-Staff reports-
The Rome City Commission has issued an official statement about an incident involving a world-renowned opera singer that occurred in Rome in 1942.
That incident involved Roland Hayes and his wife and a confrontation that started in a local shoe store in what was then the Jim Crow-era South.
The Hayeses were arrested, and Roland Hayes was assaulted, but there is some disagreement over whether it was the police or a private citizen who struck him.
During a general administration committee meeting in August, Russell McClanahan made a request that the city acknowledge the wrong done to the Hayes family.
On Monday night, Mayor Jim Bojo read a statement on behalf of the city commission, apologizing to the Hayes family.
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