Genealogy and History Fan

As the Civil War came to an end, it was important to take the accomplishments that had been made and transition them into the law of the land. This needed to be done before any ground was lost, and as reconstruction returned the nation to one country rather than two warring parties. The upheaval of society that the abolition of slavery represented and the massive surge forward for black history was so important that it had to be made permanent with amendments to the constitution.

The work to change a nation from one of slavery to one of equality started with three important amendments to the constitution. The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery forever and the fourteenth amendment reversed the negative effects of the Dred Scott decision providing equal protection under the law for all citizens of this country regardless of race, color or creed.

Next came the fifteenth amendment which went further than just establishing the basic human rights of the African American community. It made a change so fundamental to how America works that its ramifications were sweeping and far reaching down to this day. The text of the amendment is direct and elegant…

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.This was a tremendous leap forward for the black community when this amendment was ratified on February 3, 1870. It finally meant that the African American population in this country could stand up and be counted and start making a mark on politics.But like so many other great advances in black history, earning the right to vote didn’t automatically make it easy to vote. There was staunch resistance to actually allowing blacks to go to the polling booth in many communities across the country. The Klu Klux Klan engaged in intimidation tactics to try to keep African Americans home from the polls. In Louisiana, the mob attempts to stop the institutions of a legally elected and integrated local government had to be broken up by federal troops sent in by Ulysses S. Grant.

Probably the most serious threat to the actual workability of the fifteenth amendment was the introduction of the poll tax and other registration tricks that were used such as literacy tests and voter qualification tests. This practice became such a problem that it instigated the passage of the twenty fourth amendment which outlawed poll taxes which were only designed to usurp the rights of African Americans to vote.

But these desperate attempts could not stop the march of justice and democracy to assure that voting rights were available to all Americans. Before long blacks were occupying positions of influence and decision making in state legislatures and at the federal level. It’s been a long struggle but even in the last few decades we have seen positions of high honor and influence held by African Americans such as Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. And if Barack Obama wins the democratic nomination, that will be yet another break through for a proud man and a proud people.

“If liberty and equality are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be attained when all persons share in government to the utmost.”

Aristotle (384-323 B.C.)

May we all exercise our right to vote so we can all be a part of the governing process. But we should also care enough to learn about the candidates and issues and vote for who we think would be the best for our country.

“Every voter ought not merely to vote, but to vote under the inspiration of the high purpose to serve a nation.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)

The Freedman Savings and Trust Company was established in 1865 as a bank for freed slaves and former soldiers who were African American. It began in Washington D.C., but had 37 branches in the south and also in New York and Pennsylvania. This bank with it’s branches had about 72,000 clients. It is believed that 8 - 10 million African Americans living today have ancestors on these records.

The records contain the applications forms that were filled out to open accounts at the bank. Some of the questions asked were of course the name of the applicant, also age, place of birth , where they were raised, occupation, employer, names of spouse, children, parents and siblings, military service etc. What a wealth of information! The problem was they were not in alphabetical order so they were very difficult to search.

Several years ago The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints with the aid of prisoners from the Utah State Prison, worked to extract and organize these records.
These records contain 480,000 names in alphabetical order, and are on an easy to use CD-Rom. The cost is $6.50 - yes six dollars and fifty cents and that includes shipping! If you have African American ancestors, there is an excellent chance you will find them in this database.

The Freedman Bank records were said to be the main records that Alex Haley used to find his ancestors for his famous book “Roots”. Speaking of family history and Alex Haley - he once said “My fondest hope is that “Roots” may start black, white, brown, red and yellow people digging back for their own roots. Man, that would make me feel 90 feet tall!” If Haley were alive today, I’m sure he would be standing tall for his sparking a desire in millions of people to search for their family history.

To order the Freedman Bank records go to http://www.familysearch.org/ and click on order/download products (upper right hand corner)

Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her father James McCauley, was a carpenter and her mother Leona Edwards, was a teacher. Rosa, as a child, was small for her age and suffered poor health. She was raised on her maternal grandparents farm near Montgomery, Alabama. She lived there with her grandparents, her mother and her younger brother Sylvester. Rosa was home schooled by her mother until she was 11 years old. She enrolled in school to take academic and vocational classes but had to drop out to help care for her grandmother and mother who became ill.

In 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks who was a barber from Montgomery. After her marriage Rosa was employed as a domestic worker and also as a hospital aide. With her husband’s encouragement, Rosa finished high school in 1933. This was at a time when less than 7% of African American had a high school diploma.

Rosa and her husband Raymond were members of the NAACP. She served for many years as the secretary of the Montgomery chapter.

