SORRY ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH

A SIMPLE APOLOGY FOR SLAVERY LEAVES UNPAID DEBTS

Okay, Mr. President, I'll accept your apology for slavery. Now where's my 40 acres and mule? I'm referring to the land and farm animals freed slaves like my grandfather George White expected to get after the Civil War to help them support themselves and make their new liberty real. For most of them, of course, the promise never materialized, even though the Freedmen's Bureau had the authority to rent abandoned or confiscated Southern farmland to freed slaves until they could afford to buy it. If that brave promise had been kept, Mr. President, you wouldn't be embroiled in the latest debate...

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