[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11262]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          APOLOGY FOR SLAVERY

  (Mr. HALL of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Madam Speaker, today, on a date African Americans 
celebrate as their second Independence Day, I am introducing a 
resolution. This bill would put Congress on record as apologizing for 
all of our country and this institution and what they did to promote 
and sustain slavery and its terrible legacy.
  This building we work in and revere as one of the world's monuments 
to freedom and democracy, it is a place where much good has been done, 
but it is also one of the sites of one of the history's great wrongs, 
and that is slavery.
  Mr. Speaker, this building we revere was partly built by slaves, 
people who suffered terrible wrongs, people I believe our Nation owes 
an apology.
  I was surprised to learn that, despite the Civil War and despite the 
landmark civil rights legislation, despite all that has happened in the 
135 years since the last slaves learned they were free, our Nation has 
never apologized for the savage institution of slavery.
  I urge all of our colleagues to look in their hearts and support this 
bill.

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