Lawmaker Will Resurrect Slavery Apology

[Oscar Knight]

Despite several failed attempts to get Georgia to apologize for slavery, State Rep. Al Williams says is reviving the resolution this session because it is still a cause worth fighting for.

The issue died a bitter death in 2007 after legislative leaders cooled to the idea. Last year, the Georgia NAACP chapter sent a letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue renewing its request for him to reconsider a slavery apology

Six other states, mostly in the South, already have passed resolutions apologizing or expressing regret for slavery: Florida, Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia. The U.S. House voted in 2008 to apologize for slavery, and President Barack Obama has said such an apology was appropriate but not particularly helpful in improving the lives of black Americans.

Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown, who is black, agreed. He said he would not support the proposal.

"I don't see how an apology means anything," Brown said. "It doesn't change anything. I just think it's meaningless and it doesn't give anything to our community."

More on This :

www.ajc.com/news/lawmaker-will-resurrect-slavery-316379.html

[Oscar Knight]

"Black Lawmaker Will Resurrect Slavery Apology"

The proposal has faced an uphill battle from many who feel an apology would mean admitting responsibility for the wrongs of others. Williams said he has started trying to build a consensus for a more favorable outcome during February which is Black History Month and that he is willing to consider changing the language as other states have done and express ``regret'' for slavery.

wsbradio.com/localnews/2010/02/black-lawmaker-will-resurrect.html

[Oscar Knight]

09 LC 38 0821
House Resolution 295
By: Representatives Williams of the 165th, Brooks of the 63rd, Heard of the 114th, Murphy of the 120th, Collins of the 95th, and others

A RESOLUTION


Acknowledging Georgia's role in slavery and urging reconciliation; and for other purposes.

WHEREAS, Georgia is preparing for the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and will be a centerpiece for related tourism and historians; and

WHEREAS, James Edward Oglethorpe, Georgia's founding father, established Georgia as a slave-free colony in 1733; and

WHEREAS, Georgia was the only one of Britain's American colonies to attempt to prohibit slavery as a matter of public policy; and

WHEREAS, the colony's Trustees, bowing to pressure from pro-slavery interests, convinced England's House of Commons to repeal the prohibition against slavery in Georgia as of January 1, 1751. South Carolina planters and their slaves flooded into Georgia and soon dominated the colony's government; and

WHEREAS, between 1750 and 1775, Georgia's enslaved population grew in size from less than 500 to approximately 18,000 people. Beginning in the mid-1760's, Georgia began to import slaves directly from Africa; and

WHEREAS, in 1776, our nation's Declaration of Independence proclaimed that "all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness"; and

WHEREAS, Georgia and the other American colonies ignored the standards of liberty and equality and, during the era of the American Revolution, African slaves soon constituted nearly half of Georgia's colonial population. Georgia delegates to the Continental Congress forced Thomas Jefferson to tone down his critique of slavery in his initial draft of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Likewise, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, Georgia delegates joined with South Carolina's to insert clauses protecting slavery into the new federal charter; and

WHEREAS, during the course of the infamous Atlantic slave trade, millions of Africans became involuntary immigrants to the New World and slavery in the United States resembled no other form of involuntary servitude in that Africans were captured and sold at auction as chattel; and

WHEREAS, Africans were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized, and stripped of their names and heritage, and families were torn apart and sold separately; and

WHEREAS, slavery was sanctioned and perpetuated by the laws of the United States of America and the State of Georgia and ranks as one of the most horrendous violations of our nation's and state's founding ideals; and

WHEREAS, the slave population of Georgia increased dramatically during the early decades of the nineteenth century. In 1790, just before the explosion in cotton production, some 29,264 slaves resided in this state. By 1800, the slave population in Georgia had more than doubled to 59,699. By 1810, the number of slaves had grown to 105,218; and

WHEREAS, when Congress banned the African slave trade in 1808, Georgia's slave population did not decline. Instead, the number of slaves imported from the Chesapeake's stagnant plantation economy as well as the number of children born to Georgia slave mothers continued to outpace the number of slaves who died or were transported from Georgia. In 1820, the slave population stood at 149,656; in 1840 the slave population had increased to 280,944; and in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, some 462,198 slaves constituted 44 percent of the state's total population. By the end of the antebellum era Georgia had more slaves and slaveholders than any state in the Lower South and was second only to Virginia in the South as a whole; and

