July 18, 2011
Civil War Still Not Over, Some Say
Visitors at New Black Civil War Museum Say Race Education is Missing in America
By Hazel Trice Edney
Ohio school teach Paul LaRue tells audience how he led Black and White middle school students in a project to mark graves of Civil War soldiers, many of which were Black. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney Wire
Morgan Gadson, 6, and Marqus Strong, 9, don the uniform parts of Black Civil War veterans. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney Wire
Civil War re-enactors were among members of the audience as panels discussed racial reconciliation. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney Wire
Dr. Frank Smith, the museum's founder and executive director, escorts U. S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) on an impromptu tour. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney Wire
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Racial profiling and police brutality; economic inequality; racial stereotypes; disparate incarceration rates, unbalanced criminal justice and media bias.
These are just a few of the racial ills still raging like an ideological civil war across America as the nation continues to commemorate the sesquicentennial – 150th anniversary - of the start of the Civil War, the raging violence that separated a nation and brought an end to slavery in the U. S.
Some among the streams of people who attended grand opening activities at the African American Civil War Museum and Memorial in the heart of the District of Columbia, were adamant that the education of America’s youth and re-education of adults are among the key answers to racial reconciliation and Black progress.
“I am a history major at UDC. I love everything about American history,” said Micaiae Strong, a student at the University of the District of Columbia. Her son, Marqus, tried on a Civil War Union uniform and gave a salute as part of his educational outing. “I like to know the ins, the outs, the whys, the reasons and how Black people used the laws they created against us to get our freedom. And I want my son to understand there’s no option to fail,” Strong said.
They toured the new 5,000 square foot facility during a break between panels during a racial reconciliation conference that kicked off the weekend event that included a festival class race films and Monday’s ribbon-cutting.
Sheila Willis of Atlanta also brought her 5-year-old son.
“I feel that if we would teach kids integrity and equality across the board, that will level the playing field,” she said. “I want him to know his history because if you know our history, you can move forward.”
That kind of teaching - for children and adults alike – are what Paul LaRue told the audience he’s been doing.
LaRue, a history teacher at the Washington High School in Washington Courthouse, Ohio, took to the stage and showed ways to get other teachers involved doing hands-on lessons with African-American heritage like what he’s been doing in his community for past 10 years.
“By getting students involved hands-on working with African-American heritage or Civil War heritage, you get students to not just talk about it but actually doing it,” said LaRue, who is White.
One of his activities with Black and White Middle School students involved setting headstones for veterans who have unmarked graves.
“By helping to mark a veteran’s grave, I think that makes it real. We have marked about 70 unmarked graves, about half of which are African-Americans,” he said. “Then, instead of just discussion or a debate, it’s, ‘I’ve made a contribution’. It’s been a really positive team collaboration.”
Still others say children must be retaught how to take control of their own lives and futures regardless of their educational backgrounds.
“We just taught our kids – through civil rights and integration – to go to college, work hard, get a good job, but that’s not how you build a nation,” said Ernest E. Johnson, 60, a real estate broker, who describes himself as a “lover of the struggle.”
He said, “We have to first re-educate our children through ownership and control. That’s how you establish permanency and uplift your race.”
The commemoration that started on April 12, 1861, will last for four years through the anniversary of the end of the war, April 9, 1865. Dr. Frank Smith, founder and visionary of the AACWMM, who also serves as its executive director, hopes that will be enough time to create enough dialogue to move toward racial healing in America.
“I’m hoping that by the time this sesquicentennial period - this four-year celebration - is over, America will have a greater appreciation of the [role that] African-Americans played in making America a better place – by ending slavery and keeping America united under one flag,” Smith said. “Furthermore, there could be no racial reconciliation in America until we got rid of slavery and Jim Crow. And it took the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement to do that and I think most people would admit that America is a better place.”
Civil War re-enactors, historians, teachers and interested onlookers of all ages packed into the museum over the weekend. Many held the same sentiment – that the true story of Black soldiers’ battle for their own freedom and the subsequent progress can’t be told enough.
“People who started off as slaves ended up as businessmen…You don’t hear about all those accomplishments. You don’t learn about those people who made contributions to assist,” said Judy Williams, a member of FREED – Female Re-enactors of Distinction. “So, I chose to be a re-enactor to help educate and tell that story…It’s a story truly of overcoming.”
The level of conversation that Smith hopes for will take the participation of all races says Darryl Jones, a D.C. business owner.
“First, we – Black, White, blue, green, purple - must recognize historically what has happened to Africans in America prior to slavery and up to the present. Once we acknowledge that, then we have a basis for going forward and the understanding of how we can have an intelligent conversation on the blight of Black people here in America.”
Jones says the details of Black history are not known well enough to have the impact that it should. “First you have to reinvent the history book. We have to teach our kids, White and Black – the history of America. Right now history remains his story. Our story remains a mystery.”
We must tell our own story, says Keith Butler, who worked for 10 years as a technology coordinator for D.C. Public Schools. “A lot of us have forgotten about our pasts.”
Butler is working with the National Association of Colored Women to establish a Grandparents Academy. “We’ve gotten away from the basics,” Butler said. “This will focus on re-teaching our kids.”
Coming up on the second half of the reconciliation forum, D. J. Walls, 34 and Nicole Williams, 31, dropped in just to see what they might learn.
“We’re young,” she said. “We came today to look around and see what it’s about.”
Acknowledging the plight and social statistics involving young Black males, Walls says racial reconciliation can only come when individuals pursue it as a personal goal.
“There’s so much negativity,” he said. “We need more understanding and communication and for people to have an open mind. You have to understand before you can judge.”