The 'door of no return' at the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. Slaves would exit this door and board ships bound for the western hemisphere.

Katrina Browne
Special to CNN

The Senate voted to apologize for slavery on June 18. The House apologized last summer. The first family - descendants of Africans, of enslaved Africans and of slave-holders - visited a slave fort in Ghana.

These were historic occasions, and they occasioned the kind of hue and cry that always accompany the subject of slavery and whether we still need to reckon with it.

I believe we do need more reckoning, and a little more love and a little more logic would help that process.

Logic first: There's this quasi-math problem in which things don't add up. Many African-Americans naturally feel as if there is unfinished business from the past, while many European-Americans (and others) don't think they should inherit burdens from a past not of their making. So there's this generational equation to be worked out, and it will take big hearts, eager hearts, to do so.

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Obama points to the Door of No Return, which would shut before Africans were put on slave ships.

Wayne Drash
CNN

President Obama slowly walked across the grounds of Cape Coast Castle, a slave outpost in Ghana where hundreds of thousands of Africans were shipped as human cargo to a life of bondage in the United States, South America and the Caribbean.

"You almost feel as if the walls can speak. You try to project yourself into these incredibly harrowing moments," Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

When the president reached the "Door of No Return," an arched gateway with thick doors that would shut behind African men, women and children before they were forced onto slave ships, Obama looked out over the Atlantic Ocean where waves crashed onto rocks. "Obviously there's a sense of what a profound sorrow must've been felt as people were hauled off into the great unknown," he said.

What does he tell his two daughters, Sasha and Malia, about slavery?

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Editor's Note: African Americans moving back to Africa choose to relocated to Ghana more than any other country on the continent. Tonight on AC360°, we talk with African Americans who have moved back to Ghana to hear their stories.

Anderson Cooper and President Obama walking around Cape Coast Castle.

Anderson Cooper | BIO
AC360° Anchor

Interviewing the President is always a difficult prospect. There are so many questions you want to ask, but you only have a limited amount of time.

We had been told we might get about 15 to 20 minutes sitting down with the President and then perhaps 10 minutes walking around Cape Coast Castle – a whitewashed fort through which enslaved Africans were sent to the New World.

We arrived in Ghana last week, one day before the President arrived with his family. We spent the day shooting a story about African Americans who visit Ghana to retrace their roots, and we also spent an hour or so walking through the Castle with members of the President's advance team.

It is a remarkable thing to see how much effort and organization goes into the President's movements. The Castle and the nearby hotel were full of secret service, embassy personnel, White House advance personnel, military backup and I'm sure more from other agencies as well.

Everything is timed to the minute: When the President will arrive, where he will go, etc. I read something on Drudgereport that said the crowds were not enthusiastic for the President's trip. I'm not sure where that impression came from.

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Anderson Cooper and President Obama walking around Cape Coast Castle.

Charly Feldman
AC360° Intern

Tonight on 360°, watch Anderson’s exclusive interview with President Obama in Ghana. They discuss everything from the economy to Afghanistan, the U.S. military’s “Don’t ask don’t tell” for gay service members and of course U.S. policy towards Africa.

We’ll take you on a tour of the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle with President Obama, to see where kidnapped Ghanaians awaited the horrifying boat rides to America just a couple of centuries ago. Greed and the slave trade triangle – all this and more on the program tonight.

But slavery isn’t just a thing of the past. Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s joins us from Haiti with a 360° dispatch on modern day slavery. It’s hard to imagine, but children as young as four years old are caught up in this vicious cycle. We’re digging deeper.

Plus, Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings began today at Capitol Hill, as the Senate Judiciary Committee discusses her abilities as a potential Supreme Court judge. From accusations of judicial activism to her controversial comment about being a “wise Latina”, Candy Crowley brings you the raw politics tonight, with senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

Also, Randi Kaye joins us live from L.A. with the latest details on Michael Jackson’s death. His sister LaToya is speaking out. We’ll have her controversial account of what she believes happened to Michael. Was he murdered? Or, as Joe Jackson now suggests did the prospects of his London concerts burn him out? Plus, we’re following the money trail. Tune in to 360° for the answer to these questions.

Join us at 10pm ET for all this and much more! See you then.

Program Note: The first African-American President visited Ghana this past week and Anderson Cooper tagged along for the journey. Here are a few snapshots from the trip. For more on the President's historic visit, tune in to AC360° tonight 10p ET.

AC360°

Anderson shooting a segment in Ghana.

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Chakun, Ghana had the highest rate of Guinea worm cases in its district before it got a new borehole. The villagers are now notably stronger and healthier that they have access to clean water.

People fetching water from a dirty pond in Kpalang village, Ghana. The pond is the only source of water for this remote farming village of 600 people.

Auckhinleck Adow
Associate director, World Vision in Ghana

There was palpable excitement here in Ghana as President Obama visited this past weekend. He highlighted our nation's progress, most recently our peaceful, democratic election. Accra is still abuzz and my colleagues and neighbors are talking about it constantly.

Born and raised in Ghana, I remember the awe I felt as a child when Queen Elizabeth II visited in 1961. Now, my 13-year-old daughter had the chance to see the first African-American president visit her nation, and her excitement makes me proud of the progress our country has made. For example, Ghana is the only sub-Saharan African country on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of cutting hunger in half by 2015.

As I reflect this week on the visit, I wonder what windows of opportunity it offers for the nearly half of Ghanaians surviving on less than US $1 a day. And amidst President Obama’s focus on Ghana’s democratic progress and good governance, it could easily be forgotten that there are still so many Ghanaians struggling to survive.

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Local dignitaries greet President Obama when he arrives in Ghana on Friday.

Josh Ruxin
Founder and Director, The Access Project
Assistant Professor in Public Heath, Columbia University

There was a democratic buzz in the air the last time I traveled to Ghana. Presidential elections were under way, and I was lucky to be traveling with an aspiring candidate, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, the country’s minister of finance in the eighties and early-nineties. Everywhere we traveled, Ghanaians were debating the challenges facing their nation and reveling in their increasingly vibrant and stable democracy.

That strong embrace of democratic ideals has not been lost on the Obama administration. The U.S. President’s visit to Ghana this past weekend was a symbolic move that now resonates across the continent. Rather than giving in to the temptation of having a homecoming in Kenya, Obama chose the West African nation as his first stop. It’s a sign of smart continental politics with a clear message: this administration values democratic values above all else.

During the time I spent in Ghana, I could see the national growth that was occurring each and every day. The country looks and feels as if it’s booming. Restaurants and hotels are springing up and economic growth is steady. Although it is unlikely that the President took it in, Ghana also has a thriving club scene complete with some of the continent’s best music.

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