WHEREAS, in January, 1830, the State of Georgia authorized the purchase of slaves for the purpose of building and maintaining roads, and by October of that year, the state had purchased 207 slaves for $50,000.00. In January of 1834, this state empowered Thomas King of McIntosh County to take over all of these slaves and use or sell them as he saw fit. They were sold at auction the following month; and

WHEREAS, even while slavery was playing a dominant economic and political role in Georgia, most white Georgians did not own slaves. In 1860, less than one-third of Georgia's adult white male population of 132,317 were slaveholders; and

WHEREAS, propping up the institution of slavery was a judicial system that denied African Americans the legal rights enjoyed by white Americans. Since the colonial era, children born of slave mothers were deemed chattel slaves, doomed to "follow the condition of the mother" irrespective of the father's status. Georgia law supported slavery by restricting the right of slaveholders to free individual slaves. Slaves were taxed as property by the state. Other statutes made the circulation of abolitionist material a capital offense and outlawed slave literacy and unsupervised assembly. Although the law technically prohibited whites from abusing or killing slaves, it was extremely rare for whites to be prosecuted and convicted for these crimes. The legal prohibition against slave testimony about whites denied slaves the ability to provide evidence of their victimization; and

WHEREAS, in spite of his promise that he would not interfere with slavery where it existed, Lincoln ended slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862; and

WHEREAS, even after the abolition of slavery by the 13th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution on December 18, 1865, there followed a systematic discrimination toward Americans of African descent that was rooted in racial bias and racial misunderstanding; and

WHEREAS, African Americans experienced varying degrees of political, social, and economic discrimination for almost 100 years until the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act led by heroes such as Georgia's Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., until all laws were rewritten to assure that every American is treated equally under the law; and

WHEREAS, in 2005, the Georgia General Assembly finally removed the last vestiges of the Jim Crow laws that remained on the law books.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that this body acknowledges that sanctioning and promoting the institution of slavery by the State of Georgia was wrong and that, as a result, denial of liberty and other grave injustices were inflicted on fellow human beings under the auspices of state law.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the House of Representatives expresses its profound regret for Georgia's role in the enslavement of Africans.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the members of this body hereby support the fair and accurate education of Georgia citizens about the inhumanity of slavery in order to foster a respect for the fundamental dignity of human life and the God given rights of all people as called for in the Declaration of Independence.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that slavery and the triumph against it, as well as efforts to end lingering inequality and discrimination, are to be embraced and celebrated as the State of Georgia marks the historic sesquicentennial anniversary of the Civil War; that official promotions and educational material should include Georgia's role in slavery; and that, by doing so, we will recognize that an accurate and unbiased understanding of our common history will make possible a deep and lasting reconciliation of all Georgians.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the House of Representatives is authorized and directed to transmit appropriate copies of this resolution to the Governor, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Chancellor of the Board of Regents, and the State School Superintendent.

[Oscar Knight]

Tyrone Brooks 63 ([e-mail]); Anytime that I see Tyrone Brooks name on the Bill, my alarms goes off.

Here is another Bill :

HR 28 - Rosa Parks and others; urging the placement of their portraits in the state capitol
Current VersionPDF Version
Sponsored By
(1) Brooks,Tyrone 63rd(2) Abdul-Salaam,Roberta 74th(3) Frazier,Gloria 123rd(4) Bruce,Roger 64th(5) Williams,Al 165th
Committees
HC:SRulesSC:
Current Status
01/15/09 - House Second Readers
First Reader Summary
A RESOLUTION honoring Mrs. Rosa Parks, Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., Reverend Hosea L. Williams, Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, and Reverend Joseph Everhart Boone, recognizing their accomplishments as worthy of enduring memorials, and urging the placement of their portraits in the state capitol; and for other purposes.

