Thursday, June 16, 2005
The Best Of: Senate Apologizes for Lynching
Hey everyone. Occasionally, when someone posts a truly profound, hard-hitting, or otherwise stand-out comment to our discussion group, you just might see it here on the Underground Railroad. The following comment is courtesy of Omar Woodard.I lauded the passage of S.Res 39, a formal Senate apology for lynching sponsored by Sen. Allen of VA (who has a questionable past of racial insensitivity as governor of Virginia) and Sen. Landrieu of LA. I ask you all to go to www.cspan.org and watch the discussion of the legislation. Interestingly, the vote took place at night, and was not a yea or nay vote, only a voice vote. There were 78 cosponsors of the legislation, and those who did not cosponsor the legislation were very interesting. I'll name a few:
Sens. Lott and Cochran of Mississippi
Sens. Hutchinson and Cornyn of Texas
Sens. Bennett and Hatch of Utah
Sens. Thomas and Enzi of Wyoming
Sens. Sununu and Gregg of New Hampshire
Sen. Shelby of Alabama
All told there are 21 senators, including 3 Democrats, that did not sign on. I am extremely displeased to see that, in addition to the voice vote (so their constituents would not have to know they voted for it). They spoke of previous Senates lacking courage, but this Senate lacked more courage than ever before, precisely because of the time of the debate (very late last night) and the voice vote.
The MSNBC article states, "Signatures missing Dan Duster, a descendant of Ida B. Wells, a former slave who became an anti-lynching crusader, praised senators who publicly backed the resolution of apology and scorned those who did not.
No lawmaker opposed the measure, but 20 of the 100 senators had not signed a statement of support of it shortly before a vote was taken on a nearly empty Senate floor.
"I think it's politics. They're afraid of losing votes from people of prejudice," Duster said of those who did not sign the statement of support.
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