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The American Federation of Government Employees is demanding an apology from Republican Congressman Drew Ferguson of Georgia for displaying a Confederate book in his Capitol Hill office this week, opened up to a particularly racist passage.
Several Georgia members of the AFGE were visiting Ferguson’s office on Monday when they said they saw a copy of “Gen. Robert Edward Lee: Soldier, Citizen and Christian Patriot” protected under a glass enclosure in the lobby. The book, which was first published in 1897, was opened to this passage: “the blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, societally and physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their instruction as a race,” and “… if he means well to the slave he must not create angry feelings in the master,” according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
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James Miller, a Georgia-based Transportation Security Administration worker and AFGE member, told the Journal-Constitution that he also saw medals from the Confederate general on display – something Ferguson’s office denied, although said they do have on display military challenge coins.
“As a black man and constituent, I can say that nothing makes you feel more unwelcome in your own member of Congress’ office than seeing such racist memorabilia,” said Miller, a legislative political coordinator with the union, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Added Shekina Givens, president of the union that represents TSA workers in Atlanta, “it is beyond uncomfortable to be told to sit by such disdainful language and materials, and we don’t understand why in this day and age the Congressman has them in the first place.”
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AFGE sent out a press release calling on Ferguson to remove the racist items and publicly apologize. Instead, Miller told CNN he received a call from Ferguson’s Chief of Staff, Bobby Saparow, on Tuesday morning personally apologizing and confirming the items were removed.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Ferguson claims he didn’t know about the book.
“The office was decorated by staff and the book in question was underneath a box of military challenge coins. I did not even know it was there,” Ferguson said in the statement. “When my staff learned about it, they removed it and apologized to the individual who was upset by it.”
Ferguson later told CNN “he was certainly as offended by the remarks in that book as anybody would be, and that’s why it’s no longer in the office.”
This isn’t the first time Ferguson has come under public scrutiny. Last year, he was slammed after his office unknowingly tweeted a D-Day photo that depicted Nazi soldiers instead of American troops.
Elena Parent, and Atlanta Democrat, urged Ferguson to publicly apologize in a floor speech Wednesday morning.
“I would like to encourage him to set the record straight and apologize to all of his constituents and the state of Georgia – and especially his African-American constituents. He needs to apologize for having such a racist item displayed,” Parent said, according to the Journal-Constitution.
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