On January 16, 1865, Union General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15 which promised the formerly enslaved 40 acres and a mule. The descendants of enslaved Africans are still waiting for their inheritance, preferably payable by check.
The call for reparations dates back to 1783 when Belinda Royall petitioned the Massachusetts General Court (the state legislature) requesting a pension based on her years of enslavement from the proceeds of her master’s estate. Fast forward to today, African Americans from California to New York are saying it’s past time for reparations.
On June 22, 2023, City Council authorized the creation of the Philadelphia Reparations Task Force to “study and develop reparations proposals for Black Philadelphian descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States.”
The Cost of Inheritance: An America ReFramed Special explores “the nation's legacy of systemic inequities to modern-day America, introducing audiences to descendants of enslaved persons and slave owners, profiling their complex intertwined histories and detailing how their quest to bridge divides galvanized them to seek reparations together.”
The Cost of Inheritance: An America ReFramed Special premieres on Monday, January 8, 2024, at 10:00 pm ET on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app.
Black sacred places matter. From Bishop Richard Allen preaching at Mother Bethel, Denmark Vesey planning a slave rebellion at Mother Emanuel, and Minister Malcolm X teaching at Muhammad’s Temple of Islam No. 12, Black sacred places have been the heart and soul of the African American community.
Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., an advisor to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, observed: “No pillar of the African American community has been more central to its history, identity, and social justice vision than the ‘Black Church.’”
Preserving Black Churches is a project of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund which is led by National Trust for Historic Preservation Senior Vice President Brent Leggs. In an interview with Robin Givhan of the Washington Post, Leggs said:
It’s critically important that we preserve the physical evidence of our past, that we preserve the historic buildings that are imbued with legacy and memory, that we preserve the profound stories that are embodied in the walls, landscapes, and cemeteries stewarded by African American churches.
Rooted in the Black experience, jazz both has been a sanctuary and found sanctuary in the church. Now a jazz standard, Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” is a celebration of the African American religious tradition.
The Ku Klux Klan’s bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church which killed four Black children moved John Coltrane, the grandson of a prominent African Methodist Episcopal minister, to compose “Alabama.”
Partners for Sacred Places and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia recently launched the Philadelphia Fund for Black Sacred Places (PFBSP). The three-year project will expand public access to purpose-built religious properties of architectural, historical or cultural significance, regardless of denomination, that are operated and owned by an active community of faith. PFBSP will provide planning and programming grants, as well as capital grants to support Black congregations’ efforts to maintain their properties.
The public’s response to the murder of George Floyd in June 2020 gave focus to the unanswered needs of our city’s Black communities. Religious properties have space that can be developed to respond to these needs in creative and innovative ways after worship. The houses of worship that are selected to participate in this grant program will provide welcoming and affirming space to the public that will benefit all of our communities.
PFBSP will provide up to $10,000 in planning grants and up to $250,000 in 1:2 matching grants ($2 granted for each $1 raised) for the planning and execution of projects that expand equitable access to Black-led historic sacred places. Eligibility guidelines are available here. The application deadline is January 31, 2024.
Register here for the November 17 info session on completing the application. If you have any questions, contact PFBSP Director Betsy Ivey by email or by phone at (215) 567-3234 x29.
“What to the slave is the Fourth of July,” asked Frederick Douglass in a speech at an Independence Day celebration in Rochester, New York on July 5, 1852.
Given the lengthy history of state-sponsored race-based preferences in America, to say that anyone is now victimized if a college considers whether that legacy of discrimination has unequally advantaged its applicants fails to acknowledge the well-documented “intergenerational transmission of inequality” that still plagues our citizenry.
What to the descendants of the enslaved is Independence Day? “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.”
From Frederick Douglass to the CIA, Harriet Tubman’s singular contribution to American history is recognized. Yet Philadelphia, the city where Tubman first experienced freedom, is scrounging around for an African American historical figure to celebrate. Without explanation, the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) is seeking public input “for a permanent statue that celebrates Harriet Tubman’s story or another African American’s contributions to our nation’s history.”
The survey asks five questions, all of which beg the question: Why is OACCE searching for random African American historical figures to replace Harriet Tubman? OACCE is heading down the same path of lack of transparency and incoherence that led to the reversal of their plan to award a no-bid commission to a white artist. OACCE Director Kelly Lee and Public Art Director Marguerite Anglin are cruising for another bruising.
For generations, Black music has conveyed the hopes and struggles of a resilient people — spirituals mourning the original sin of slavery and later heralding freedom from bondage, hard truths told through jazz and the sounds of Motown during the Civil Rights movement, and hip-hop and rhythm and blues that remind us of the work that still lies ahead. The music created by Black artists continues to influence musicians of all persuasions, entertain people of all backgrounds, and shape the story of our Nation.
As noted in the 1971 documentary “Black Music in America: From Then Till Now,” Black music is “one of the great artistic contributions to American culture. Black music in America began as the African drum beat and plantation song ignored and then suppressed by white culture.”
To explore the history of Black American music, check out the Black Music Project.
Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day was first observed on May 1, 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina. Thousands of African Americans, including the formerly enslaved, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, and the 34th and 104th United States Colored Troops, were led by children as they gathered to honor 257 Union soldiers who were buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand of the city’s Washington Race Course.
The ancestors paid tribute to those who gave their lives by decorating their graves, hence Declaration Day.
April is Jazz Appreciation Month. America’s classical music is appreciated around the world but in New Orleans, the city where jazz was born, there was a 100-year-old ban on jazz in the public schools. While the ban was honored in the breach, it was only officially lifted last month. The prohibition was white supremacists’ tacit acknowledgement that jazz is Black music.
In an interview with the Associated Press, four-time Grammy winner Robert Glasper said that African Americans are reclaiming jazz:
Absolutely, because it’s African-American music... our ancestors are the ones who birthed this music. Blood, sweat and tears. And we, as a people, have gotten away from it and other people have taken it and been able to capitalize off of it [emphasis added].
We’re just living our truth, and that’s what it is. And we are jazz (musicians) — because some people say, “What they’re doing is not jazz.” Yes, it is — it literally is. It’s just jazz with a heartbeat. It’s still alive. What you like is dead. What we’re doing is alive. And that’s the difference.
To borrow a phrase from Grammy-winning producer Swizz Beatz: Long live jazz!
