Slavery apology resolution has reparations disclaimer
By: Frederick Cosby
Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com
The Senate passed a resolution last week that calls on the United States to formally apologize for slavery and segregation, scourges that the measure says “brutalized” and “dehumanized” millions of blacks and subjected them to “the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage.”

“A national apology by the representative body of the people is a necessary collective response to a past collective injustice,” said. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who sponsored the resolution. “So it is both appropriate and imperative that Congress fulfill its moral obligation and officially apologize for slavery and Jim Crow laws.”

But instead of a kumbaya, feel-good moment, the voice vote passage of Harkin’s resolution prompted complaints from members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) that a disclaimer in the measure could hamper efforts of slave descendants to seek reparations for the wrongs of bondage and Jim Crow.

The disclaimer states that “Nothing in this resolution authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States.”

Some CBC members were so steamed about the language that they vowed not to support the resolution when it comes to the House of Representatives as early as next week for a vote. Several CBC members said disclaimers weren’t put in previous apologies, like the one in 1988 the federal government issued to Japanese-Americans who were held in U.S. camps during World War II. Some of those housed in the camps also received compensation from the government as part of the apology.

“Putting in a disclaimer takes away from the meaning of an apology,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told McClatchy Newspapers. “A number of us are prepared to vote against it in its present form. There are several members of the Progressive Caucus who feel the same way.”

If the resolution fails in the House, Congress cannot issue an apology. Resolution supporters were so confident of it easily clearing both houses that they have been planning an elaborate signing and apology ceremony to be held in the Capitol Rotunda early next month.

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Barbara Lee (D-Calif) diplomatically said the group was studying the resolution’s language. But other CBC members didn’t hide their ire about the disclaimer.

“If that’s what it says, I don’t support it,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) told CQ Politics.

Sen. Roland Burris, (D-Illinois) the Senate’s only black member, praised the resolution.

“Some in the black community will dismiss this resolution. Some will say that words don’t matter – that actions of our forefathers cannot be undone,” Burris said on the Senate floor. “But words do matter. They matter a great deal.”

However, Burris too expressed concern about the disclaimer. “I want to go on record making sure that that disclaimer in no way would eliminate future actions that may be brought before this body that may deal with reparations,” he said.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who is shepherding the Harkin resolution in the House and had his own slavery apology measure pass the House last year without a disclaimer, said the stipulation in Harkin’s resolution doesn’t specifically address reparations.

He described the language was standard legalese that senators required for it to pass in their chamber. “It doesn’t set reparations back,” Cohen told McClatchy Newspapers.

There’s been steady effort over the years by individuals and groups to bring the issue of reparations from governments and businesses for their involvement in slavery and the slave trade to the forefront. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, annually introduces a bill calling for a congressional study of reparations.

Established organizations like the National Bar Association, NAACP and the Urban League have sided with groups like the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America in seeking a fair hearing of the reparations idea. And international organizations like Human Rights Watch have come out in support of the reparations concept.

“The support of these organizations clearly demonstrates that the reparations movement is not just the futile cries of a marginal group in our society,” then-N’COBRA Interim Co-Chair Kibibi Tyehimnba told Conyers and other members of Congress in April 2005.

Despite the flap over the disclaimer, Harkin’s resolution brimmed with historical significance. It represented only the second time a chamber of Congress has supported issuing a slavery apology.

The Senate vote occurred more than 40 years after passage of the Civil Rights Act and in a year commemorating the 80th birthday of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, and the swearing in of Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president.