Charles tours Caribbean amid pressure

King Charles III is on a nine-day Caribbean tour facing mounting pressure to apologize for Britain's role in slavery and support reparations calls.

King acknowledges colonial suffering

In the Bahamas on Tuesday, Charles told hundreds of young Bahamians that the best of their culture was born from darkness and acknowledged great suffering and injustices of the past.

“Some of what is best in Bahamian culture today, the most joyful, the most hopeful, the most bright, was born out of darkness.”

Protesters demand compensation

During celebrations in Nassau on Wednesday, protesters held placards declaring pay us what you owe us, demanding compensation for Britain's centuries of involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

“Pay us what you owe us”

Reparations chair dismisses remarks

Dr. Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean, chair of the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, told The Guardian that the king's remarks were hollow platitudes and we deserve so much more than what was offered.

“hollow platitudes”

Palace rules out formal apology

Buckingham Palace said Charles will not offer a formal apology for slavery, saying such decisions are for the British government, not the royal family, but he will discuss Britain's involvement.

Legal concerns block apology

Experts say the royals fear a formal apology could open the door to legal claims for reparations, potentially exposing the family and British government to substantial financial demands.

“The reason why he doesn't go further is that he's aware [of] what it will mean to actually apologize, in terms of the legal obligation to make reparation”

Britain compensated slave owners

When slavery was abolished across most of the British Empire in eighteen thirty-four, the government allocated twenty million pounds, twenty three billion dollars in today's money, to compensate slave owners, not the enslaved.

Caribbean leaders demand reparations

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and the head of the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission, Hilary Beckles, are among leading voices calling for reparations including investment in education, healthcare and economic development.

Some oppose reparations approach

Rasheed Griffiths, a Barbadian economist, told CBS News that Caribbean leaders have refused prudent fiscal policies and prefer to seek scapegoats rather than turn their countries around themselves.

“The calls for reparations from the U.K. are nothing more than Caribbean leaders attempting to externalize their own failures”