WASHINGTON, February 2, 2012 – How much do you know about Black History Month?
Do you know that this remembrance was founded as “Negro History Week” in 1926 by African-American historian, author and journalist Carter Godwin Woodson (b. 12/19/1875-d.4/3/1950) is known as the Father of Black History.
Carter Godwin Woodson
The son of James and Anna Eliza Riddle Woodson, who were slaves that found freedom, Carter became an activist that put him at the very core of a devoted group of black intellectual and activist.
At the age of 25 (1900), Woodson became principal of Douglass High School prior to working in the Philippines as a school supervisor. In 1908 he attended the University of Chicago, receiving his M.A. In 1912, Carter Godwin Woodson received his Ph.D. from Harvard University
Dr. Woodson founded “Negro History Week,” devoting his career to authoring books, journals, articles and publishing newspapers, in part, to insure that the role of the African-American was neither ignored nor misrepresented by scholars and people.
Dr. Woodson is not only the founder of what is now Black History Month, he is also one of the reasons we should take pause and consider the stories of some of this countries most remarkable citizens.
One historian walking in Dr. Woodson’s footpath is Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, Ph.D., Associate professor of History, Norfolk State University.
In 2003, Dr. Newby-Alexander began work on Waterways to Freedom: The Underground Railway in Virginia. Part of that project included working with the City of Norfolk, Virginia to develop an interactive map that tells the story of the Underground Railway in Norfolk.
A conversation with Dr. Newby-Alexander was very enlightening as I learned:
• The State of Virginia had more Slaves than any other state.
• That while issues of property were “State” governed, the ownership of Slaves was Federally protected under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.
• That William Still (b.1821) was one of Black History’s ameuteur historian recording the stories of escaped Slaves who came through the Philadelphia Underground Railroad, one such interview revealing that the escaping individual was his lost brother, left behind in bondage when his mother escaped.
Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, Ph.D.
“The story of the escaping Slave is interesting for many reasons, “ said Dr. Newby-Alexander from her Norfolk University office. “But at the heart of that story is a person willing to risk everything to run to freedom.”
Visit the Waterways to Freedom and explore twelve areas of importance to the Underground Railroad.
An 1873 map reflects a very different Norfolk, Virginia than the one that is there today. Click on the twelve different points and learn about the men and women, and places that played an important part in the Underground Railroad.
“Slaves escaping from Norfolk left primarily by water,” Dr. Newby-Alexander said. “In a rural area contiguous with a border to a northern state, it would have been difficult to make the journey undetected."
“They escaped Norfolk by ship, usually paying a white captain for their escape.”
Many of those ships left out of Higgins Wharf (Clickable #1), located at the far end of Widewater Street, near New Castle Street. Click and learn that the wharf’s owner, John A. Higgins, was the former owner of Shadrick Minkins.
Mr. Minkins place in history is recorded as he was being hunted under the Slave Fugitive Act. Abolitionists helped him to evade trial in Boston, MA and escape to Canada.
Lewis Hayden (b.1811-d.1889) led the Vigilance Committee group that abetted Mr. Minkins escape.
Mr. Lewis was an ex-Slave that, once finding his freedom, became a representative from Boston to the State Legislature in 1873.
Waterways to Freedom
Mr. Minkins escaped from the ownership of John DeBree, a prosperous landowner and former navy man (see #4).
Visit the Wharf where in 1855, Captain Alfred Fountain sailed to Philadelphia with 21 fugitive Slaves. Just before leaving dock with fugitive brothers, Thomas and Frederick Nixon, owned by merchant B.T. Bockover, Norfolk Mayor William Lamb and a group of men boarded the ship to search for escaping Slaves.
The Captain most surely received payment for his services but, if caught, would have been tried under the Fugitive Slave Act.
Though slavery’s origins tentacle back as far as the 1560, it was from 1654 until 1865 that slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of much of the United States.
Until the 18th Century, however, slave labor was often ruled by a form of bonded labor, or indentured servitude, in which whites and blacks alike would work to pay the cost of their transportation to the American colonies.
