ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. — Does an apology actually mean anything?
That's a question Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman had to wrestle with after discovering his family's history with slavery.
The County Executive issued an apology on behalf of the Anne Arundel County Government for its role in the institution of slavery.
"I didn't want to do something that didn't mean anything, that was performative, just trying to check some box somewhere," Pittman said when asked about the apology.
The apology, coined as “A Day of Acknowledgment: Confronting the Legacy of Slavery,” was held on Saturday, November 22, 2025.
Pittman decided he needed to do something when his wife discovered an old newspaper ad about escaped slaves written by someone he descended from. The ad described the slaves as property and there was a $50 reward for their capture.
"I think we all wanna come from good people and we want to read about our ancestors and be proud of them," Pittman said.
When he discovered more evidence that some of his ancestors were part of the problem he got a "sinking feeling."
"I read something that one of them wrote about slavery, he was opposed to slavery. As I read that, I remember the sense of hope. Maybe this was one of the good guys...then he went on to say that he opposed it because 'it made the white folks lazy, they weren't doing the work and that the Africans should be sent back to Africa.'"
Pittman was understandably emotional when he read the apology on stage. He's gotten mixed reactions since he read it.
The County Executive says he received appreciation from African Americans—particularly descendants who had never heard a white politician directly address slavery.
However on the other hand, there were people that questioned why we're still talking about slavery.
"This was a waste of time. It's time to move on, slavery was a long time ago and that's all behind us," were some of the comments Pittman received.
The Day of Acknowledgment had several prominent figures in the audience including longtime Annapolis Civil Rights Activist Carl Snowden, who says no time is better than the present for the apology.
"All of the great problems that exist in our great nation cannot be solved by a simple apology. Anyone who knows anything about history knows that. It must start somewhere. An apology is a place to have it started," Snowden said.
Pittman leaves office in a year and he wants whoever comes next to keep fighting.
"It's very important to me that whoever comes after me in this role continue...All of that work has to continue especially when people are feeling under attack by their own federal government, to feel that locally they can work with their neighbors to build community instead of destroy it. "
