Senate sorry for slavery, Crist supports reparations

After the state Senate issued an apology for the state's "shameful'' history of slavery, Gov. Charlie Crist spoke with reporters and lauded the Senate and the never-too-late apology.

The resolution stops short of calling for reparations for descendants of slaves, though Crist said he was open to the idea ``if we can determine descendacy, certainly.''

Crist, who attended the floor vote, said afterward that ``Florida is sorry for the past transgressions and unfair treatment and in some cases just gross inequity as it exists toward members of the African-American community.''

Are there still inequities today, considering that about half the state's prison population of 96,000 is black while only about 16 percent of the state's total population is black?

''That's hard to determine. You have to analyze these on a case by case basis,'' Crist said. ``Whether or not there have been injustices in a case based upon race must be determined by the facts of that case.''

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