Senate passes slavery apology

After baring their experiences of race in a solemn session, the legislators unanimously endorse a message of contrition

In a still chamber, North Carolina senators Thursday approved a resolution apologizing for slavery as one after another discussed how a conflict central to the American experience reverberates in their lives.

The descendants of slave owners and the descendants of slaves wrestled with the inheritance of what has been called America's original sin. North Carolina still confronts problems that have their roots in slavery and legal segregation, they said.

"My middle name is the last name of the owners of my ancestors," said Sen. Charlie Smith Dannelly, a Charlotte Democrat.

"My grandfather was a slave owner," said Sen. Bill Purcell, a Laurinburg Democrat, "I've always had trouble dealing with that."

Purcell said he was bothered growing up seeing tenant farmers laboring in a system in which they could not make money, watching department store customers pay more than they should have, and seeing black students get hand-me-down books from white children.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue called the discussion "the most powerful words I've ever heard in here."

After a debate of about an hour, the resolution passed unanimously. It goes to the House for its consideration.

Senators refrained from the whispering, walking around and the verbal jousting that usually accompanies long debates. The Senate pages were told to sit. They weren't going to be running notes between desks.

On their way to supporting the resolution, Republicans reminded their colleagues that they can claim Abraham Lincoln, while Democrats at the turn of the century fought to deny blacks their rights.

Sen. Andrew Brock, a Davie County Republican, said he considered voting against the resolution because it excluded mention of the Democrats' role in the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot and how the party worked for discriminatory Jim Crow laws. Not for decades did Democrats champion civil rights.

"To study history, you must dig and dig deep and report what you find," Brock said. "It wasn't always glorious."

During the discussion, senators tried to answer critics who have called and written them arguing that an apology is hollow and meaningless.

In an interview this week, Richard Covington, a retired medical clinic manager from Cary, said he didn't see why the legislature should apologize.

"I think it's a little late," Covington said. "There's none of us who had any slaves or owned them."

Freedom denied

Senators said the apology was for state actions that denied black people freedom, an education and the vote.

"What we're talking about is state-sponsored discrimination," said Sen. Tony Foriest, an Alamance Democrat. "When we see things that are not right, we have the obligation to examine ourselves, and we don't always do that."

Sen. Stan Bingham, a Republican from Davidson County, said not only black people suffered. Bingham said his great-grandfather did not think it was right to fight in the Civil War, so he was sent to work in salt mines in Wilmington. His wife had trouble managing the family farm while he was gone and four of his children died.

"I rise to speak in tribute to him," Bingham said. "I know he suffered a lifetime of scorn and other things because of the nature of the times."

'Abiding respect'

Under the resolution's provisions, the legislature would urge all North Carolinians "to work daily to treat all persons with abiding respect for their humanity and to eliminate racial prejudices, injustices, and discrimination from our society."

Some senators said the legislature had to back its words with actions and work to eliminate disparities that they called vestiges of slavery and legal segregation.

Those disparities include higher infant mortality rates among African-Americans, higher rates of HIV infection and less success in school, said Sen. Doug Berger, a Democrat from Franklin County.

"We're still feeling the effects of it, and we still have the challenge to overcome those effects," he said.