Black History is OUR History

During this time of racial unrest and tension, I have tried my best to educate and illuminate some of the lesser known parts of Black History that have led us to this place. Everything from Slavery to Systemic Inequality to Redlining, and I myself have learned things that I never knew.  So much of the history of this country, and the world, has been diluted and sanitized to make it palatable.  This history is ugly.  It's raw. It's destructive. It's horrific. And it's time that we know the truth so that we can do better.   With today being Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, I will start here and collect each post I have written and researched so we can all have a better understanding on how we got here. 





PEOPLE were taken from Africa and MADE into slaves. They had families that were ripped apart. Women were forced to breastfeed grown men in the holds of ships after their babies died so they could provide sustenance for the crossing. The things that happened to my ancestors were atrocities.

"If a woman was a good breeder she brought a good price on the auction block," said Hattie Rogers, a North Carolina resident, when she was interviewed in 1937. "The slave buyers would come around and jab them in the stomach and look them over and if they thought they would have children fast they brought a good price."




Alex Woods, of Raleigh, North Carolina, born on May 15, 1858, said that as a boy he saw slaves being marched on their way to the auction block, each person chained to the one next to him, and, as he witnessed this, being "afraid my mother and father would be sold away from me."

The Library of Congress has interviews from over 2000 former slaves that were still living in the 1930's. These need to be a part of our curriculum. Not the sanitized and Whitewashed version that we have that gives us an abbreviated look at the atrocities done to people like me. Library of Congress Slave Interviews




Juneteenth SHOULD be a federal holiday. How can we celebrate a racist and genocidal man who NEVER stepped foot in this country...but we cannot celebrate the day the last slaves finally learned they were legally free? 





The effects of slavery are still felt today in our healthcare system, our educational system, in lending practices, in every facet of life for Black people. If you are White, no matter HOW you may be discriminated against...it will NEVER be like being Black. Today take some time to LEARN. Support a Black owned business. Order from a Black owned restaurant. And remember that laws STILL TO THIS DAY have to be passed to give us the rights that Whites have.


Why is Juneteenth Important?

Slave Stories from the Middle Passage

The roles of White Women in Slavery

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