The nine members of the Annapolis City Council have voted unanimously to put a resolution apologizing for slavery on their agenda.
Alderman Samuel Shropshire introduced the legislation Monday night.
Shropshire, who has traced his own family back to a man who owned 90 slaves, said he has worked on crafting the resolution since he returned for a trip to Africa last year.
In a museum in Gambia, he encountered a copy of an ad from an Annapolis newspaper in 1767 promoting the upcoming sale of a cargo of African slaves.
“I was shocked and dumbfounded,” he recalled. Everyone knows about slavery, he said, but seeing that advertisement from his own city “made it real to me.”
Shropshire, who represents Ward 7, hopes Monday night?s vote will prove to be indicative of the final vote for approval. The alderman said he does not predict any opposition to his resolution.
“About 90 percent of the phone calls and e-mails I have gotten have been positive on this issue,” he said.
The final vote is expected within one to two months, Shropshire said. There has been some confusion, though, he said, and he wants to make it clear that this apology is on behalf of the city government, not its current populace.
“This is not an apology from the good citizens of Annapolis,” he said. “Why should people who were never supportive of slavery apologize for something they didn?t do? It is an apology from the Annapolis City Council. It?s an apology for our municipal government?s past support and involvement in slavery and for our support of segregation for nearly 100 years.”
Shropshire is excited by the steps the city is taking to atone for its past and the fact that Annapolis is probably the first slave port to issue a formal apology.
He said the resolution will call for a week of reflection during August.
The resolution will ask schools, faith groups and civic organizations to provide forums for discussion about the city?s participation in the African slave trade.
“Our resolution is meant to be an apology that is part of a healing process, a process that still needs to take place even today in 2007,” Shropshire said.
But an apology without concrete action is just words, he said. To that end, he wants the city to commit to improving opportunities for Annapolitans still suffering from the economic legacy of centuries of disenfranchisement.
Examiner Staff Writer Patti Rosenberg contributed to this report.
