|
Avenging
the Ancestors Coalition
Presses
The Fight To Tell The Truth
About American History
By Junious Ricardo Stanton
As the US Government through their
contractors was putting the finishing touches on the new
Constitution Center at 6th and Market Street in Philadelphia,
the descendants of enslaved Africans pressed their case for the
telling the truth about the horrors of slavery and the ongoing
struggle for human dignity and freedom being waged by Africans
against this unjust system.
Hours before a black-tie gala celebration
on the eve of a visit by President George AWOL Bush to celebrate
"America's birthday," the Avenging The Ancestors
Coalition (ATAC) staged a rally and demonstration to reiterate
their demands for a "commemorative installation" to be
an integral part of the new 13 million-dollar Liberty Bell
Pavilion to be erected at 6th and Market Street across from the
new Constitution Center.
Several hundred members and supporters of
ATAC gathered as libations were poured and prayers offered to
the eight enslaved Africans George Washington carried to
Philadelphia to serve him during his tenure as President in the
first executive mansion, the Robert Morris House.
ATAC is a broad-based grassroots community
based group of activists, elected officials, media
personalities, scholars, organizations, and clergy who have come
together to honor those American Africans who were brutalized,
dehumanized, and exploited in and by America, to tell their
stories and force the government to include their stories as
part of the new Liberty Bell Pavilion. ATAC has been
demonstrating, writing letters, signing petition, and meeting
with the Independence National Historical Park, the National
Park Service, and the Department of the Interior since the
Federal Government decided to move the Liberty Bell from its
current site to 6th and Market Street, the site of the first
"White House."
However, the site also housed -- in an
adjacent stable area -- eight Africans Washington brought with
him from Mt. Vernon after being elected President. Activist
attorney Michael has been spokesperson and one of the out front
representatives of ATAC since its inception.
"This is hallowed ground for America
and for Africans. Sixth and Market is the intersection where the
first "White House" existed. Back then, it wasn't
called the White House it was the Executive Mansion, the Robert
Morris Mansion. We're saying if you're going to move the Liberty
Bell from point A to point B to honor America's history, you
also have to honor our history. George Washington as the father
of this country owned Africans as slaves -- right here at the
first white house. What we're demanding from the federal
government is that they memorialize those Africans by putting up
a monument, a memorial a commemorative project, something like
that. So we've been making progress. In fact, I consider today
the knock out punch. This is the fifteenth round. We've been
throwing hooks, jabs, uppercuts -- all that stuff and pretty
much have the government's knees buckling."
Coard and ATAC have met with
representatives of the National Park Service and have gotten
them to turn one hundred eighty degrees from denying the
relevancy of Washington owning slaves or that slavery was an
integral part of America's history to agreeing to commemorate
the enslaved Africans Washington kept as well as all the
American Africans who endured slavery and struggled for freedom.
"We regular black folks got together
and formed this Avenging The Ancestors Coalition and we ordinary
black folks forced the most powerful government in the world to
go from denying to designing. First they denied the relevance of
George Washington having slaves. We wrote letters, we
demonstrated, we signed petitions so that they did a hundred and
eighty degree turn. They stopped denying and now they are
designing. The design they came up with included some input from
our community but not enough input. So what we're trying to do
now is get more black designers, more black architects, more
black sculptors, and more black construction workers to get in
on the planning of this. Once we get that we can take the
preliminary designs they come up with and expand upon that. We
just met with the new superintendent of the Independence
National Historical Park and laid out our demands and I must
admit about eighty per cent of what we demanded we got."
Acknowledged Coard. "We want to continue with that and have
more community meetings, in other word bring these Historical
Park people to the hood and show us what you got so we can have
some input."
The president of the local NAACP addressed
the crowd as did several others on behalf of Mumia Abu Jamal.
Representative from N'CORBA were present as well as organizers
of a protest demonstration against George W. Bush which was to
take place on July 4th.
Dr Shirley Parham, an historian and
university professor and also a member of the ATAC negotiating
team, stressed the importance of knowing our history. "I
wants you also to understand not only the colonial period but
when William Penn arrived our ancestors were already here. They
were slaves of the English, the Dutch, the Swedes, and the
French right out here on the Delaware River. Once we begin to
acknowledge the existence of black people and what they did, all
their lies unfold. This is supposed to be the Quaker City and
I've been called to task for this many times. There is no way
under the sun if Quakers were our friends we should have had
slavery in this city."
Dr Parham roused the crowd by reciting a
litany of little known historical facts about American Africans
in and around Philadelphia. "The Philadelphia School
District is going to have to change what they do because you can
not continue with this lie in perpetuity. What I want us to do
is take a look at the history that surrounds us. This city is
full of our history. We can not do it unless indeed we become
more active and take a part in it."
Following the speeches the drummers led a
procession to the site of the Robert Morris estate and
the location of the slave quarters. Libations were
poured by a Yoruba priest and the presence of the
spirits of the ancestors was invoked as the
demonstration and rally came to a close.
For more information
about ATAC contact Michael Coard at (215)
552-8714 or
mc@bowserweaver.com
* * *
* *
* *
* * *
 |
Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
* * * * *
|
Debt: The First 5,000 Years
By David Graeber
Before there was money, there was debt. Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it. Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it. Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a fascinating chronicle of this little known history—as well as how it has defined human history, and what it means for the credit crisis of the present day and the future of our economy. Economist Glenn Loury /Criminalizing a Race
|
 |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
updated 19 July
2010
|
