McDonnell apologizes for leaving slavery out of history proclamation

5:50 p.m.

Gov. Bob McDonnell this afternoon apologized for omitting slavery from his declaration on Confederate History Month.

He said in a statement:

“The proclamation issued by this Office designating April as Confederate History Month contained a major omission. The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed. The abomination of slavery divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights, and led to the Civil War. Slavery was an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property, and it has left a stain on the soul of this state and nation. In 2007, the Virginia General Assembly approved a formal statement of 'profound regret' for the Commonwealth’s history of slavery, which was the right thing to do."

About the same time, former Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine issued a statement condemning McDonnell's omission.

Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said: "A failure to acknowledge the central role of slavery in the Confederacy and deeming insignificant the reprehensible transgression of moral standards of liberty and equality that slavery represented is simply not acceptable in the America of the 21st century.”

Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones also issued a statement that concluded:

"For those who don't know all that Virginia truly has to offer, actions such as this -- which garner national exposure and attention -- in the end can do more damage to our reputation and can hamper our ability to reconcile our complicated past."

4:30 p.m.

In a statement issued this afternoon, David Mills, executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said McDonnell “appears determined to take Virginia backwards. The McDonnell Administration’s intolerant policies and pronouncements threaten to cost Virginia jobs .¤.¤.

“Unfortunately, the McDonnell Administration is consistently sending a message to the rest of the nation that Virginia is not a place of opportunity for all. From his refusal to issue an executive order protecting all Virginians from discrimination to his failure to even acknowledge our painful history of slavery, Governor McDonnell has failed to make good on his inaugural promise of ‘A Commonwealth of Opportunity.’ ”

Mills called on McDonnell to amend his declaration “to acknowledge Virginia’s complex history and address the role that slavery played in the Civil War.”

3:45 p.m.

Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, appearing on MSNBC-TV, called McDonnell’s proclamation “very troubling”. She said she couldn’t understand how the governor could issue a 353-word proclamation without mentioning the word “slavery.”

Whipple, who is chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said “you can’t just erase a part of history.”

Asked if it would have been an appropriate proclamation if McDonnell had talked about slavery, Whipple said that, instead of referring to Confederate History Month, McDonnell should also have talked about Civil War history and the role that pro-Union, anti-slavery Virginians played in it.

Asked if McDonnell were playing to his base, Whipple said “he needs to remember that he is the governor of all Virginians.”

2:55 p.m.

Sheila Johnson, a former supporter of Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine who backed Republican Bob McDonnell in last year's gubernatorial election, said today she condemns the governor's proclamation.

"I must condemn Gov. McDonnell's proclamation honoring 'Confederate History Month' and its insensitive disregard of Virginia's complicated and painful history, the remnants of which many Virginians still wrestle with today," said Johnson, an African-American business owner.

"The complete omission of slavery from an official government document, which purports to be a call for Virginians to 'understand' and 'study' their history, is both academically flawed and personally offensive. If Virginians are to celebrate their 'shared history' as this proclamation suggests, then the whole truth of this history must be recognized and not evaded."

9:45 a.m.
Democrats are keeping up the opposition to Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell's proclamation reviving April as Confederate History Month.

Today, Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, chair of the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus, is scheduled to appear on MSNBC to talk about the proclamation, first reported yesterday by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and the state chapter of the NAACP criticized the governor's decision to reinstate the designation after an eight year hiatus under two Democratic governors.

But the group who requested the designation, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, are cheering McDonnell's move, saying it's particularly important in advance of next year's sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War.

Brag Bowling, a top official with the state chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said in a statement yesterday that "Governor McDonnell was spot on by using the proclamation to showcase the benefits to our state for both educating our children and promoting tourism."

"If the proclamation does anything, it hopefully will be a nail in the coffin of political correctness, an insidious disease infecting our nation. As has often been said, history is history and education is the tool to teach people who we are and where we come from."

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. This morning's story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch is posted below.)

Gov. Bob McDonnell has revived April's designation as Confederate History Month, embracing a chapter of Virginia's history that has caused headaches for former governors.

And like those Republican predecessors, McDonnell is coming under fire from critics who are calling the proclamation "offensive" and a "disturbing revision of the Civil War and the brutal era that followed."

McDonnell said yesterday that he issued the proclamation at the request of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that is heralding the decision.

The proclamation states that "it is important for all Virginians to reflect upon our commonwealth's shared history, to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present."

The past two governors, both Democrats, refused to issue a proclamation to designate Confederate History Month. Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy for most of the Civil War.

Del. Kenneth C. Alexander, D-Norfolk, chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said in a statement yesterday that McDonnell's proclamation offered a "disturbing revision of the Civil War."

"Virginia has worked hard to move beyond the very things for which Governor McDonnell seems nostalgic," Alexander said.

King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the Virginia State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has battled previously over such proclamations and said yesterday that McDonnell is "extolling the Confederacy by naming this Confederate History Month." He said the executive committee of the state NAACP will meet this weekend to address this and their other concerns about McDonnell.

The proclamation, one of several that McDonnell has made bestowing special designations in April, states in part that "this defining chapter in Virginia's history should not be forgotten, but instead should be studied, understood and remembered by all Virginians, both in the context of the time in which it took place, but also in the context of the time in which we live."

Asked yesterday why his proclamation did not mention slavery, McDonnell said that he was not "focused" on that part of the state's past. He said people can learn more about Civil War history in Virginia and pointed to next year's sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War.

Then-Gov. George Allen caught flak for issuing his Confederate History and Heritage Month proclamation.

His successor, Gov. Jim Gilmore, took a different approach after the state NAACP chapter threatened to boycott Virginia's tourist attractions because it viewed one of his Confederate History Month proclamations as insulting to blacks.

Gilmore issued a proclamation called "In Remembrance of the Sacrifices and Honor of All Virginians Who Served in the Civil War" commemorating the valor of black and white Virginians who fought for either the North or South.

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or omeola@timesdispatch.com.