Hearing at Old Courthouse makes Missouri face its past
By Jessica Bassett Of the St. Louis American
Community leaders stood before a Missouri House Interim Committee last week and testified that a formal apology for slavery is necessary if Missouri wants to move forward from its past and make things right with its black citizens.
“It’s more than an apology,” State Rep. T.D. El-Amin said.
“What this represents is an opportunity for us to really address the issues of race and open up meaningful dialogue to address the disparities that exist today.”
El-Amin, a chief sponsor of the apology resolution, called up nearly 15 witnesses to testify during the “Slavery Impact” hearing at the Old Courthouse – where in 1846 slaves Dred and Harriet Scott unsuccessfully sued their owner for their freedom.
The witnesses, ranging from a lawyer to an ex-convict to civil rights activists, pleaded that the educational, economic and financial hardships that blacks experience today are a direct result of their ancestors’ enslavement.
“White supremacy has had far-reaching implications on race relations to this day,” Jamala Rogers, leader of the Organization of Black Struggle, told the Special Interim Committee.
House leaders created the committee earlier this year to review slavery in the state prior to the end of the Civil War. The resolution failed to come to vote on the House floor.
The committee drafted a new resolution with an apology and is again trying to take it to the House floor.
Harold Crumpton, president of the St. Louis City branch of the NAACP, urged legislators to calculate how much of antebellum Missouri’s wealth was created by slaves.
That prompted state Rep. Scott Muschany, R-Frontenac, to ask Crumpton whether he endorsed reparations, which is monetary compensation to the descendants of slaves.
“Reparations immediately beg the question of whose pocket that money should come from,” Muschany said. “The owners of slaves are long dead and much of their fortunes are long gone.”
Crumpton responded, “I didn’t ask for anything other than the committee work hard to determine just what has occurred here. If that’s not a reason for the State of Missouri to apologize, then I can’t think of much more.”
Sharonda Shahid, attorney partner at Smith, Parker and Shahid Lawfirm, pointed to the disproportionate incarceration rates of blacks and the uneven sentencing guidelines between crack and cocaine. She said America’s tactics for oppressing blacks has transformed itself from Jim Crow to imprisonment.
“Apologies are rather empty if they do not include some type of change in behavior,” she said.
Zaki Baruti, another civil rights activists, said, “I think we all could agree that slavery was an evil wrong. There first needs to be an acknowledgement that it existed, and we are sorry for it.”
Thus far, 49 people have signed on to sponsor the apology bill; 82 signatures are neeeded to pass.
“I am optimistic and confident that the bill will pass, but the challenge is bringing it to the House for a vote,” El-Amin said.
In 1860, the total slave population in the U.S. was nearly 4 million. Over 114,900 of those were in Missouri.
So far, Virginia has been the only state to apologize for its role in slavery. No U.S. president or Congress has yet to apologize.