should. This state and nation enslaved them and beat them also, persued a genocide (trail of tears and so on), they were denied the right to vote. In some places including AL their way of life was made illegal. This group is still being treated horrible by the national and some state governments (not really alabama because we killed them off and moved most of them out in the 1800s...which deserves an apology). The majority of them are still feeling the wrongs of the past. Most are at an economic disadvantage (even more so than blacks). I think that it was great that the state apologized for slavery to blacks but I think it should have included the wrongs (including enslavement) toward the Native Americans.

[EXBubba]

Plenty of others have been wronged, but I think it would be pretty meaningless for the state to come out with a blanket apology to all those who have been mistreated. This state is known for slavery and the civil rights movement. Native Americans, women, Irish... were no more mistreated here than they were anywhere else in this country.

[krazeeboi]

Probably just best to leave it as it is - symbolism. It won't change a thing in the state unless the intent is there behind the words.