The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Don’t Know Much About History
Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” occasioned a politician’s history blunder last week, the Huffington Post reports:
During Stephen Colbert’s “Better Know A District” segment, the comedian-cum-political commentator interviewed U.S. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, who represents New York’s 11th District. The results were both humorous and painfully awkward, as the Democratic politician took a hypothetical trip back in time with Colbert, only to claim slavery would still have existed in New York in 1898.
“If you could get in a time machine and go back to 1898, what would you say to those Brooklynites?” Colbert asked in the segment.
“I would say to them, ‘Set me free,'” Clarke responded.
Gamely pressing on, Colbert inquired from what would the Congresswoman wish to be free from [sic]. “Slavery,” Clarke replied.
“Slavery. Really? I didn’t realize there was slavery in Brooklyn in 1898,” Colbert said, perhaps in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to give the native Brooklyner a do-over.
“I’m pretty sure there was,” Clarke responded.
The Huffington Post sneers that “as most American school children know, slavery was abolished in the U.S. by the 13th Amendment, which was passed in 1865.” True, but give Clarke credit for knowing that slavery once existed in New York, something the HuffOo story neglects to point out. It was abolished in 1827, only 38 years before the 13th Amendment’s ratification. By comparison, it has now been 48 years since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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