|
Virginia becomes first state to apologize for slavery
RICHMOND, Va. — Meeting on the grounds of the former Confederate Capitol, the Virginia General Assembly voted unanimously last Saturday to express “profound regret” for the state’s role in slavery.
Sponsors of the resolution say they know of no other state that has apologized for slavery, although Missouri lawmakers are considering such a measure. The resolution does not carry the weight of law but sends an important symbolic message, supporters said.
“This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution,” said Delegate A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat who sponsored it in the House of Delegates.
The resolution passed the House 96-0 and cleared the 40-member Senate on an unanimous voice vote. It does not require Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s approval.
The measure also expressed regret for “the exploitation of Native Americans.”
The resolution was introduced as Virginia begins its celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619. Richmond, home to a popular boulevard lined with statues of Confederate heroes, later became another point of arrival for Africans and a slave-trade hub.
The resolution says government-sanctioned slavery “ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation’s history, and the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias and racial misunderstanding.”
The apology is the latest in a series of strides Virginia has made in overcoming its segregationist past. Virginia was the first state to elect a black governor — L. Douglas Wilder in 1989 — and the Legislature took a step toward atoning for Massive Resistance in 2004 by creating a scholarship fund for blacks whose schools were shut down between 1954 and 1964.
Judge frees Little Rock schools from federal supervision
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Little Rock’s school district has been freed from federal supervision, a half-century after a defiant governor’s refusal to allow nine black students into all-white Central High School sparked one of the biggest crises of the civil rights era.
U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson Jr. issued a ruling last Friday that found that the district was substantially complying with a 1998 desegregation plan worked out in the 27,000-student district.
Little Rock, which now has a black-majority school board, was satisfactorily evaluating its academic programs in the effort to improve achievement for blacks, the ruling found.
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower dispatched the 101st Airborne to enforce a U.S. Supreme Court order striking down segregation after Gov. Orval Faubus tried to prevent black students — called “the Little Rock Nine” — from enrolling at Central High.
Superintendent Roy Brooks was careful to note that Wilson’s decision did not mean an end to progress among the district’s students, 70 percent of whom are black.
“The district has been given back to the people of this community, and my pledge to them is to continue to work hard and recognize that we’re all going to have to work hard,” Brooks said.
A final sticking point, which stemmed from a 1982 lawsuit, had been whether the district was adequately measuring black students’ test scores to determine whether they were improving. Late last year, the district adopted a resolution that said it would continue to assess the progress of black students even if the district was not under court supervision.
In Little Rock, as is the case nationwide, black students on average score below their white classmates on standardized tests. The gap in Little Rock is as large as 40 points on both state and national standardized tests.
“We’re certainly disappointed in view of the lack of progress this district has made in addressing the needs of African American students,” said John Walker, a lawyer for Joshua Intervenors, which represents black students. “The standard was not high for the district to meet, but they certainly have not met it. We will have to pursue other means.”
Texas families seek to block governor’s vaccination order
AUSTIN, Texas — A group of families has sued in an attempt to block Gov. Rick Perry’s executive order requiring schoolgirls to be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer.
The lawsuit challenges Perry’s authority to issue the order and seeks to block any state money from being spent on the vaccine until that question is resolved, said Kenneth Chaiken, the attorney representing the families.
“The school-age girls of Texas are not guinea pigs who may be subjected to medical procedures at the apparent whim of Texas’ governor,” according to the lawsuit, filed last Thursday in Travis County.
Perry, a Republican, wants to require the vaccine for girls entering sixth grade. It protects against strains of human papapillomavirus (HPV) that cause most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts.
Supporters of the vaccine requirement say it will help fight a cancer that kills 3,700 American women each year.
But the order has inflamed conservatives who say it contradicts Texas’ abstinence-only sexual education policies and intrudes into family lives.
Perry is confident he had the authority to issue the order, his spokeswoman Krista Moody said.
“He sees this vaccine as not only a fiscally responsible order, but also one that has the potential to save the lives of thousands of women in Texas,” Moody said.
The governor’s order also upset many lawmakers in his own party, and a bill to override the measure is moving through the state House.
(Associated Press)
|
