(TN) House Speaker's slavery apology finds forgiveness

[struggle4progress]

Thursday February 26, 21:42:00 GMT-0500 2009
By Florence M. Howard

During his first visit to Memphis, Tennessee House Speaker Kent Williams of Elizabethton gave the people meeting with him something they never expected: An apology for slavery .... at the Feb. 21 meeting of the Lorraine Civil Rights Museum Oversight Committee, which was held at the National Civil Rights Museum.

Fresh from a visit to Slavehaven Underground Railroad Museum at the Burkle Estate, where museum director Elaine Turner of Heritage Tours had explained the economic benefits of the slave trade and presented evidence of slaves being sold in Memphis, Williams remarked that the only way white Americans could truly understand the abusive conditions and devastating effects of slavery was to imagine their own children in that particular situation.

Following Williams’ apology, Oversight Committee member Minister Suhkara A. Yahweh responded with three words: “We forgive you.”

On Jan. 13, Williams replaced Democrat Jimmy Naifeh as House Speaker with unanimous Democratic Party support and after casting the deciding vote for himself. A self-described “Carter County Republican,” Williams recently was kicked out of the Tennessee GOP (Grand Old Party) after he became speaker and, in the process, derailed the aspirations of Conservative Republican Jason Mumpower ...

http://tri-statedefenderonline.com/articlelive/articles/3599/1/House-Speakers-slavery-apology-finds-forgiveness/Page1.html

[SharonAnn]

1. Good for him to recognie that slavery was wrong and an apology was due.