10269: Slavery In America Today.

The Huffington Post reported Rep. Allen West thinks President Barack Obama wants to turn Americans into his slaves. Sounds like a stunt to allow Republicans to apply for reparations.

Allen West: President Obama Wants Americans To ‘Be His Slave’

The Huffington Post | By Jennifer Bendery

WASHINGTON—Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) can’t seem to stay out of the spotlight, for better or for worse.

During a Sunday rally with constituents in a newly drawn district he wants to represent, West accused President Barack Obama of wanting to enslave the American public.

“He does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning, and having that title of American,” West said, according to a WPTV report. “He’d rather you be his slave.”

West is running against Martin County Sheriff Bob Crowder in the Republican primary, set for Aug. 14. The WPTV report quotes Crowder saying he is “offended” by the things that come out of West’s mouth.

“I think trying to label some people that he would have to work with in Congress as being Communists … I just think that’s the wrong thing to do,” Crowder said.

West raised some eyebrows in April when he claimed as many as 80 House Democrats are Communists. His remarks came after he compared being gay to picking a favorite ice cream flavor, said that a motorcycle was like touching his wife, and warned that people would be on “a suicide mission” if they challenged his support for the House GOP budget plan.

About 30 protesters showed up at West’s Sunday event and said they wished he had stayed in his old district instead of moving to theirs. Congressional redistricting left West more vulnerable in his current seat in District 22, so he recently moved to what is now District 18, where he has a better shot at winning.

Despite hugely out-raising Crowder, West still faces a tough fight: A prominent national pundit on Monday ranked West as the most vulnerable member in the Florida delegation to lose to the other party. His Democratic challenger is Patrick Murphy.

6852: Senate Says, “Sorry, Slaves.”

From The New York Daily News…

U.S. Senate apologizes for slavery

By Michael Mcauliff

Daily News Washington Bureau

Washington — The U.S. Congress is saying sorry for slavery.

The Senate voted unanimously Thursday for a resolution acknowledging “the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws,” which authorized the segregation that followed the Civil War.

If the House passes a similar measure next week, as expected, it would mark the highest official mea culpa for the hundreds of years of discrimination that had been enshrined by the Constitution and courts.

“Slavery and Jim Crow, and their continuing consequences, are not the historical baggage of one state, one region or one company,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the resolution’s sponsor. “They are an enduring national shame.”

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had both expressed remorse for slavery. And Congress has recognized other injustices, such as the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

“No one pretends that a mere apology — or any words — can right the wrongs of the past,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “But it represents our recognition of that past and our commitment to more fully live up to our nation’s promise.”

The measure does have one caveat. It says it doesn’t imply support for paying reparations.

5804: Overreaction Of The Week.

This ad appeared in the latest issue of Ebony magazine. Of the four presidents depicted on the specially minted coins, three owned slaves.* What’s next—a commemorative coin featuring Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings? Maybe the U.S. Mint could distribute the coins for free in lieu of reparations.

*John Quincy Adams did not own slaves. Martin Van Buren owned slaves before serving as President, but not during his stay in office.

5778: The Price Of Apologies.

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

Long-overdue apologies nice, but add substance to words

Sometimes saying “sorry” doesn’t cut it. Take two recent public apologies: The U.S. House of Representatives apologized to African Americans for slavery and Jim Crow, and an Army officer publicly apologized to 28 black World War II GIs who had been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the death of an Italian prisoner of war.

Paying reparations to descendants of slaves might give weight to that first apology, but that’s hardly practical.

What would be practical is to redouble efforts to improve the lives and opportunities of African Americans by investing more in our inner city schools, the safety of neighborhoods and job training.

Less complicated is the matter of compensation for Roy Montgomery, an 87-year-old ex-GI living in Park Forest, and the only known survivor of the 28 wrongfully convicted.

Last year, an Army review board cleared all 28 soldiers. And soon after that, one of the men, Samuel Snow, applied for compensation and received a check for $725 -- back pay for his military service.

Talk about adding insult to injury. The Army didn't even adjust for interest or inflation, which would have made it $80,000.

Snow refused to cash the check, and waited for a more official apology. That came last Saturday, the day after he died.

The Army still owes a debt to the last survivor, Montgomery, a debt it can never pay in full.

But they might start with a check -- and not for a measly $725.

5762: Apologies In Da House.

From The Associated Press…

House formally apologizes to black Americans for slavery, Jim Crow era

By Jim Abrams | Associated Press Writer

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.

Congress has issued apologies before — to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to pass anti-lynching laws.

Five states have issued apologies for slavery, but past proposals in Congress have stalled, partly over concerns that an apology would lead to demands for reparations — payment for damages.

The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying “the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow.”

It says that Africans forced into slavery “were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage” and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.

The House “apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow.”

“Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth,” Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, “is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong.”

Cohen became the first white to represent the 60 percent black district in Memphis in more than three decades when he captured a 2006 primary where a dozen black candidates split the vote. He has sought to reach out to his black constituents, and early in his term showed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus until learning that was against caucus rules.

Another of his first acts as a freshman congressman in early 2007 was to introduce the slavery apology resolution. His office said that the House resolution was brought to the floor only after learning that the Senate would be unable to join in a joint resolution.

More than a dozen of the 42 Congressional Black Caucus members in the House were original co-sponsors of the measure. The caucus has not endorsed either Cohen or his chief rival, attorney Nikki Tinker, in the Memphis primary, although Cohen is backed by several senior members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Tinker is the former campaign manager of Harold Ford, Jr., who held Cohen’s seat until he stepped down in an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2006.