Slavery

NAACP Applauds U.S. Senate for Passing Bipartisan Resolution Apologizing for the Enslavement and Racial Segregation of African-Americans; Urges U.S. House to Pass Concurrent Resolution Swiftly

WASHINGTON DC—The NAACP commends the United States Senate today for its passage of a historic resolution apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans.    » read more »

United States Senator Roland W. Burris Delivers Floor Statement on Senate Resolution to Apologize for Slavery

June 18, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Roland W. Burris today delivered a statement on the Senate floor supporting Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) for their introduction of a resolution to apologize for slavery, Jim Crow laws, and policies of segregation and hate.

Senator Burris made the following remarks from the Senate floor:    » read more »

December 04, 2007 -- (Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) spoke on the House floor in support of H.R. 3887, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization of 2007. Conyers was an original co-sponsor of the bill, which is expected to pass on the House floor this evening and seeks to provide new tools to combat modern day slavery. Last month, his committee held a hearing on the issue. A link to video of Conyers' floor speech is available here. The full text of his remarks is below:    » read more »

October 17, 2007 -- TRENTON - New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced today that a West Windsor woman has been sentenced for forcing a young Filipino woman who came to the U.S. as a nanny to instead care for her ailing husband and do her housekeeping for two years.    » read more »

October 2007 -- British, African and Caribbean museums joined hands to celebrate the 2007 Bicentenary Abolition of the Slave Trade by the UK Parliament and to launch a new museum partnership initiative for sharing information about the trans-Atlantic slave trade.    » read more »

August 23, 2007 -- TRENTON - New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced that a West Windsor woman pleaded guilty today to forcing a young Filipino woman who came to the U.S. as a nanny to instead care for her ailing husband and do her housekeeping for two years.

The young woman’s passport and visa were taken away, and she was told not to leave the house without family members because she would be arrested. She was paid only a small fraction of what she was supposed to receive for coming to work in the U.S.    » read more »

June 19, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) issued the following statement on Juneteenth Independence Day, the anniversary of June 19, 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas with news the Civil War had ended, effectively emancipating slaves in the Southwest. Obama is a co-sponsor of a resolution commemorating Juneteenth that is expected to be considered by the Senate today.

The text of the statement is below:    » read more »

June 19, 2007 -- Washington, DC — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada made the following statement today, honoring the 142nd anniversary of Juneteenth Independence Day:

“We celebrate an important anniversary today, one that allows us to both remember the cruelty of slavery so many endured and celebrate the freedoms we now enjoy.    » read more »

June 19, 2007 -- Washington, D.C. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today in honor of Juneteenth, the day in 1865 that news spread that the Civil War was over and that all slaves were free:

“In his famous Gettysburg address, President Abraham Lincoln promised a new birth of freedom in our nation. And today we commemorate the day of new birth in which all people in America were made free: June 19, 1865.    » read more »

June 19, 2007 -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and DNC Black Caucus Chair Virgie Rollins issued the following statement commemorating Juneteenth, the oldest emancipation celebration held throughout the country.    » read more »

19 June 2007 -- Today’s observance of Juneteenth marks the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. America’s civil war had ended at Appomattox, Virginia in April, 1865. But on June 19, 1865, two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the news finally reached Galveston, Texas: masters could no longer consider slaves their private property.    » read more »