Latest Slavery News

Sculpture park aims to look honestly at slavery, honoring those who endured it

Mar. 18, 2024 11:03 AM EDT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Visitors to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park wind a serpentine path past art pieces depicting the lives of enslaved people in America and historic exhibits, including two cabins where the enslaved lived, before arriving at a towering monument. Stretching...

The Church of England aims to raise more than $1 billion to address its past links to slavery

Mar. 04, 2024 12:43 PM EST

LONDON (AP) — The Church of England should create a fund of 1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion) to address its historic links to slavery, an advisory panel said Monday. That's 10 times the amount the church previously set aside. An independent oversight group established by the church...

A Black author takes a new look at Georgia's white founder and his failed attempt to ban slavery

Feb. 17, 2024 09:45 AM EST

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Michael Thurmond thought he was reading familiar history at the burial place of Georgia's colonial founder. Then a single sentence on a marble plaque extolling the accomplishments of James Edward Oglethorpe left him stunned speechless. Within a lengthy tribute...

US Virgin Islands finalizes land swap deal to build school despite concerns over historic cay

Feb. 05, 2024 19:00 PM EST

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Virgin Islands on Monday finalized a long-awaited deal that will allow officials to build a public school on St. John as part of a land swap that many opposed because it involves an island with historical ties to slavery. The deal with the U.S....

Brazil, facing calls for reparations, wrangles with its painful legacy of slavery

Jan. 30, 2024 01:32 AM EST

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The executive manager for institutional relations at a Brazilian state bank took the microphone before roughly 150 people at a forum on slavery's legacy in his country, which kidnapped more Africans for forced labor than any other nation. “Today’s Bank of...

Republican candidates struggle with Civil War history as party grapples with race issues in present

Jan. 13, 2024 10:54 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Republicans make their case for the future, they keep getting stuck on the past. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent much of the summer mired in controversy over new educational standards that call for teaching that slaves developed skills that “could be applied...

Haley accuses Biden of giving 'offensive' speech at the church where racist mass shooting occurred

Jan. 08, 2024 21:32 PM EST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley took aim Monday night at the Democrat she'd like to face in the November election, calling it “offensive” that President Joe Biden gave “a political speech” at the South Carolina church where nine Black parishioners...

Nikki Haley doesn't mention slavery when asked what caused the Civil War. She later walks that back

Dec. 28, 2023 13:47 PM EST

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was asked at a New Hampshire town hall about the reason for the Civil War, and she didn’t mention slavery in her response. She walked back her comments hours later. Asked during Wednesday night's town hall in...

New York will set up a commission to consider reparations for slavery

Dec. 19, 2023 19:10 PM EST

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state will create a commission tasked with considering reparations to address the persistent, harmful effects of slavery in the state, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday. It comes at a time when many states and towns...