Doctors' Group Plans Apology For Racism

In the past, states including Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Virginia and Florida and businesses such as Wachovia have express regret for their role in slavery. Last year, the governing board of the University of Virginia became the first to pass a resolution over the "regret for its use of enslaved persons from 1819 to 1865."

In 2005, the Republican Party said it was sorry for its racially tinged "Southern Strategy," which it adopted during Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign.

President Bill Clinton in 1997 expressed regret for the experiment in which U.S. government researchers used black men to study syphilis in Tuskegee, Ala., starting in 1932. Instead of treating almost 400 men who had been infected by syphilis, the researchers gave the men placebos and then observed the progression of the disease. The study continued until 1972 and ended when its existence was leaked to the media. Clinton called the study "deeply, profoundly, morally wrong."

The apologies issued by institutions are often carefully worded to ensure that they do not become liable for financial reparations.

According to the AMA's online chronology, the association has also been slow to respond to the issue of discrimination against African American doctors.

In 1939, the organization stated that it "emphatically deprecated discrimination." At the same time, however, the AMA recognized county societies' "right of self-governance in local matters, including membership."

In 1954, the AMA refused to allow the Old North State Medical Society, which represented African American physicians in North Carolina, to be admitted to the association, just as the North Carolina Medical Society had refused to lift its racial barriers.

In his commentary, Davis wrote: "Although current members of a group might bear little or no responsibility for past actions, a group apology makes clear the group's current moral orientation. Acknowledging past wrongs lays a marker for understanding and tracking current and future actions."