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42 Conn. L. Rev. CONNtemplations 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/conntemp42 and id is 1 raw text is: CONNECTICUT
LAW REVIEW
VOLUME 42  CONNtemplations  FALL 2009

Apology Lite: Truths, Doubts, and Reconciliations in
the Senate's Guarded Apology for Slavery
KAIMIPONO DAVID WENGER
I. INTRODUCTION
The United States Senate formally apologized for slavery on June 18,
2009.' This followed an apology made nearly a year earlier, on July 29,
2008, by the House of Representatives.2        Unlike the House apology, the
Senate apology contains additional limiting language, specifically stating
that it cannot be used as a ground for monetary compensation.               The
apology is nearly nine hundred words, with a preamble which goes into
some detail about the wrongness of slavery, admitting that slaves were
brutalized, humiliated, [and] dehumanized.4 It then states:
(1) APOLOGY FOR THE ENSLAVEMENT AND SEGREGATION OF
AFRICAN-AMERICANS.-The Congress . . . apologizes to
African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United
States, for the wrongs committed against them and their
ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow
laws ....
Assistant Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law. I received helpful feedback from
Linda Keller, Alfred Brophy, and the participants in the Thomas Jefferson Junior Faculty workshop,
and excellent editorial assistance from Courtney Scala and the editors of CONNtenplations. All errors
are my own. Thanks as always to Mardell, Sullivan, Kace, and Indigo for their support.
'Krissah Thompson, Senate Backs Apology for Slavery; Resolution Specifies That It Cannot Be
Used in Reparations Cases, WASH. POST, June 19, 2009, at A05.
Id.; Darryl Fears, House Issues an Apology for Slavery, WASH. POST, July 30, 2008, at A03.
See Thompson, supra note 1, at A05 (One key difference is that the Senate version
explicitly . .. say[s] that the resolution cannot be used in support for claims for restitution ..).
4 S. Con. Res. 26, 111th Cong. (as passed by Senate, June 18, 2009).

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