From the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is drawing criticism for proclaiming April as Confederate Heritage Month without mentioning slavery, the second governor this month to come under fire for the omission.
Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, who is black, said Monday that people need to learn about the “abhorrent, violent, depraved actions of slavery.”
Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s Republican governor, also named April as Confederate History Month, but his original proclamation didn’t mention slavery. After coming under national criticism, McDonnell last week revised it to denounce slavery as “evil and inhumane.”
Barbour, a Republican who helped campaign for McDonnell last year, said Sunday on CNN that slavery was bad but a fuss over McDonnell’s original proclamation “doesn’t amount to diddly.”
