NewsVine_Mariyam
Platinum Member
Charleston formally apologizes for its role in slavery
A southern city is formally apologizing for its dark past.
Charleston, South Carolina, has approved a resolution that condemns and apologizes for the centuries of human slavery that were supported and promoted by its former lawmakers. The city council's 12 members voted 7-5 to adopt the symbolic resolution Tuesday night, coinciding with "Juneteenth," the celebratory anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the United States.
The port city played a major role in the Atlantic slave trade. Nearly half of the people who were abducted from their homes in Africa and shipped to the United States to be sold into slavery took their first steps on American soil in Charleston. Slaves made up almost half of the city's population before the start of the American Civil War, according to the International African American Museum in Charleston.
"This is the modern city council which feels the need to make an apology for the institution of slavery in the city of Charleston," Charleston councilman William Dudley Gregorie, who helped author and shepherd the resolution, told ABC News in a telephone interview before Tuesday's vote.
AP
A southern city is formally apologizing for its dark past.
Charleston, South Carolina, has approved a resolution that condemns and apologizes for the centuries of human slavery that were supported and promoted by its former lawmakers. The city council's 12 members voted 7-5 to adopt the symbolic resolution Tuesday night, coinciding with "Juneteenth," the celebratory anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the United States.
The port city played a major role in the Atlantic slave trade. Nearly half of the people who were abducted from their homes in Africa and shipped to the United States to be sold into slavery took their first steps on American soil in Charleston. Slaves made up almost half of the city's population before the start of the American Civil War, according to the International African American Museum in Charleston.
"This is the modern city council which feels the need to make an apology for the institution of slavery in the city of Charleston," Charleston councilman William Dudley Gregorie, who helped author and shepherd the resolution, told ABC News in a telephone interview before Tuesday's vote.