Georgia Rep. Tyrone Brooks urges Georgia to apologize for slavery, racial discrimination

Georgia State Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta) is set to pre-file a resolution in Georgia Legislature in which the state officially acknowledges and apologizes for Jim Crow laws, slavery, racism and discrimination to the African-American population.  The bill is urging the state of Georgia to "express profound regret for this state's participation in the process of slavery" and calls for "reconciliation among all Georgians."

"Throughout their existence in America and even in the decades after the Civil Rights Movement, African-Americans have found the struggle to overcome the bitter legacy of slavery long and arduous, and for many African-Americans the scars left behind are unbearable, haunting their psyches and clouding their vision of the future and of America's many attributes," says the resolution that will be filed for discussion in the 2015 legislative session.

The legislation lays out the history of slavery world-wide and in America, mentions the "broken promises" that have been made to blacks in U.S. throughout the years, and underscores the current problems in treatment of African-Americans.  Brooks maintains in the resolution that many Americans today deny any wrongdoing or responsibility for "the centuries of legally sanctioned deprivation of African-Americans of their endowed rights or for contemporary policies that perpetuate the status quo."

The resolution also points out that European and African nations did apologize for their participation and contribution to the Atlantic Slave Trade. Furthermore, the bill says that reconciliation among the races is impossible without an official acknowledgment of the mistreatment.  Click here to read the resolution.

The Georgia General Assembly is majority-Republican and has in the past refused to go along with similar proposals. The Republican leadership in 2007 didn't understand the need to apologize for someone else's mistakes. Some states across the country, among them Virginia, passed comparable resolutions without much debate, but most southe states have resisted it.