Here?s a great, short editorial by the High Point Enterprise responding to proposed state legislation to require all firms doing business with the state to research and publish a report on its historical involvement with slavery, if any:
State Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, says his bill to force businesses to research and disclose information about financial links to slavery prior to 1865 is designed to shine a light on that part of the state’s history.
Womble says he’s not pushing the bill, which passed his House committee Wednesday, in an attempt to punish companies that might have made such antebellum business deals. He just wants to get the information out into the open. He also says he’s not trying to find information that might support demands for slavery reparations.
So then, Womble just wants to require companies to research and disclose such business activity to increase the body of historical knowledge. Perhaps then, he should just leave that job to the state’s historians instead of forcing businesses to do it.
