Rep. Peter King’s Explanation For Voting Against Slave Labor Resolution: It Wasn’t ‘A Balanced Depiction Of History’

Yesterday, a number of blogs reported that right-wing Rep. Steve King (R-IA) was the lone dissenter on a House vote to acknowledge the role that slave labor had in constructing the U.S. Capitol. The resolution would merely authorize the placement of a marker inside the new Capitol Visitor Center to acknowledge the work of slaves.

In an attempt to quell the criticism, King spun his vote as an effort to defend religion. He said in a statement that he opposed the slave labor resolution because it was put up for a vote before the depiction of “In God We Trust” could be considered in the Visitor Center.

But in an interview with Radio Iowa yesterday, King offered a new explanation for his vote, complaining that the slave labor resolution wasn’t a “balanced depiction of history”:

KING: I would just add that there were about 645,000 slaves that were brought to the United States. And I’m with Martin Luther King, Jr. on this. His documents, his speeches – I’ve read most of them. And I agree with almost every word that came out of him. Slavery was abhorrent, but it was also a fact of life in those centuries where it existed.

And of the 645,000 Africans that were brought here to be forcibly put into slavery in the United States, there were over 600,000 people that gave their lives in the Civil War to put an end to slavery. And I don’t see the monument to that in the Congressional Visitor Center, and I think it’s important that we have a balanced depiction of history.