In 1955, Rosa worked at Montgomery Fair, a department store in downtown Montgomery. She boarded her usual bus at 6pm, Thursday December 1, to go home. She paid the fare and sat in the first row of seats in the “colored section”. When the bus became crowded, the bus driver ordered Rosa to relinquish her seat to a white man as was the cultural order of things at that time. But Rosa Parks was not interested in seeing that the cultural order of things continue. She refused to give up that seat.

The explosion of outrage and social change that was released by that one simple act of “civil disobedience” is the watershed moment that anyone affected by the civil rights movement points to as the most important event in modern black history. Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving her seat up that day. Her trial for that act of “civil disobedience” brought to the national spotlight another important leader in the civil rights movement by the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This one event began to escalate and gather energy in the black community. It was an exciting and somewhat frightening time as the black community was energized and began to organize around these two courageous leaders. The result was the most powerful civil rights protests in the history of the movement occurred. This protest came to be known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Rosa Parks was not a trained instigator or a skilled manipulator of groups. She was just a citizen and an “ordinary” woman with simple daily needs. She was not looking to start a nation changing civil rights movement when she refused to give up her bus seat.

Rosa Parks won the right to be treated as a human being for herself and for her people across America and even around the world. She is an inspiration to us all that we too must demand the right of simple human dignity for all people who are citizens of this great land. 

In 1996, President Bill Clinton presented Rosa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1999 she was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.

Rosa Parks died October 24, 2005. President George Bush ordered that all U.S. flags in public areas be flown at half-staff on the day of her funeral. She was the 31^st person and the 1^st woman whose body lay in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

The infamous bus is at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Michigan. On the 50^th anniversary of her arrest, President Bush declared that a statue of Parks be included in the United States Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. You’re come a long way Rosa!

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky, to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Thomas was a carpenter and a farmer. Due to a land title problem the Lincoln family (Thomas, Nancy, older sister Sarah and Abraham) moved to Perry County, Indiana in 1816. A land ordinance act in that area made land titles more secure. A state anti-slavery act also made Indiana a more agreeable place for them to live since they opposed slavery.

Very little is known about Nancy Hanks Lincoln who died when Abraham was 8 years old (1818). Thomas remarried the next year to Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with 3 children. Lincoln said of his step-mother, “she proved to be a good and kind mother.”

Lincoln was raised to be a farmer and had very little formal education as a child. Nevertheless he learned to read, write and do some arithmetic. His love for reading proved a continual source of conflict between Abraham and his father.

In 1830, the Lincolns moved to Illinois.  Abraham tried his hand at various occupations and served in the military during the Black Hawk War.

Lincoln became interested in a political career and was a candidate for the Illinois Legislature in 1832. He lost that first election but went on to serve 4 terms in that legislature. During this time he studied law and became an attorney in 1836. He also served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1854 he lost his bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1856 he nearly became the U.S. vice-presidential nominee. He continued to gain national prominence and was elected President of the United States on November 6, 1860. He was elected to a second term in 1864.

Of the handful of men who have held that office, a few have stood out for their great achievements and leadership in a time that changed the country forever. One of these truly great presidents was Abraham Lincoln. Probably more than any other president, Lincoln had to handle one of the bloodiest and costliest wars in the nation’s history. Of course the reason that made it so horrible was that all of the casualties on both sides were casualties of Americans. This was a dispute that could have permanently torn the country in half and that could have resulted in dozens of small weak independent states instead of the powerful nation we know as America today.

It was Lincoln’s leadership, his commitment to values and his strong moral fiber that made it possible for America to find its way through that war and then to begin the healing process that would eventually lead the nation back to unity once again. His bold and unchanging opposition to slavery is without any doubt his greatest contribution to the history of America and indeed to world history as well. He was willing to put everything on the line to stop this barbaric social sin. Lincoln made a stand to bring slavery to an end.

On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, the Lincolns went to Ford Theater to see the play “Our American Cousin”. John Wilkes Booth, a racist and Southern sympathizer, shot Lincoln in the back of the head. He died the next morning. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. For months the nation greatly mourned their fallen leader.

The freedom that was won for so many black Americans in the Civil War permanently enshrined the memory of Abraham Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents in the hearts and minds of all Americans. Small wonder the monument honoring him on Washington’s national mall is one of the most revered spots in the nation and one that thousands flock to each year.

Inscribed on a wall of his monument is a quote from his second inaugural speech. Although written 143 years ago, his words are still relevant for our nation today.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds…”

Between the years 1955 to 1965 there was a war raging right in the middle of America. No, it wasn’t a war like the Revolutionary War or World War II. It was a war for the heart and soul of this country to determine once and for all if America was really going to be a land of equal opportunity for all. It was a war that eventually took on the name “The Civil Rights Movement.”

