Obama commemorates the end of slavery
buzzz worthy. . .
President Obama and Congress last week commemorated the moment 119 all White men in the U.S. House of Representatives would forever abolish slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
“Today, the issue of chattel slavery seems so simple, so obvious — it is wrong in every sense, stealing men, women, and children from their homelands, tearing husband from wife, parent from child; stripped and sold to the highest bidder; shackled in chains and bloodied with the whip,” Obama said in Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol.
“It’s antithetical not only to our conception of human rights and dignity, but to our conception of ourselves — a people founded on the premise that all are created equal.”
As President Obama, the nation's first Black president prepares to exit his post, the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation's ratification is a poignant reminder of the equal rights and fair treatment of Blacks who have been disproportionately victimized by police killings. Despite Obama's tendency toward optimism, throughout his administration the tone of race relations has changed to reflect the temperament of prejudice toward blacks and other minorities that caused the Civil Rights Movement.
 |
| Photo by Lawrence Jackson |
“Today, the issue of chattel slavery seems so simple, so obvious — it is wrong in every sense, stealing men, women, and children from their homelands, tearing husband from wife, parent from child; stripped and sold to the highest bidder; shackled in chains and bloodied with the whip,” Obama said in Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol.
“It’s antithetical not only to our conception of human rights and dignity, but to our conception of ourselves — a people founded on the premise that all are created equal.”
As President Obama, the nation's first Black president prepares to exit his post, the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation's ratification is a poignant reminder of the equal rights and fair treatment of Blacks who have been disproportionately victimized by police killings. Despite Obama's tendency toward optimism, throughout his administration the tone of race relations has changed to reflect the temperament of prejudice toward blacks and other minorities that caused the Civil Rights Movement.
