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Gov. Jack Markell attempted to heal wounds left by Delaware’s legacy of racial oppression by signing a resolution Wednesday formally apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow era laws.
"Today we affirm that we refuse to forget our past,” Markell said during a signing ceremony. “We accept the responsibility of tearing down the barriers that face so many of our neighbors as a result of the abhorrent laws and practices carried out against African-Americans."
The signing – a long-awaited symbolic gesture aimed at reconciliation – took place at the Delaware Public Archives in Dover and coincided with the celebration of Black History Month and the unveiling of an exhibit commemorating the 125th anniversary of Delaware State University.
Before signing the resolution, Markell said the “egregious sin” of slavery should never be forgotten and should not be separated from the state’s current racial justice challenges.
Markell evoked a letter written by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from a Birmingham, Alabama, jail, where the civil rights leader was imprisoned for nonviolent demonstrations against segregation.
King wrote: "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."
“It is not enough for us to refrain from the bad; it’s not enough for us to be silent,” Markell said. “We have to speak up, and that is what this is all about.”
Delaware remained in the Union during the Civil War, but the state kept the right to own slaves until the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates the state had 1,798 slaves in 1860, when the free population was 110,418.
A census for 1790 estimated Delaware's slave population was 8,887.
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The signing makes Delaware the eighth state in which a legislature has formally apologized for slavery. Maryland lawmakers were the first to pass an apology resolution in 2006, expressing “profound regret” that it once “trafficked in human flesh.”
Virginia, the state with the largest slave population in 1860, did so the next year, pointing to "the immoral institution of human slavery, policies and systems directly antithetical to and irreconcilable with the fundamental principle of human equality and freedom."
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a similar resolution in 2008, followed by the U.S. Senate in 2009.
Delaware State University President Harry L. Williams said Delaware's apology Wednesday can now serve as a lesson to the rest of the country.
"I am so excited that I'm alive to tell the story about how our state, the First State, made a statement, and that statement was that we believe in justice and doing what is right," he said.
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The idea was first raised in Delaware in 2010 when the Dover City Council urged the General Assembly to act. The Legislature did not immediately take up the charge, and the effort languished.
It was revived in November when the Human Relations Commission, a state panel charged with promoting positive relationships among racial and ethnic groups, urged Markell and state lawmakers to issue a formal apology.
The General Assembly overwhelmingly passed House Joint Resolution 10 in January.
"It could have been divisive, but it wasn't," said Rep. James Johnson, D-New Castle.
The resolution “acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow," and "apologizes, on behalf of the people of Delaware, for the State's role in slavery and the wrongs committed against African-Americans and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow."
Markell late last year announced that he would sign the legislation.
"It's essential that we publicly and candidly and wholly recognize the everlasting damage of those sins," he told the congregation of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington on Dec. 6, on the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment's abolishment of slavery. He pointed to the "long legacy of damage that continues to result in inequality and unfair obstacles for countless citizens because of their race.”
Bill sponsor Rep. Stephanie T. Bolden, D-Wilmington East, was emotional Wednesday as she stood beside Markell for the signing.
“Delaware was one of the last states to abolish slavery, which is not something to be proud of here in the First State,” Bolden said. “Most of the states that had slavery have apologized for their historical role in such an inhumane practice, and I’m proud that Delaware is taking that step today.”
Senate Majority Whip Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East, said the struggle against racism and prejudice remains today.
“Individually, Delawareans do not bear responsibility for the horrors of slavery, but today we acknowledged collectively that our trajectory as a state and nation will be shaped by how we are able to reconcile and grow from our past,” she said.
The apology comes amidst a dialogue nationwide and in Delaware on racial justice. It has been fueled the Black Lives Matter movement, which was spawned from several high-profile incidents of police officers killing unarmed black people.
The governor last year posthumously pardoned Delaware abolitionist Samuel D. Burris, who was convicted 168 years ago of helping slaves escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Burris, a free man, was sentenced to 10 months in jail after he aided a young woman trying to flee Kent County for Philadelphia. At the time, slavery was legal in Delaware and state law punished those who aided escaping slaves.
Meanwhile, Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. has been leading efforts to find solutions to the disproportionate number of African-Americans in the state's criminal justice system. About 56 percent of adult inmates and 76 percent of youth inmates are African-American in Delaware, even though only 22 percent of the state's population is black.
Harmon Carey, founder and executive director of the Afro-American Historical Society in Wilmington, said he is pleased that the General Assembly passed and Markell signed the legislation.
“It is a symbolic victory, but I’m most interested in what will happen now,” said Carey, who sent a letter to Markell asking him to issue the apology. “Because the wording of the resolution not only includes an apology for slavery but speaks for the need for us to address some of the inequities and the lingering effects of slavery, we will see if the elected officials are really sincere on what should be done.”
Carey said he would like to see the Legislature invest in ways to improve the quality of education for black students and inject school curriculum with African-American heritage and history courses.
He also urged new efforts to lower the disproportionate number of black people who are incarcerated.
“I am just taking a wait-and-see attitude,” Carey said. “I will hope for the best, but I know that unless there is some plan for plans to address these myriad issues nothing is going to be done. I hope this is not just simply window dressing because if it is window dressing, it is all a waste of time.”
Markell said agreed that there are important steps that still need to be taken toward equal justice.
“We know that every step we take toward equality of opportunity brings us closer to the society we dream of for us and for our children,” he said. “Signing this resolution is an important step, but if anybody thinks this is the last step, then we are nowhere.”
“The work is what we have to do starting this afternoon,” he said.
Contact Jessica Masulli Reyes at (302) 324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli.