N.C. Senate apologizes for slavery, Jim Crow laws

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N.C. Senate apologizes for slavery, Jim Crow laws
By: Donnie Allison
Issue date: 4/11/07 Section: News
Last update: 4/11/07 at 11:55 AM EST
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Harry Watson


The North Carolina Senate unanimously passed a joint resolution last week apologizing for the state's past support of slavery and Jim Crow laws.

The resolution expressed "profound regret" for laws that "perpetuated the denial of basic human rights and dignity," and called upon citizens "to eliminate racial prejudices, injustices and discrimination."

Virginia offered the first formal apology of this kind in February and may soon be followed by Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York and Vermont, in addition to North Carolina.

During the floor debate, many senators said they see such apologies as a good start in the battle to eliminate racial injustices.

"An apology, particularly of the form that includes not only slavery but the nearly century-long practices of Jim Crow, can only be a positive step," William Darity, a professor of public policy studies, African and African American studies and economics, wrote in an e-mail.

Harry Watson, director of the Center for the Study of the American South and a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said it is important for the state to take responsibility for its own role.

"Slavery was an institution by state law... North Carolina is definitely the agent here," Watson said. "Therefore I think it's entirely appropriate that the state take this first step."

Timothy Tyson, a senior research scholar of documentary studies and a visiting professor of American Christianity and Southern culture at the Divinity School, compared the apology to a city allowing free parking at night.

"It's nice and doesn't cost much, and the community benefits from it in small ways," Tyson wrote in an e-mail. "But we should not kid ourselves into thinking this is something that will change everything."

Regardless of the resolution's practical impact, professors said the substance of the policy remains relevant.

"It's never too late to acknowledge that our society has made crucial mistakes," Tyson said. "Especially since we're still making them."

He added that there are currently more than 30 million slaves in the world-a number that dwarfs the 4 million freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.

Darity said that the tertiary effects of slavery are also a serious problem.

"The long-term effects of slavery are still with us, particularly because the nation embraced legal segregation after the Civil War," Darity said. "Desegregation did not become a significant reality throughout the South until the early 1970s."
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