In Modern Slavery, Sad Echoes Of Juneteenth

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By: The Root Staff

This weekend throughout the South, African Americans will gather at festivals, picnics and other events to observe Juneteenth, a celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. The term "Juneteenth" comes from the date June 19, 1865, when enslaved Africans in Galveston, Texas, found out that they were free a full 2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation became official.

For 30 long months, the enslaved Texans continued to toil, unaware that technically they were free to stop and pursue their destinies. Their official status as free Americans meant nothing until Juneteenth came around.

Unfortunately, for millions of people around the world -- and thousands in the United States -- their official status as free people means nothing. That's because in various forms, the involuntary servitude of human beings -- slavery -- still exists. CONTINUE....

Say What? Michele Bachmann's Revisionist Musings

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By: Nsenga Burton

While others have dismissed Tea Party darling Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn), The Washington Post's Jonathan Capeheart is paying close attention to Bachmann (R-Minn) who gave the Tea Party response to President Obama's State of the Union Address. Bachmann, who has presidential aspirations and wants to cut NASA, public school funding and a host of other things, has an "absolutely amazing" view of history. Her penchant for revising history is quite interesting. Capeheart points out that Bachmann spoke at an Iowans for Tax Relief event over the weekend and "blipped" his radar with this musing on the early settlers, who "had different cultures, different backgrounds, different traditions": CONTINUE....

History Lesson Used Black Students as Slaves

By: EURweb.com

Parents and teachers at a North Carolina school are protesting a history lesson in which African-American students visiting a plantation with their class were told to pretend they were slaves as their white classmates looked on. 

 

History Lesson Used Black Students as Slaves....    

Disillusioned About Obama Already? Get a Grip

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com

This time last November, Barack Obama persuaded Americans to beat back their doubts – along with this country’s history of slavery and racism – and elect him president.



A year later, that struggle continues.

Disillusioned About Obama Already? Get a Grip....

Senate Apologizes for Slavery, Segregation

The Senate has unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and racial segregation and sent the measure to the House.

Commentary: Reparations for COINTELPRO, Not Slavery

By: Gregory Kane

If you like cheap victories, then you’re probably THRILLED that the U.S. Congress apologized for slavery last week.

Too bad I don’t like cheap victories.

But the “Baltimore Afro-American” thought the event was so significant that it ran a front-page story, “above the fold” as we say in the newspaper business, about the apology.

And what does the apology mean? Why, absolutely nothing, of course.

The black folks who were poor and living in America’s inner cities the day before the apology were still living there the day after. Those going to schools doing more miseducating than educating will likely return to those schools either later this month or in September.

COMMENTARY....

House Issues Apology for Slavery and Jim Crow

By: Jim Abrams, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) 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.

House Issues Apology for Slavery and Jim Crow....

NEBRASKA REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE FOR SLAVERY: Lawmakers will consider a resolution that only expresses 'regret.'

State lawmakers in Nebraska will consider a resolution that expresses regret for slavery, but doesn't issue an apology, reports the Associated Press.

Members of a legislative committee struggled on Wednesday with the language of the resolution that they ultimately advanced to the full Legislature for consideration.

The Judiciary Committee finally decided that expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery was more appropriate than issuing an apology.

Lawmakers in New Jersey, Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia have already issued apologies for slavery.

The Nebraska Territory banned slavery in 1861, the year the Civil War started. But Nebraska was a center of turmoil over slavery in the 1800s.

NEW YORK OPENS MANHATTAN AFRICAN BURIAL MEMORIAL

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The African Burial Ground National Monument opened in New York on Friday, marking the final resting place of thousands of slaves buried there.

The Manhattan burial site, which dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, was first discovered in 1991 when builders broke ground for a new federal building.

The city had planned to use the space to build a parking lot, but African-American groups protested, holding a 24-hour vigil and earning the support of elected officials.

Now a 25-foot (7.6-metre) granite monument marks the spot. It was designed by Rodney Leon and evokes a ship, with "Wall of Remembrance" that soars above a "Circle of the Diaspora."

The monument was made out of stone from South Africa and from North America to illustrate the two worlds coming together to form a common experience, Leon said.

"I'm blown away by it," said Melva Adams, 64, a retired teacher who said she learned about her ancestors' enslavement on quilts kept by her family. "They are footprints in the sand, from them to us. I'm very proud."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking at the dedication, said that the excavations had revealed "one of the most uncomfortable and tragic truths in our city's history: For two centuries, slavery was widespread in New York."

Christopher Moore, a historian who was an early champion of the memorial, said smaller burial sites can be found across lower Manhattan, the original settlement that is now New York.

New York did not abolish slavery until 1827, making it one of the last northern states to do so. Slavery was outlawed in the United States following the American Civil War, which ended in 1865.