Jon Hubbard, Arkansas Legislator, Defends Pro-Slavery Comments

The Republican Arkansas state legislator whose writing in favor of slavery has embroiled the state GOP in controversy is now defending his viewpoints on the subject.

State Rep. Jon Hubbard (R-Jonesboro) told the Jonesboro Sun on Tuesday that he continues to believe the viewpoints he expressed in a 2010 book that slavery was a “blessing” for blacks, talkbusiness.net reports. In the book, Hubbard argued that blacks received a better quality of life as slaves in the U.S. than they did in Africa, and that African-Americans would not be in the U.S. were it not for slavery. Hubbard’s comments — first reported by the Arkansas Times on Friday — led to a series of revelations about fellow Arkansas Republicans, including Rep. Loy Mauch (R-Bismarck) writing a series of letters to the editor defending slavery and legislative candidate Charlie Fuqua writing in a 2012 book that he wanted to deport all Muslims and establish the death penalty for rebellious children.

In the interview with the Jonesboro Sun, Hubbard said he did not know “any other way that black people in America could have gotten here.” He also said slavery was not justified.

Just…*face palm*