slavery

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McDonnell Apology 'Incredibly Important Step'

Ta-Nehisi Coates isn't joining in on the criticism

(Newser) - Ta-Nehisi Coates doesn’t want to fight with conservatives over race all the time. “I want so bad to take up skiing,” he writes, “to drive across Montana and think of nothing of being the only black person for miles.” That’s why he’s giving...

Virginia Is for Lovers (of Revisionist History)

States seems content to forget the facts, Collins says

(Newser) - Virginia might not be so much for lovers as for haters, writes Gail Collins—or at least crazy revisionists of history. Gov. Bob McDonnell's celebration of "Confederate History Month," which failed to acknowledge the existence of slavery in its "love affair with all things Confederate," is...

Va. Gov: Sorry I Omitted Slavery in Confederacy Celebration

Bob McDonnell backtracks under fire

(Newser) - Under fire from Democrats, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell apologized this afternoon to “any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed” that he didn’t mention slavery yesterday when he announced that the state would celebrate Confederate History Month in April. “Slavery was an evil, vicious and inhumane...

Catholics Push Sainthood for First Black US Priest

Rev. Augustus Tolton led Chicago mission

(Newser) - Chicago’s Roman Catholic leader is making a case that the faith’s first known black priest in the US should be made a saint, with Cardinal Francis George today asking a commission to bring the Vatican evidence of the “heroic virtues” of the Rev. Augustus Tolton. Tolton, the...

Arizona Rep.: Blacks Better Off as Slaves

Current policy killing community, GOP's Trent Franks says

(Newser) - Asked today by a conservative blogger about the role of race in the hyper-partisan, talk-radio-addled atmosphere in Washington, Republican Rep. Trent Franks took the opportunity to say that he thinks African Americans were better off under slavery. Go here for the full interview. Some excerpts:

Pyramids Not Built by Slaves: Scientists

Tombs found near king's suggest laborers were free workers

(Newser) - The Great Pyramids of Egypt were built not by slaves, as is commonly believed, but by free workers of such high status that their tombs lie near the king's. The laborers built the Khufu and Khafre pyramids, and the research made public today sheds new light on graffiti describing the...

Glenn Beck Calls 'African-American' a 'Bogus' Term

Shock jock offers vocabulary lesson

(Newser) - Glenn Beck doesn’t like the 2010 US Census form one bit, because it allows people to identify themselves as “African-American,” a “bogus, PC, made-up term” that is “not a race.” Speaking on his Fox News show, the host offered his objections to the designation....

EU Court Labels Sex Trafficking As Slavery

Panel slams Russia, Cyprus in death of 20-year-old woman

(Newser) - Sex trafficking constitutes slavery and is a violation of treaties demanding action to stop the crime, an EU court has ruled. It's the first time the EU Human Rights Court has outlined the responsibilities of authorities in cracking down on the crime. If police have a "credible suspicion" that...

Counting Blacks as 3/5? OK by Glenn Beck
 Counting Blacks 
 as 3/5? OK by 
 Glenn Beck 
CONSTITUTION ACCORDING TO ...
Dec 15, 2009 9:13 PM CST

Counting Blacks as 3/5? OK by Glenn Beck

Founding Fathers had abolition in mind, says pundit

(Newser) - Glenn Beck today put his spin on a provision in the US Constitution that once counted slaves as three-fifths of a person, painting it as a tool by which Northern abolitionists meant eventually to outlaw the practice. An African-American caller took issue with Beck’s reliance on the founding fathers,...

Reid Compares Health-Reform Opponents to Segregationists

... to predictably furious Republican reaction

(Newser) - Not that the health-reform debate needed more fuel for its rancorous fire, but Democrat Harry Reid tossed some on today anyway, comparing conservatives who would block the current measure to those who tried to stop the emancipation of slaves and universal suffrage. The GOP reaction was swift and angry, with...

Columnist Backtracks, Slightly, on Limbaugh Quote

Rush still has no business trying to own the Rams

(Newser) - Columnist Bryan Burwell acknowledges that he is among those who ran with an old quote attributed to Rush Limbaugh on the "merits" of slavery without verifying it. Limbaugh insists he never said it, and Burwell is fine taking him at his word on that. It doesn't change his view...

First Lady's Roots Linked to Slave Girl

Genealogist fills in gaps of her lineage

(Newser) - Michelle Obama can trace her lineage to a female slave sold as a young girl from a South Carolina plantation and sent to Georgia. As a teenager, Melvinia Shields became impregnated by a white man, possibly her master, and those two are the great-great-great grandparents of Michelle. A genealogist working...

Slavery Reparations Should Be Obama's Next Stimulus

Time for the president to break his long silence on America's racial divide

(Newser) - President Obama is taking so much heat from opponents wrongly convinced that he's keen on redistributing white America's wealth to African-Americans that he might as well go ahead and do it, Naomi Klein writes in the Guardian. Obama's administration has been pursuing "race-neutral" policies that do nothing to close...

Obama: Slavery Monument 'Place of Profound Sadness'

(Newser) - President Obama toured the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana today, a shipping-off point for African slaves to America, Reuters reports. He saw the monument as a reminder. “As painful as it is,” the president said, “I think that it helps to teach all of us that we...

Senate Apologizes for Slavery
 Senate Apologizes for Slavery 
Jun 18, 2009 1:45 PM CDT

Senate Apologizes for Slavery

(Newser) - The Senate today apologized for slavery and civil rights abuses against African-Americans, CNN reports. The unanimous gesture—it comes on the eve of Juneteenth, which marks the end of the Civil War—carries a disclaimer that it's not meant to authorize reparations, notes the Chicago Tribune. The House will vote...

Slumdog Star's Mom, Stepmom Lock Horns

Stepmom says biological mom had no interest in Rubina Ali until the Oscars

(Newser) - The mother and stepmother of Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali slapped and tore at each other in a Mumbai slum today, the Daily Mail reports. The mother started the catfight after Ali's dad, Rafiq Qureshi, was arrested for allegedly trying to sell the 9-year-old for £200,000. “You...

Time to Stop Fighting the Civil War in History Class

Obama means 'honest' discourse on race

(Newser) - Ask a Northerner what caused the Civil War and he'll say slavery, while Southerners are likely to say states’ rights, or economic differences. That self-justifying shorthand is reflected in what's taught in schools, too. But with the election of Barack Obama, historians say new ground has been broken in the...

Scholar Who Lived Black History Dead at 94

John Hope Franklin embodied black history

(Newser) - Influential historian John Hope Franklin died yesterday at 94. The author of a seminal book on race, Franklin was born and raised in an all-black community in Oklahoma, marched in Selma, and assisted on a Brown v. Board of Education brief. "He managed to embody this history and yet...

'A Little Slavery' Is Not OK, Gov. Crist

(Newser) - A dozen years of prosecutions against Florida slave-holders still hasn't convinced Gov. Charlie Crist to back the cause—but he better, Barry Estabrook writes in Gourmet. Advocacy groups, who have tried for 2 years to meet with him, now threaten to re-enact slavery abuses in the state’s capital. Such...

Jacko Bro Plans Slavery Theme Park

Historians condemn $3.4B project

(Newser) - Michael Jackson's big brother Marlon wants to bring tourists to Nigeria by building a $3.4 billion resort—complete with an ever-so-slightly controversial slavery theme park, a replica slave ship, oh, and a Jackson Five exhibit, the Telegraph reports. Visitors to the park, located in Badagry, the departure point for...

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