As the 4th of July approaches quickly I want to take a moment to simply remember some great people in American history, people that are responsible for Freedom in this nation.

Now some would think I would start my list with George Washington. But this is an honest list. George Washington lost every battle he was in except for Valley Forge. He was a horrible General, but Valley Forge made him famous. So I won’t discuss him.

Some would look to Thomas Jefferson, a great thinker and an architect of the Constitution. Again I wouldn’t include him. He was part of those that agreed a Black man only counted as 3/5th of a man. He maintained slaves, even though he did eventually free them. And he hid the fact that he was an adulterer. Fathering children with a Black slave, he denied it though it was a well-known if not unspoken fact that was resisted until the dawn of the 21st century – hundreds of years later.

Yet some would say that I have to include Abraham Lincoln. And those same people probably have never read the words Lincoln wrote as an editorial 1 week before the Emancipation Proclamation. In that article he clearly outlines the fact that if he could keep slavery and save the Union he would. They would forget that slavery was the 5th most important reason for the Civil War, no matter how many movies and books have romanticized the past. And they ignore the Jim Crow laws and segregation that was accepted in the place of slavery for over 100 more years.

So who do I want to not forget?

The Slaves. Those Africans that were taken from their home in numbers so great it’s believed they could easily outstrip those killed in the Holocaust and if laid down could provide a bridge from Africa to America and beyond. Those Africans that fought in the American Revolution like Crispus Attucks who died in Boston and was the only African American mentioned, in the history books I grew up with, until Dr. Martin Luther King in the 1960’s. [Have history books changed at all in the last 30 years?] Like those Africans that fought in the Civil War, and the War of 1812, and the Spanish-American War, and every single war and conflict this nation has ever known.

I want to remember the Slaves that built virtually every road and foundation in the 13 colonies, especially those in the South and in New York City. I want to remember the Africans that had to give up their names, like Kunta Kinta – an ancestor of Alex Haley (who’s detailed book of his lineage was classified as a fiction in the 1970’s) – and take on the names of slave masters that split families faster than they would split up horses or cattle.

And why must I remember these Men Women and Children?

Because like the Holocaust we should never forget. If we forget we allow the sacrifices made to mean nothing. If we forget we allow the past to repeat itself. Because if we forget, the truth becomes nothing more than a yellow paper.

I love America, and on the 4th I will be celebrating like everyone else in the nation. I will think of those in Iraq and Afghanistan and thank them. I will remember my time in the Marines and those I served with. I will remember my father and the sacrifices he went thru because of Viet Nam. I will remember my best friend’s father and what he did in Korea. I will even celebrate the romanticized histories of Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington.

But today I will simply remember all those that weren’t thought of as important enough to have the freedoms, rights, and opportunity that I enjoy today – in a nation literally built on their backs and bones. Because freedom comes at a price and sometimes that price is remembering the truth.

Labels: Abraham Lincoln, Alex Haley, American Revolution, Civil War, Crispus Attucks, Dr. Martin Luther King, George Washington, Marine Corps, New York City, Roots, Thomas Jefferson

"History is the story of the winners," I'm not sure who stated that quote but truer words are rarely said. Equally as true is this statement made by Mr. Morgan Freeman "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history."

Those 2 statment sum up so much for me. It also brings back a question I had in high school, why did black history basically take up one paragraph and a reference to Crispus Attucks and nothing more? My youngest sister (14 years my junior) had a history book that had the equivalent of 1 page, and this is after the strides to make American history more reflective of all the peoples responsible for the creation of this great nation. One page, with little to no mention of who created the number system that is used today [Arabs whom are black or under the classification I learned years ago as being Asian, Causasian, Negroid and Native Indians such as Eskimos] or what is sub-Saharan Africa, or who created the Jenny Coupler, automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks, treat ments for glaucoma and rheumatoid arthritis. Or who people like Granville T. Woods were.

The promotion of misconcepts too, such as Egyptians and those above the Sahara all being white and only those from below being black. Or that the reason for the Civil War was due to slavey [it was an economic decision - the U.S. was an agricultural-based economy then and if I recall correctly the south had more people - Slavery was about 4th on the list or lower].

Why is it that the history of Blacks in America is so incomplete? Who was it that thought that the concept of celebrating the shortest month of the year for Black history is enough and nothing else really need be done? Why did (and perhaps we still do, someone let me know) we teach about WW II, the Marines at Iwo Jima, and what happened to the Jews, but can't mention the breakthroughs of Black pilots in that war? Or how about what were black people doing in this nation after slavery but before the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King or Malcolm X? Obviously the list of inventions and inventors mentioned above give some clue that alot was happening.

Obviously alot needs to be left out if we want anyone to get more out of an education than just the history of this nation, as many peoples have helped to create the nation we live in today. That does not excuse the blatant slap in the face given to the millions who have bled for this country, both in war and in building this nation during peace. I don't need a seperate history or a month of sporadic commercials to remind me that my ancestors were here. My ancestors earned the right for me to be told the U.S. history, a history that includes them.

Just a few of the thoughts that the statement by Mr. Morgan Freeman makes me think of. What do you think?

Labels: Black History Month, Civil War, Crispus Attucks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Granville T. Woods, Jenny Coupler, Malcolm X, Morgan Freeman