- The County Commission will meet on Tuesday and vote on a proposal to acknowledge and apologize for Tallahassee's role in slavery.
- The proposal was introduced be County commissioner Bill Proctor.
- Watch the video above to hear from County commissioners and community members in our neighborhoods.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
There was a time where we had more slaves than slave owners…”
That was Leon County Commissioner, Bill Proctor.
He tells me what led him to proposing a plan to formally apologize for slavery in Leon County…
“The idea was presented to me by a constituent and I agreed and I brought it forward to the board that in this bicentennial, we needed to offer an apology…”
County commissioners will meet and vote on Proctor’s proposal on Tuesday…
An apology that others in the community are taking part in…
Recently, First Presbyterian Church unveiled a plaque that acknowledged and apologized for their role in slavery…
I asked Commissioner Proctor his thoughts of both him and First Presbyterian doing something similar…
“It was the First Presbyterian effort to apologize that county commissioners were, I believe, moved to do something similar…I want to thank First Presbyterian for that first domino falling…”
But Proctor and First Presbyterian aren’t the only ones taking action in the effort…
I asked Co-executive Director of the Florida Civil Rights Museum, Delaitre Hollinger, if he thought the proposal is necessary…
“As a fifth generation Leon Countian, whose ancestors where enslaved here in Leon County, I think it’s an excellent idea…”
Hollinger helped create the first Civil Rights Virtual Museum in the state of Florida… they recently received an additional 60-thousand-dollar grant from the county to expand that project…
As for Proctor… he tells me what he thinks about the idea personally and what the end goal could look like…
“This is a tremendous turn around; tremendous effort to reconcile our past…”
