City where many slaves entered US to apologize for slavery
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - The South Carolina city where almost half of all the slaves brought to the United States first set foot on American soil is ready to apologize for its role in the slave trade.
The resolution expected to be passed by the Charleston City Council on Tuesday offers a denouncement of slavery, a promise of tolerance in the future and a proposal for an office of racial reconciliation. The vote will be full of symbolism when it is taken by a majority-white council that meets in a City Hall built by slaves. It will happen less than a mile (1.5 kilometers) from the old wharf where slave ships unloaded - soon to be the site of a $75 million African-American history museum.
Tuesday is also "Juneteenth," a celebration of the end of slavery and just two days after the third anniversary of the racist attack by a white man that killed nine black church members at Emanuel AME church - a target picked in part by Dylann Roof because of its long history. In the 1800s, the church was closed after Charleston's white leaders thought church leaders had fostered a slave revolt. Church members were forced to worship in secret as a result.
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