Tuesday night, the Madison City Council failed to pass a proposal to call on the president and members of the U.S. Congress to study the effects of slavery, discrimination and racism on black citizens and the overall culture of the nation.
The proposal called for a resolution asking Congress to \study and resolve the issue of reparations for descendants of African-American slaves who were forced to supply their labor under extreme conditions of tyranny and injustice to build this nation.""
The council voted 9 to 7 in favor of the measure, but failed to reach the majority necessary to pass.
The meeting saw a surge in attendance due to the heated issue. Forty-eight people registered their support of the proposal, with more than 10 citizens articulating their emotions and opinions to the crowd. None of the citizens spoke publicly against the proposal.
The speakers, including members of the black, Asian, and white communities, said they agreed a federal study of slavery and reparations would not be about revenge, hate or reversal of discrimination, but rather about the healing process.
Madison citizen Beth Racette expressed disappointment in the council's decision.
""I feel the injustice is very deep and very old, and it's really important for people to realize that addressing the injustice done to African people in this country will address the injustice for everybody,"" she said.
Madison citizen Will Williams said he was also displeased by the denial of the proposal.
""[For Madison], this means we have to keep fighting, and we will be back with this [issue] again. This shows how sick some people really are; that's why this problem still exists,"" he said. ""Trent Lott is not the only racist we know of. He has a lot of puppies throughout the world.""
Ald. Steve Holtzman, District 19, lead the dissenting core within the council questioning whether the state of Wisconsin and other ""northern"" states should be held accountable for funding studies or payments for ""people far removed from the pain of their ancestors.""
Ald. Judy Compton, District 16, and Ald. Santiago Rosas, District 17, also voted against the proposal. They brought up the uncompensated injustices faced by other minority groups at the hands of the American government in the past, including Latinos, Haitians, Chinese, Native Americans and the Irish.
Ald. Todd Jarrell, District 8, a co-sponsor of the proposal, called the result of the vote an ""extreme disappointment.""
""There's so many more steps needed to move forward in race relations, and here, we can't even do something that talks about studying race relations,"" he said. ""[Madison] is not as liberal as we pretend it is.\
