From CNN:
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell apologized Wednesday for leaving out any reference to slavery in his recent proclamation designating April as Confederate History Month, calling it a “major omission.”
“The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed,” McDonnell said in a written statement.
“The abomination of slavery divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights, and led to the Civil War,” the statement continued. “Slavery was an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property, and it has left a stain on the soul of this state and nation.”
McDonnell also announced Wednesday that he would add language about slavery to the proclamation.
“(I)t is important for all Virginians to understand that the institution of slavery led to this (Civil) war and was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights,” the new language says, “and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders.”
McDonnell’s statement noted that while Virginia was home to the Capital of the Confederacy, it was also the first nation to elect an African-American governor, L. Douglas Wilder, who McDonnell called “my friend.”
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Wilder said that McDonnell’s apology and his introduction of additional proclamation language was “the right thing for him to have done.”
“Most people recognize that slavery was the cause of the (Civil) war,” Wilder said, noting that McDonnell had called him Wednesday. “The war was not a glorious thing in our past. It was something that we were able to withstand in terms of tearing the country apart. … Thank God that war ended with the Confederacy losing.”
Not all Democrats were willing to forgive McDonnell on Wednesday.
“He has a right to apologize,” Virginia State Sen. Henry Marsh III, a black Democrat, told CNN. “But I don’t accept that as a good answer because this is a pattern of this governor.”
“He says the wrong thing, he sends a signal to his base and then he makes an apology,” Marsh said, “It’s a question of whether or not he’s sincere or not.”
Other Democrats accepted McDonnell’s apology.
“My great, great grandparents, their offspring and others were split up in the Commonwealth of Virginia and sold into slavery,” Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor Donna Brazile said on Twitter. “Apology accepted.”
McDonnell is the first Virginia governor in eight years to issue a proclamation declaring April as Confederate History Month in the state, a move that drew criticism from Democrats and a civil rights group.
McDonnell quietly declared April Confederate History Month after two previous Democratic administrations refused to do so.
Virginia Delegate Kenneth Alexander, chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said the governor’s proclamation was offensive.
Other Southern states have issued similar proclamations for April. In Alabama, Republican Gov. Bob Riley declared April, the month the Civil War began, as Confederate History and Heritage Month. His statement condemned slavery.