In the 18th century, Federal Court rulings allowed a racial bias to grow, establishing the right to “own” Black Africans as property, forcing them to unpaid, and usually harsh labor, particularly in the Southern plantations where tobacco and cotton were particularly labor intensive, big cash crops.
At the heart of this movement was the need for cheap, expendable labor that ensured the success of large plantations.
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, twelve million Africans were shipped to the Americas, with the majority being sent to South America, mostly to Brazil. However, during that period approximately 650,000 persons were sold into slavery from the transporters, however by 1860, the Slave population in the United States had grown to four millions persons.
“The story of the Underground Railroad is not the story of just Black people,” Dr. Newby-Alexander said. “It is the story of those people, black and white, that worked together against something that they saw as oppressive and wrong.”
“Ship Captains may have been paid in coin, but they still transported people at great risk. All along the Underground Railroad are stories of white and black abolitionists who worked together, helping people to escape to freedom. To evade those that would recapture them.“
Visit Waterways to Freedom and explore Norfolk’s role in the Underground Railroad.
Washington, DC
Visit the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and Culture Web site to add your families story to the National Memory Book, a virtual collection of stories from families all over the world.
While at the NMAAHC Web site visit the Program Calendar for more information on Black History Month Events including:
Exhibitions and Events
January 27, 2012 - October 14, 2012
NMAAHC Gallery at the National Museum of American History
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and Monticello will present Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty, an exhibition of artifacts from the Smithsonian’s collections and from excavations at Jefferson’s Virginia plantation.
Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence and called slavery an “abominable crime,” yet he was a lifelong slaveholder. The exhibition will provide a look at the lives of six slave families living at Monticello alongside Jefferson and his family. Personal belongings and working tools will be on display, and visitors will have a chance to learn about the families’ connections to one another, their religious faith and their efforts to pursue literacy and freedom.
Please visit the exhibition website, slaveryatmonticello.org to learn more.
Public Programs
Black History Month Family Day Celebration
Saturday, February 4
11:30 am-3:00 pm
National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum
Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard
8 and F Streets, NW
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Bring the whole family to the Smithsonian’s kickoff celebration of Black History Month. This family day of activities is inspired by the exhibition, The Black List. It includes performances by guitarist Warner Williams and step team Taratibu, a puppet show (Can You Spell Harlem? by Schroeder Cherry), hands-on arts-and-craft activities (including silhouette portraiture inspired by the NMAAHC exhibition entitled Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty), a gallery tour and video interviews by the Hirshhorn’s ArtLab+ teen videographers.
Monticello, Slavery, and the Hemingses: A Conversation Between Annette Gordon-Reed and Michel Martin
Monday, February 6, 2012
7:00-9:00 pm
National Museum of Natural History
Baird Auditorium
10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Metro: Smithsonian/Federal Triangle
NPR’s Tell Me More host Michel Martin and Prof. Annette Gordon-Reed, Prof. of Law, Harvard University, and Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family will discuss the lives of six slave families living at Monticello alongside Jefferson and his family. They will also explore ideas about how Thomas Jefferson and the 11 other American Presidents who owned slaves could have used the power of their office to end slavery and improve the lives of free black communities across the U.S., and chose not to. This program is based on the exhibition, Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty. Copies of The Hemingses of Monticello, and Andrew Johnson will be available for sale and signing. The event is free and open to the public on a first come-first seated basis. Please call 202/633-0070 for more information.
Mission Preservation: Classroom Treasures Program
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is pleased to offer free in-school programs for grades 4 – 6 in the local DC Metro area, which includes DC, Fairfax County, Arlington County, Alexandria, Prince Georges County, and Montgomery County. In this 70-minute program, Museum Teachers will conduct object-based, standards-related programming that will focus on learning from primary resources and preserving family oral histories and objects. For more information on the program, click here.
Photo of Carter G. Woodson.
Source: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/NEWS/thisweek/images/woodson.jpg
Please check with your destination before leaving to ensure program availability.
This article is reprinted and updated from a February 10, 2010 article by the writer
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