Status History
Date Action
01/14/2009 House First Readers
01/15/2009 House Second Readers
Versions

9 LC 21 0053
House Resolution 28
By: Representatives Brooks of the 63rd, Abdul-Salaam of the 74th, Frazier of the 123rd, Bruce of the 64th, and Williams of the 165th

A RESOLUTION


Honoring Mrs. Rosa Parks, Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., Reverend Hosea L. Williams, Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, and Reverend Joseph Everhart Boone, recognizing their accomplishments as worthy of enduring memorials, and urging the placement of their portraits in the state capitol; and for other purposes.

PART I

WHEREAS, on December 1, 1955, seamstress Rosa Parks became a beacon of courage and a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement when she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger, accepting arrest, trial, and conviction rather than humiliation; and

WHEREAS, her quiet insistence on human dignity in the face of segregation, racism, and Jim Crow laws sparked the city-wide bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, that brought an unknown young minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence; and

WHEREAS, alongside Dr. King, Rosa Parks became a leader and an icon in the national effort that resulted in the United States Supreme Court decision outlawing the segregation of city buses and gave critical momentum to the larger battle for civil rights; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks has been hailed as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" in America for her pivotal act on that day in Alabama, as well as for her lifelong commitment to justice for black Americans; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Congressional Gold Medal, and following her death at age 92, she become the first woman to lie in state in the United States Capitol Rotunda.

PART II

WHEREAS, Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., was born in Linden, Alabama, on March 11, 1926; and

WHEREAS, his involvement in political activism began while he was a student at Alabama State University when he led demonstrations protesting the lack of heat and hot water in his dormitory; and

WHEREAS, in 1951, he earned a Master of Arts degree in sociology from Atlanta University and then became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama; and

WHEREAS, while living in Montgomery, he formed a close and enduring partnership with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and

WHEREAS, in 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, Dr. Abernathy and Dr. King organized the bus boycott in Montgomery that ended when the United States Supreme Court affirmed the ruling that segregation on buses was unconstitutional; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Abernathy was the secretary-treasurer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and assumed the presidency of the SCLC after Dr. King's death; and

WHEREAS, in May, 1968, he organized the Poor People's Campaign March on Washington, D.C., hoping to bring attention to the plight of the nation's impoverished, and for which he was jailed for nearly three weeks; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Abernathy, a giant in the civil rights struggle whose legacy endures, died April 17, 1990.

PART III

WHEREAS, Reverend Hosea L. Williams was an activist fueled by compassionate understanding and raw courage, whose activism over the course of a career that spanned four decades was always in service to God, his family, his people, the nation, and all of humanity; and

WHEREAS, it was in leading the historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on "Bloody Sunday" in 1965 that Hosea L. Williams's courage was most evident, and that pivotal event was instrumental in securing passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and

WHEREAS, Reverend Williams served with distinction as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1974 to 1983, representing District 54; and

WHEREAS, as chief executive of "Hosea's Feed the Hungry and Homeless in Metro Atlanta," founded in 1970, Reverend Williams assumed responsibility for feeding thousands of Atlanta's homeless during the holidays each year; and

WHEREAS, Hosea L. Williams served the citizens of the State of Georgia with great effectiveness and unparalleled dedication and it is only fitting and proper that he be duly recognized and honored for decades of service in devotion to timeless principles.

PART IV

WHEREAS, Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery is one of the State of Georgia's most distinguished citizens, a nationally recognized preacher, and a renowned civil rights leader; and

WHEREAS, when Ebony magazine named him one of the nation's 15 greatest black preachers, he was described as "the consummate voice of biblical social relevancy, a focused voice, speaking truth to power"; and

WHEREAS, when the NAACP honored him at its 1997 convention, he was called the "dean of the civil rights movement"; and

WHEREAS, as head of the Civic Affairs Association in Mobile, Alabama, he led the movement for the desegregation of buses and public accommodations; and

WHEREAS, in 1957, he cofounded with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and served as its president and chief executive officer from 1977 to 1998; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Lowery led protests in Warren, North Carolina, against the dumping of toxic waste in poor communities, which led to the environmental justice movement; and
WHEREAS, he served as pastor of Atlanta's oldest predominantly black Central United Methodist Church for 18 years, and, from 1986 to 1992, he was the esteemed leader of the Cascade United Methodist Church; and

WHEREAS, as convener of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda, he is a strong force for election reform, criminal justice system reform, and government reform.

