An Apology For Slavery? Contrition Carries Conditions:

Op-Ed By Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, JrTuesday, June 17, 1997
Washington, DC

I am not opposed to a congressional apology for slavery, but contrition carries conditions. A government apology for slavery is a valid collective symbolic act, but it is appropriate only if it is accompanied by substance that repairs the damage that is the basis for the apology.

I do not question the intentions of those who are sponsoring this legislation, because I believe their intentions are good and their concern is genuine. But just a simple apology, without anything attached to it, seems a little hollow to me.

My Bible tells me, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." It does not say, "Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also." Jesus had an objective measurement for the human spirit. Therefore, it would be inconsistent for the Congress to say that Americas heart is with an apology, but we cannot do anything about the unjust legacy of slavery, segregation and discrimination because our treasure is consumed with balancing the budget, not in responsibly reinvesting in America's future.

Obviously, it is appropriate for the federal government to apologize for slavery, since the federal government was intimately involved in establishing and perpetuating slavery. It passed laws (e.g., the Fugitive Slave Law and the Missouri Compromise of 1820) which furthered slavery. There were also Supreme Court decisions that bolstered slavery and established segregation (e.g., Dred Scott, 1857, and Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896).

But I am a little perplexed over all of these apologies - apologies for syphilis, apologies for slavery -- because they always seem to come when the country says it is broke (we are not), that we must be fiscally austere, that we must balance the budget or reduce the budget deficit. In other words, contrition without content.

Roman Catholic theology explains that you cannot just apologize to God and be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven. You must first go to purgatory and pay a kind of reparation for your sins before you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Webster's Dictionary explains it this way, Purgatory is a place or state of punishment wherein, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, the souls of those who die in God's grace may make satisfaction for past sins and so become fit for heaven.

It is not politically possible for the country to apologize just for slavery and grant reparations to African Americans exclusively. So I have a different recommendation. We should provide a full employment economy with jobs for ALL Americans, create a health care system that provides comprehensive and universal health care for ALL Americans, create a mixed economy that provides affordable housing for ALL Americans, invest in a public school system that provides a quality and multicultural education for ALL Americans, not just something for African Americans.

In such a climate of ECONOMIC SECURITY, the American people will be better able to hear a message of racial reconciliation, and will be more amenable to understanding the need for and be more open to supporting affirmative action, majority/minority congressional districts, immigration, economic set-asides and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I too have a dream that we can make such economic progress if we organize and create the political will. I have a dream that if we make America economically more secure for EVERYONE, we can make tremendous progress on the race question. I have a dream that we can move from racial battlegrounds to economic common ground and on to moral higher ground. Yes, I too have a dream for America that makes America better and includes every American. And Im going to spend the time I have in Congress working on that dream.

[Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. is a second term congressman from the Second Congressional District of Illinois who serves on the House Banking Financial Services and the Small Business Committees.]

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