NNPA Columnist Julianne Malveaux
I am not sure how I feel about the United States Senate unanimously passing a resolution apologizing for the historic mistreatment of African- American people.
The resolution “acknowledged the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery” and “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 laws.” Unanimously passed!
Part of me is appreciative. Part of me says too little, too late, and what’s next. There is a necessary next step: to understand exactly what the Senate (and Congress) are apologizing for.
Congressman John Conyers has, since 1989, introduced legislation to simply study the impact that slavery had on contemporary African-American life. Last time I checked, the cost of the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act had a modest price ticket, something around $12 million.
I know that there are those who say, “Just get over it.”
The descendents of slaves are the only ones asked to get over our history. Of course, this is a history about which so many Americans have much ambivalence. How can we, on one hand, tout education while accepting the fact that more than 15 Southern states passed laws that prevented slaves from learning to read?
“To teach a slave to read is to excite dissatisfaction to the detriment of the general population,” reads the 1831 law that passed in North Carolina.
Even if we could “get over” slavery, what about contemporary disparities, such as the growing wealth gap? Are we supposed to get over that, too?
The Conyers Commission would “examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies.”
What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with getting it all out?
The remedy might not be reparations. The remedy might be community repair, as in upgrade inner city high schools and HBCUs. An apology without a remedy is only symbolic.
Let’s get past the symbolism to really review and repair aspects of our history.
Conyers can’t even get the full support of the Congressional Black Caucus, and that’s a shame. For him, though, it does not matter. He believes in this study.
The Senate apology, passed just two days before Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day that Texas slaves were informed that they were free (June 19, 1865, more than two years after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation) represents growth and the possibility of healing for our nation.
It does not close the door, however, on a history that can only be described as shameful.
Julianne Malveaux is president of Bennett College for Women. She can be reached at presbennett@bennett.edu.