GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLFRIEND GATHERINGS

Learning from YOU to empower ME !

Black History IS American History

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In 1565, the Spanish brought enslaved Africans to what is now Florida.

In 1619, the English brought enslaved Africans to Virginia.

They were victims of human trafficking.

And, from them and more that followed, surviving the horrors of the Middle Passage, a new people were bred in the Americas.

Mixed children of the enslaved, the native, and the free.

Today, they are called African Americans.

Even while enslaved, they participated and contributed to EVERY significant event in what became the United States of America.

The facts are that the very economy of the fledgling new country was built on the backs of these enslaved people.

Their hands literally built our esteemed buildings in the nation’s capital.

For example, the enslaved American, Philip Reid, helped construct the Statue of Freedom atop our U.S. Capitol today.

https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/statue-freedom/philip-reid

We were at the Boston Tea Party, and we are fighting now for our country in the 21st century.

African American inventors created and changed their country and the world with inventions sometimes born from necessity. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_inventors_and_scientists

Our blood, sweat, and tears are in the roots of America.

We were bred here. We were born here.  We belong here.

Along with our Native American brethren, the African American relationship with America is unique.

There is no way for others to understand it or how we “be” in that relationship.

We only ask that you acknowledge that uniqueness.

FREEDOM has a different context for us.

Because our journey to acquire it was like no other.

We rise in a different way when it is threatened. 

But we rise … as Americans.

When the complete history of the journeys of ALL American people is embraced as ONE history, then we will have taken the first healing step in our land of the free and home of the brave.

July 4th 2021

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4th of July

It’s a few minutes past midnight on the 245th birthday of my country.

I’m watching AMERICA THE STORY OF US on Amazon Prime.

I’m trying to bolster my spirit on a day that always made me feel proud to be an American.

However, this year feels SO different.

The January 6th Insurrection and the ongoing attack on voting rights in many states have me disheartened.

America’s original sin – racial bias – still threatens our democracy.

We have put a man on the moon, but we cannot overcome racial hatred in our country. 

WE, THE PEOPLE, cannot form a more perfect union until we are inclusive of the history and contributions of ALL Americans.

God help us.

HIS continual blessings despite our faults are my prayer for the love of country.

Juneteenth 2020 Dare to Remember

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Today marks the 155th anniversary of the date when Union Army Major General Gordon Granger stood in Galveston, Texas, and announced to the enslaved Americans in Texas they were free.

In the past, I held a disdain for the celebrations on this date because I could not understand why we would celebrate a day when our African-American ancestors were “given” something that never should have been denied them – freedom.

However, now, I know that I was misguided because I had not sought information beyond what I was taught in Texas public schools. In 2012, I discovered the truth when I visited the African American Civil War Memorial (http://www.afroamcivilwar.org) in Washington, D.C., and read specific wording in the Emancipation Proclamation.

It clearly stated that the Proclamation provided the freedom to the enslaved Americans in the seceding states once those states were conquered and had surrendered to the Union Army.

 For that reason, 200,000 African-American men, those who had escaped slavery and those who were born free, joined the Union Army despite the threat of immediate execution if taken prisoner by the Confederate Army. 

They did so to ensure that the Union Army defeated the traitorous Confederate Army to win the Civil War so their enslaved brothers and sisters would be freed.

In essence, African-American men fought courageously and won the freedom – it was not “given” to our ancestors.

Even though General Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, the last battle of the Civil War – Battle of Palmito Ranch – was fought in Texas on May 12 and 13, 1865. Texas was conquered, at this point, and the state was occupied by the African-American Union troops that helped defeat it. The enslaved Americans in Texas discovered their freedom one month later. The conditions of the Emancipation Proclamation had been satisfied, and freedom had been won.

It was an enlightening and proud moment for me to learn these facts, which had never been taught in school. Through my quest to always seek knowledge, I moved from disdain to pride in this date and its significance to my people, my state, and my country.  

Juneteenth is not just a holiday for African-Americans but ALL Americans. It is the date that our country decided to live up to our declaration that ALL men are created equal.

So, during this COVID-19 pandemic, I will celebrate with a good friend. We will attend together via Zoom, a virtual tour, and presentation at the National Museum of African-American History & Culture.    https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/celebrating-juneteenth

I will proudly reflect on the journey and contribution of The Ancestors from 1619 to today. 

How will you celebrate Juneteenth?

Happy 4th of July 2018!

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When you are out celebrating the birthday of our nation, please pray for her.

Please pray for us, as Americans, as that which the founding fathers bequeathed us is being tested.

I pray that all of us realize that no matter what we are Americans first and foremost.

For love of country and ALL that she stands for in this world, I cherish her and the GREAT and MANY sacrifices that my ancestors made for this country,

May she always stand as a beacon of hope and independence in the world.

God Bless the United States of America!

 

Happy 4th of July, America!

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While we are celebrating our nation’s 241st birthday with our families in our traditional ways, let us not forget the principles that our founding fathers adopted when they grasped freedom from the tyranny of the greatest power on earth in 1776.  Now, during our present time, our democracy is being challenged from within itself.  We must hold fast to those principles and to the bravery they exhibited all those years ago.