The anti-racial protests spilled over beyond the US. Moreover, pressure has been growing on companies to admit the disgraceful period of their past. Companies around the world are reviewing their archives to discover links to slavery and to mitigate somehow those repercussions. On the back of this campaign, several financial institutions in the UK apologized publicly for their involvement in the slave trade.
The Bank of England also acknowledged that some of its key figures took part in trans-Atlantic slavery. The bank made a statement it would ensure that portraits of its former governors who benefited from this would be removed from the bank buildings. "There can be no doubt that the 18th and 19th century slave trade was an unacceptable part of English history," a spokeswoman said. "As an institution, the Bank of England was never itself directly involved in the slave trade, but is aware of some inexcusable connections involving former governors and directors and apologizes for them," she explained the board’s decision.
Last but not least, the Church of England also made a confession and called its historical links to slavery a "source of shame".