We must make no mistake, this was not just a shouting match. Those who fought in this war on both sides were deadly serious about the causes they represented and willing to fight and even die to see their cause succeed. The war waged for years and steady progress was made but not without tremendous sacrifice by the leaders of the movement who were committed to giving a new meaning to the phrase “set my people free.”

In all of black history, there may be no more significant a time since the Civil War when the rights of African Americans were so deeply fought and won. The tensions in the country had been building. When the Supreme Court mandated desegregation in the schools in the historic case Brown versus the Board of Education, the stage was set. But it was on December 1, 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white man that the movement finally took shape.

This tremendous struggle for freedom was never easy and was often marked with violence. Over the next ten years some of the most important milestone in black history took place including:

1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower had to send federal troops to Arkansas to secure admission to Central High School by nine black students.1960 – The sit-in at Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina set the stage for nonviolent protest that was used with great success for the rest of the struggle. Nonviolent protest and civil disobedience became a staple of the civil rights movement because of the influence of Martin Luther King.

1963 – The historic March on Washington in which over 200,000 people gathered to hear Dr. Kings famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

1964 – President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill that was the most significant event of his presidency and one he believed deeply in, the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

1965 – The assignation of Malcolm X and the Watts race rights.

1965 – President Johnson takes another bold step to accelerate the civil rights movement implementing Affirmative Action when he issues Executive Order 11246.

This short list is just a few of the highlights of this troubled time in which the rights of all citizens of America, black and white and of all colors were being redefined both on the streets, in the courts and in the different branches of government. In the years to come there would be great steps forward. One by one, every area of American life would see breakthroughs by African Americans in the areas of sports, entertainment, education and politics. There were many proud moments and there were moments of tremendous shame and heinous acts committed by both white and black people. But through all that struggle, the society continued to grow and adapt to the will of the people as has always been the tradition in American culture.The struggle is far from over. Discrimination and hate speech continue to be a problem to this day. And while it is easy to reflect on those days of struggle with regret, we can also look at them with pride. We can be proud of the great leaders who demonstrated tremendous courage and wisdom to lead this nation to a better way of life. And we can be proud of America because it is here where such a struggle can result in equality and freedom for all citizens, not just a few.

“Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall!”

PPPPP 716

Black History Month is celebrated in February in the U.S. and Canada. It is a time to remember and reflect upon the people and important events in African American history.

Black history has been a progressive climb from the lowest echelons of society during slavery to the highest. When we think of black history, we often think of the civil rights movement, of John Brown’s violent protests, or of the Underground Railroad. But black history doesn’t end with any one event. It is always in the process of being made every day.

Even in the last ten years, huge steps forward have been made at the very top governmental positions by notable and highly qualified black Americans who are making all of us proud in the contributions they are making to America. Colin Powell was an accomplished general who demonstrated with quiet dignity and authority that he could lead many men into battle. He was rewarded for his valiant efforts finally reaching the very top levels of the government serving as President Bush’s Secretary of State in his first administration. Throughout the halls of government and anywhere Secretary Powell served, he was treated with respect and the honor that he deserved for serving his country so well.

Following the honorable service of Colin Powell is a just as distinguished public servant, a black woman by the name of Condoleezza Rice. It was a proud day when she stepped into that office showing how far America had come from the days when blacks could not eat in the same restaurants as whites or drink from the same drinking fountains. And her service has been just as distinguished, meeting with heads of state from Africa to Europe to the Middle East to South America and making great accomplishments throughout her career.

These two black Americans are true examples of Doctor King’s vision of people who were recognized not for the color of their skin but the content of their character. Their excellence as leaders and their amazing resumes they brought to their jobs provide tremendous inspiration to black boys and girls in school. Young African Americans can see they too can rise up in this society. America has far to go but Dr. Rice and General Powell are examples that the system can reward black people of excellence and will not over look the contributions they can make to America’s future.

And now we are on that part of black history that is yet to be. The future is a part of black history yet to be written. And we witness another black leader of excellence preparing to be considered for the very top position of power in the country, perhaps in the world, the presidency of the United States. And as with General Powell and Dr. Rice, Barrack Obama will not be judged as a black man or in the context of the racial struggle in this country. Already he is being admired and praised for his leadership, his eloquence and his ability to bring new vision to this country. It is a day of pride for all of black America to see Barrack Obama be considered for this position. He will have to work hard and be judged on his talents, skills, experience and ability to lead. But it’s a testimony to how far the country has come that he has just as much of a chance to win that election as any other candidate. And if he wins he will knock down one more barrier to black people and throughout African American society, children will be able to say, there is nothing I cannot do if I try hard. And that is the vision every civil right leader since the civil war has wanted for blacks in America.

Throughout the  month of February, let’s take the opportunity to honor and learn more about the great contributions  African Americans have made for all mankind.