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Article: Should the U.S. apologize for slavery? (some politicians think an apology is in order but many African American see it as too little for the magnitude of the genocide, while some non-Africans feel it is not their problem)
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- September 5, 1997
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Earlier this year, President Clinton apologized for the United States' not having awarded Medals of Honor to African American soldiers who fought heroically in World War II.
Congressman Tony Hall of Ohio thinks that another apology is in order. He has proposed that the government apologize to African Americans for slavery. "When you hurt somebody," he said, "...unless you go back and apologize, there's this underlying sense of hurt."
Many politicians and civil rights leaders agree with Hall. They say that many of our racial problems today can be traced back to slavery. We must first address slavery, they contend, if we ever hope to put racism behind ...