The County Commission will meet on Tuesday and vote on a proposal to acknowledge and apologize for Tallahassee’s role in slavery. The proposal was introduced be County commissioner Bill Proctor. Watch the video above to hear from County commissioners and community members in our neighborhoods.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT

There was a time where we had more slaves than slave owners

That was Leon County Commissioner, Bill Proctor.

He tells me what led him to proposing a plan to formally apologize for slavery in Leon County

The idea was presented to me by a constituent and I agreed and I brought it forward to the board that in this bicentennial, we needed to offer an apology

County commissioners will meet and vote on Proctors proposal on Tuesday

An apology that others in the community are taking part in

Recently, First Presbyterian Church unveiled a plaque that acknowledged and apologized for their role in slavery

I asked Commissioner Proctor his thoughts of both him and First Presbyterian doing something similar

It was the First Presbyterian effort to apologize that county commissioners were, I believe, moved to do something similarI want to thank First Presbyterian for that first domino falling

But Proctor and First Presbyterian arent the only ones taking action in the effort

I asked Co-executive Director of the Florida Civil Rights Museum, Delaitre Hollinger, if he thought the proposal is necessary

As a fifth generation Leon Countian, whose ancestors where enslaved here in Leon County, I think its an excellent idea

Hollinger helped create the first Civil Rights Virtual Museum in the state of Florida they recently received an additional 60-thousand-dollar grant from the county to expand that project

 As for Proctor he tells me what he thinks about the idea personally and what the end goal could look like

 This is a tremendous turn around; tremendous effort to reconcile our past