http://my.ev1.net/english/news/newsarticle.asp?
articleID=34700030&subject=headlines


Group to Show Penitence Over Slave Trade


      Leonard Blackshear of the Maryland Kunte Kinte- Alex Haley
Foundation is shown in his office in Annapolis , Md., Tuesday,
Aug. 3, 2004. Blackshear is organizing a group of people to march
in downtown Annapolis, Md. in a "reconciliation march" that will
have white people marching in yolks as a penitence for slave
trade. The march will take place in nine other cities as well. (AP
Photo/ Matt Houston)


White marchers will wear chains on their hands and yokes on their
necks while being escorted by black people, and everyone will wear
T-shirts with a message of apology as a group of African and
European Christians visits the United States this fall with a
message of reconciliation.


The Lifeline Expedition will visit 10 U.S. cities, starting in
Annapolis. The group's organizers say it is an effort to
bring "reconciliation" and "healing" in Africa, Europe and North
America through symbols of penitence.


"I believe that it helps, or potentially it helps, white people to
think in a different way," said David Pott, who started the London-
based organization to "reverse the damage" of the slave trade. It
has held similar demonstrations in European cities linked to the
18th and 19th-century industry.


"We're not divisive in saying, 'Here's black, here's white,'" he
said. "We're saying, 'We are brothers and sisters in our common
humanity.'"


Annapolis' City Dock memorializes Kunta Kinte, one of 98 Gambians
brought by Lord Ligonier into the narrow harbor in 1767 and sold
into slavery. Kinte was also featured in Alex Haley's book and
television series "Roots."


Some people are uneasy about remembering a link to slavery, and
the march plans have attracted attention from a neo-Nazi group.


The City Council voted 7-2 to waive the estimated cost of $2,000
for police services and roadblocks for the walk from the water's
edge through the historic city to a statue of Thurgood Marshall,
the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice.


But Mayor Ellen O. Moyer said she opposed the waiver because it
was too early to know how large the Sept. 29 event will be and how
much it will cost the city. Moyer, who is white, also disagrees
with Lifeline Expedition's tactics, although she said she supports
any group's right to demonstrate.


"I think it's a private matter," Moyer said. "The way that we all
choose to reconcile issues that deal with man's inhumanity to man
is private." Some people choose "good works, unheralded" to
express concern for injustices of the past, she noted, and the
city has had local groups that offered a dialogue on race
relations.


The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation is the local sponsor for the
walk, working to raise $75,000 with organizers in Europe to pay
for travel and event costs for between 14 and 20 demonstrators.


Foundation President Leonard Blackshear, who is black, said he
shares a mission with Lifeline Expedition.


"Racism is a cancer eating away at the American soul," he
said. "This activity is simply one type of chemotherapy that we
are looking to apply to the cancer because we believe the patient
can and wants to be healed."


Blackshear is looking for local volunteers to take part in the
event and said local churches have signed on to help.


Moyer said the city had received inquiries from potential counter-
protesters and she's apprehensive about keeping the event positive.


Pott acknowledges that staging such a demonstration in a U.S. city
may bring a harsh reaction and said he is praying that things go
smoothly.


The neo-Nazi National Alliance, based in Hillsboro, W.Va., wants
Annapolis residents to protest the march. The group left 1,500
fliers last weekend at homes all over city, urging people to "Say
No to White Guilt" and object to the city's waiver of expenses.


Rather than promoting healing, the event takes slavery and "rubs
it in the faces of white people and says they're guilty of
something," said Shaun Walker of the National Alliance. He said
the group has not decided whether to attend the demonstration.


Lifeline Expedition also plans to walk through the streets of
Baltimore; Boston; Charleston, S.C.; New York; Richmond, Va., and
several other cities.


Carol Palmer volunteered to walk in chains in Richmond, where she
is helping to coordinate the U.S. tour.


"A huge part of the tragedy of what happened years ago is that it
was supported by Christians," said Palmer, who works for a
missionary organization called Youth With A Mission. "As
Christians, we're asking for forgiveness because we were in the
wrong."


___


Associated Press writer Gretchen Parker contributed to this report