National: Connecticut Ponders Slavery Apology; A Renowned “Modern-day Griot” Dies; Prudential Names First Black CEO

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Connecticut Ponders Slavery Apology Lawmakers in Connecticut are considering following the footsteps of five other states by apologizing for its role in the slave trade and other government-sanctioned racist policies of the past. On Monday, a legislative committee pondered a resolution that would issue a formal, general apology and express the General Assembly’s “profound contrition” for the official acts that sanctioned and perpetuated slavery hundreds of years ago, The Associated Press reports. If the resolution passes, Connecticut would become the first New England state to acknowledge that it played a role in one of the nation’s most heinous acts of inhumanity in history. New Jersey is the only other northern state to do so, joining the southern quartet of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Alabama. Connecticut’s African-American Affairs Commission, which advocates on behalf of Black residents, says that passing the resolution would exemplify “an exercise in reconciliation” and is not intended to assess blame for slavery. “While this is encouraging,” the commission’s legislative analyst, Frank Sykes told the legislature’s Government Administration and Elections Committee, “it should inspire us and challenge us to continue peeling away at the layers of racial discrimination and intolerance.” Barack Obama’s ascension as president of the United States has opened the door for such an opportunity, he noted, and it “must be seized.” African Americans comprise about a tenth of Connecticut’s population, according to U.S. Census estimates for 2007. “Slavery has left a cultural burden on both the exploited and the exploiters that still permeates our society,” John A. Stewart, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Hartford, told AP. He cited his state’s employment and wage gaps, noting that Black men earn 70 percent of their White male counterparts. Black men are four times as likely as White men to live below the federal poverty line, and Black children under 5 are seven times more likely than White children to live in poverty, Stewart said. “…[S]lavery was practiced in Connecticut from the 17th through 19th centuries,” AP writes, citing the resolution. “There were about 5,100 slaves in the colony by the mid-1770s, about 3 percent of the population at the time. In 1723, the colony passed an act creating a 9 p.m. curfew for slaves to prevent what it called the ‘Disorder of Negro and Indian Servants and Slaves in the Night Season.’ Violation of the curfew was punishable by a whipping for the servant and a fine for the master.” As the state’s wealth burgeoned, the resolution states, “merchants participated in the Triangle Trade, which carried slaves, crops and goods among West Africa, the Caribbean and America.” And on numerous occasions, the state rejected opportunities to stand up for freedom and voting rights. Once emancipation finally came to Connecticut in 1848, the state became a leader in the abolition movement, the resolution also points out.

A Renowned “Modern-day Griot” Dies William H. Smith, lauded by admirers as a “modern-day griot” for the way he handed down to future generations essential cultural elements, has died of heart failure. He was 88. Smith, a painter, sculptor, and advertising professional, passed away at Silver Lake Center, a nursing home in Bristol, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. It was as a teen that Smith first gained notoriety, having painted a series of murals on African-American history at Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, from which he graduated in 1939, Philly.com reports. Smith’s acrylic, oil, pastel and pencil works had been exhibited at the U.S. embassy in Oman, the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Pennsylvania, according to his daughter, Claire, a former sports columnist for The Inquirer and the New York Times. “He was a modern-day griot,” she said, “an African storyteller, historian and entertainer.” His sculpture of Harriet Tubman, commissioned by the African American Historical and Cultural Society of Bucks County, stands in Bristol Lions Park, Philly.com reports.

Prudential Names First Black CEO West Africa native Tidjane Thiam is the first Black CEO ever to run a FTSE 100 company after he was named to head Prudential. Read more.

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