Should the Government Apologize for Slavery?

This article is made up of excerpts from

the PEOPLE' S TRIBUNE, August, 1997 ( For a free electronic subscription, e-mail pt-dist@noc.org with "subscribe" in the subject line.) and

THE SOURCE magazine, October 1997.

The debate over whether the government should apologize for slavery is gaining in scope and importance. Tony Hall (D-Ohio)) has proposed a bill requesting that Congress apologize to African Americans whose ancestors suffered as slaves under the Constitution and laws of the United States until 1865.

According to the Random House Dictionary, an apology is "a written or spoken expression of one's regret, remorse, or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured, or wronged another."

We know that slavery was morally wrong.

So, the question boils down to this:

Does the government regret upholding such terrible exploitation and oppression while preaching democracy to the rest of the world?

Does the government have any remorse for passing laws that allowed white fathers to sell their black children on the auction block?

Does the government regret its role of legalizing the attempt to torture a people and beat then down to the level of a draft animal?

The most heated battle concerns reparations- financial amends for wrongdoings. Although the bill doesn't call for this, and the president believes that would be out of the question.

In 1988, Ronald Reagan issued a formal apology to Japanese-Americans for their internment in US concentration camps during World War II. The government also paid reparations- $20.000 apiece- to those Japanese-Americans. After World War II, Germany not only apologized for the Nazi Holocaust but made over $60 billion in restitution payments. Earlier this year, Clinton apologized to the survivors of the Tuskegee syphillis experiment. In the 1970's the government paid $10 million to the surviving victims and their families, and offered medical treatment to those who suffered as a resl\ult of the experiment. With these historical episodes as a backdrop, an apology to ancestors of those who suffered as slaves doesn't seem out of the question.


"It has to be dealt with. That is why I don't want to abandon affirmative action without an effective alternative when there's still so many people living at least with the aftermath of discrimination." -President Bill Clinton

"It's only emotional symbolism. If you want to see a great apology for slavery, go to the Lincoln Memorial and read Lincoln's second address." -House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, (R-Georgia)

"To me, it's a moral issue. When you hurt somebody, nothing solves the problem at first like a good, old fashioned apology. Then we can begin to heal. If you don't say that, the whole issue lingers and lingers." -Represenatative Tony Hall, (D-Ohio)

"An apology for slavery is a meaningless gesture with no meaningful commitment to deal with the impact of something so serious as slavery." -Reverend Jesse Jackson

"We should have an apology for what's happening today- the poor quality of schools, the danger in schools, lack of opportunity." -Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott