Last night, the U.S. Senate offered a resolution formally apologizing for its failure to outlaw lynching during the Jim Crow era. It is telling that the (mostly Southern) GOP leadership in the Senate scheduled the formal ceremonies late at night, rather than earlier in the day when the story would have been covered by the news media.

They also set up the resolution so that there was no formal voice vote, so no senator would be on record as opposing the nearly 5,000 lynchings that occured in those dark days.

With no roll call to form a record, senators had to express their support for the resolution by signing on as co-sponsors with Sen. Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat who was the primary sponsor. The resolution was proposed in February so there was plenty of time to take a stand. At the end of the day yesterday, 78 senators had signed on as co-sponsors.

As an expatriated Southerner, I find it unconscionable that any Southern senator would fail to sign onto this apology. There were, in fact, six of these – all Republicans (pictured above): Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN), Sen. Thad Cochran (MS), Sen. John Cornyn (TX), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (TX), Sen. Trent Lott (MS) and Sen. Richard Shelby (AL). All together, the 21 senators who did not sign on include 19 Republicans and three Democrats.:

Lamar Alexander (R-TN) – (202) 224-4944
Web Form: alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home

Bennett, Robert- (R – UT) – (202) 224-5444
Web Form: bennett.senate.gov/contact/emailmain.html

Bingaman, Jeff- (D – NM) – (202) 224-5521
E-mail: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov

Thad Cochran (R-MS) – (202) 224-5054
Web Form: cochran.senate.gov/contact.htm

Conrad, Kent- (D – ND) – (202) 224-2043
Web Form: conrad.senate.gov/webform.html

John Cornyn (R-TX) – (202) 224-2934
Web Form: cornyn.senate.gov/contact/index.html

Crapo, Michael- (R – ID) – (202) 224-6142
Web Form: crapo.senate.gov

Enzi, Michael- (R – WY) – (202) 224-3424
Web Form: enzi.senate.gov/email.htm

Grassley, Chuck- (R – IA) – (202) 224-3744
Web Form: grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm

Gregg, Judd- (R – NH) – (202) 224-3324
E-mail: mailbox@gregg.senate.gov

Hatch, Orrin- (R – UT) – (202) 224-5251
Web Form: hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Offices.Contact

Hutchison, Kay- (R – TX) – (202) 224-5922
Web Form: hutchison.senate.gov/e-mail.htm

Kyl, Jon- (R – AZ) – (202) 224-4521
Web Form: kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Trent Lott (R-MS) – (202) 224-6253
E-mail: senatorlott@lott.senate.gov

Murkowski, Lisa- (R – AK) – (202) 224-6665
Web Form: murkowski.senate.gov/contact.html

Reed, Jack- (D – RI) – (202) 224-4642
Web Form: reed.senate.gov/form-opinion.htm

Richard Shelby (R-AL) – (202) 224-5744
E-mail: senator@shelby.senate.gov

Smith, Gordon- (R – OR) – (202) 224-3753
Web Form: gsmith.senate.gov/webform.htm

Sununu, John- (R – NH) – (202) 224-2841
Web Form: www.sununu.senate.gov/webform.html

Thomas, Craig- (R – WY) – (202) 224-6441
Web Form: thomas.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home

Voinovich, George- (R – OH) – (202) 224-3353
Web Form: voinovich.senate.gov/

Please get in touch with them and ask them why they support lynching today.

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