PART V

WHEREAS, premier clergyman and civil rights activist Reverend Joseph Everhart Boone had a career that spanned nearly four decades, transforming thousands of African American lives as he carried the message of economic dignity from the pulpit, through the streets, and to the boardrooms of America; and

WHEREAS, Reverend Boone was a man of uncommon vision, charged and driven by formidable dedication as he carried forth with unflagging courage his conviction that each citizen has the right to dignified participation in the American economy's mainstream, both as producers and consumers; and

WHEREAS, Reverend Boone's miraculous achievements included serving as Chief Negotiator for Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; presiding as Pastor at Rush Memorial Congregational Church in Atlanta, the meeting and organizational base for the Student Non-Violent Civil Rights movement, and at the First Congregational Church in Alabama, where he organized the first "Selective Buying Campaign" in Alabama; acting as Director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Summit Leadership Congress, Inc., during which time he was designated by Mrs. Coretta Scott King to coordinate the first leg of the "Poor People's Campaign"; leading the P.J. Woods Center for the Blind as its director, coordinating programs including a 24 hour residential treatment facility; and persuading the FCC as the cochairperson of Atlanta Against Unfairness in Broadcasting to condition license renewals for all major television and radio companies on providing credible programming which is relative to the needs of black people in Georgia; and

WHEREAS, Reverend Boone's career in public service earned him a distinguished series of honors and awards, including "Civic Leader of the Year" in 1959 from the First Congregational Church in Anniston, Alabama; "The Young Man of the Year in Religion" in 1964 from the Atlanta International Chapter of the Wise Men; The Excelsior Knights Citizenship Award in 1967; an appointment by Governor Jimmy Carter to the Governor's Council on Human Relations in 1971; WGUN's Outstanding Citizen Radio Award in 1971; "Civil Rights Fighter of the Year" in 1975 from the Bronner Brothers; and the "Civil Rights Award" in 1991 from Clark Atlanta University.

PART VI

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY that the members of this body honor Mrs. Rosa Parks, Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr., Reverend Hosea L. Williams, Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, and Reverend Joseph Everhart Boone for their gallant service to this state and this nation as leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and in recognition of that service urge the Capitol Arts Standards Commission to authorize the placement of a portrait of each of them on the second floor of the state capitol building alongside the portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the House of Representatives is authorized and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to the public and the press.

These dumb yahoos don't realize that the walls of the State Capitol are reserved for portraits of our Georgia Governors.

[Oscar Knight]

What surely need, is some good "Common Sense" legislation from these worthless "so called" legislators, if that is possible.

[Oscar Knight]

Ralston says apology is a 'backward' move

www.onlineathens.com/stories/022510/gen_567228882.shtml

[Deleted]

Feb 22, 2010 4:07:03 GMT -6 Oscar Knight said:

What surely need, is some good "Common Sense" legislation from these worthless "so called" legislators, if that is possible.

These "legislators" have no common sense to spare, as evidenced by the fatuous, narcissistic crap they latch onto and pursue to the exclusion of any legislation that could offer practical aid to their blighted and suffering districts. The sad truth is that the demographic that elected them would expect no more attention from them.

[virusdata]

Feb 26, 2010 22:55:25 GMT -6 @19and41 said:

Feb 22, 2010 4:07:03 GMT -6 Oscar Knight said:

What surely need, is some good "Common Sense" legislation from these worthless "so called" legislators, if that is possible.

These "legislators" have no common sense to spare, as evidenced by the fatuous, narcissistic crap they latch onto and pursue to the exclusion of any legislation that could offer practical aid to their blighted and suffering districts. The sad truth is that the demographic that elected them would expect no more attention from them.

19and41 your right they are dumb as rocks that is for sure, and most if not all of them lie to your face while smiling to you at the same time like that Roberta Sallam does she is the biggest lier and cook of them all as she have many ties to the Victor Hill and Scotts bunch of thugss and crooks.