Kirk Douglas Celebrates Over Slavery Apology

Veteran actor Kirk Douglas is celebrating after the US Senate issued a formal apology for America’s history of slavery.

The 92-year-old has been behind a long-running campaign for the apology, and earlier wrote on his MySpace page: “As I told you quite some time ago, in my last book Let’s Face It, I wrote about the importance of our country showing the world that we are capable of humility by making an apology for our behavior towards African-Americans before and after the Civil War. I think this action is more important right now.”

The apology received from the Senate reads that it: “acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws,” and “apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws. [The US] expresses its recommitment to the principle that all people are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and calls on all people of the United States to work toward eliminating racial prejudices, injustices, and discrimination from our society.”