"All pupils aged between 11 and 14 will be taught about the slave trade and the British empire when term begins next month to help them understand modern-day issues such as immigration. … Schoolchildren will learn about the roles of William Wilberforce, the MP who campaigned for the abolition of slavery, and Olaudah Equiano, a former slave who drew attention to the horrors of the trade after buying his freedom and writing an autobiography. They will also be taught about the origins of the empire, with one unit looking at rise and fall of the Mughals in India and the arrival of the British. Another is titled 'How was it that, by 1900, Britain controlled nearly a quarter of the world?' Kevin Brennan, the children's minister, said: 'Although we may be ashamed to admit it, the slave trade is an integral part of British history. … It is important that children learn about this and its links to wider world history, such as the American civil rights movement - the repercussions of which are still being felt today.'"

When House of Representatives passed a resolution last month apologizing for slavery, the bill's passage was cheered on behind the scenes by an unexpected Hollywood star. Ninety-one-year-old Kirk Douglas, Hollywood legend and father of Michael, has developed on online petition to get the Senate and President Bush to follow the House's lead. He explained to NPR why he was so invested in a slavery apology: "Well, first of all, I am a Jew. My people were slaves several thousand years ago. Maybe I should have asked for an apology from Egypt. I don't know," he added, laughing. "I guess I have always been against oppression. I have seen oppression against me, so I understand that. But I think, to me, as I get older I get less selfish."

From Think Progress: "On Tuesday, the House passed a formal apology for slavery and racist segregation laws, recognizing that 'African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow.' Yesterday, Glenn Beck spent nearly 30 minutes on his radio show mocking the apology. He continued expressing his outrage on his CNN Headline News show last night, during a discussion with Ron Paul. Paul wondered why Congress should apologize, since ' personally weren’t responsible.” Beck claimed that the apology “was a front [sic] to the principles of Christianity.'"

HMMMMMMMMM "[Buffalo, New York's] Juneteenth Festival drew a smaller crowd to Martin Luther King Park on Sunday, but still entertained festival-goers with a variety of events and activities celebrating African-American heritage and culture. … In addition to traditional events like the parade, this year’s festival included a re-enactment of a slave auction that took place throughout the two days. The actors stayed in character after the performance to answer questions from the crowd. … Debra Johnson, who has attended the festival nearly every year, said she couldn’t attend the re-enactment. 'Emotionally, I wasn’t ready for it,' Johnson said, adding that it was different to read and hear about such auctions then it was to actually see it."

LLOYD'S OF LONDON SUED OVER SLAVERY "Descendants of black American slaves have accused the Lloyd’s of London insurance market and two United States companies of profiting from the slave trade in a lawsuit seeking billions of pounds in damages. The suit, filed in Manhattan’s federal court, seeks just over £1 billion in punitive damages from Lloyd’s, tobacco firm RJ Reynolds and banking group FleetBoston. The suit also seeks unspecified actual damages. Filed on behalf of six adults and two children, the suit alleges the companies intentionally sought to destroy the plaintiffs’ 'people, culture, religion and heritage'. Lawyers for the eight plaintiffs said the complaint - unlike past lawsuits seeking reparations for slavery - was the first to use DNA to link the plaintiffs to Africans who suffered atrocities during the slave trade."

SLAVERY AFTER SLAVERY "The Journal-Constitution last week assembled a remarkable group to discuss a remarkable book: 'Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II.' The new book documents a South unknown to many —- a place in which white sheriffs, politicians and businessmen got rich by enslaving thousands of black men for decades after emancipation. The process was simple and evil: Black men were arrested on a pretext, shunted through a rigged system and then chained like animals and sent to work off their sentences or debts in coal mines and steel mills and on plantations."

MENGELAMERICANS From an interview with Harriet Washington, author of Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present: "James Marion Sims was a very important surgeon from Alabama, and all of his medical experimentation took place with slaves. He took the skulls of … young black children—only black children—and he opened their heads and moved around the bones of the skull to see what would happen, posited as a cure for disease, but there was no rationale for that. … And after this, he went north … he was elected the president of the American Medical Association."

REALLY, KOOL HERC? DJ Kool Herc, who is widely considered hip hop's founder, has decided to sue Jay-Z for slave reparations. Bruce Ratner, the developer Jay-Z has teamed up with to build a very controversial (in my neighborhood, residents protest it like it's the Vietnam War) sports complex in Brooklyn, and Barclays banks, which provided funding for the project, are also named in the suit.

According to The New York Observer, Kool Herc claims that Barclays Bank was founded by profits from the slave trade and that Mr. Ratner and Jay-Z worked “in concert” with Barclays, and “profited from the African Slave Trade and continue to profit from these gains, through a conspiracy dating back hundreds of years and continue to date to oppress Black people, enslave them, unlawfully deport them to all corners of the Earth.”

Good. Luck. With. That. [SS]