On June 18, 2009, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and racial segregation, including the “Jim Crow” laws that underpinned the nation’s division along racial lines from the end of Reconstruction to the 1960s. The resolution was concurrent within Congress, meaning that the same resolution was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The resolution reviews the tragic history of slavery and racial segregation and asserts that a federal apology for past injustices committed against African Americans can be a way to help the nation bind its racial wounds. Notably, the resolution sidesteps calls for monetary reparations to be paid to the descendants of slaves. The resolution is nonbinding, meaning that it does not have the force of law; as phrased in the eighteenth and final clause, it is a “sense of the Congress” resolution that expresses a sentiment about something but has no legal effect. For this reason, it was not necessary for the Senate to forward the resolution to the president for his signature. While many political observers believed that such an apology was long overdue and welcomed it, others found it to be “too little, too late” and asserted that its only value was symbolic. Moreover, the apology renewed the contentious debate over the issue of reparations—that is, monetary payments to atone for past wrongs—for the descendants of slaves.