A death in our community was something we just took for granted would be announced & it was, for us. I've conversed with a few repubs over the years & institutional racism is a concept they resist.

I was raised by my Grandmother who was born in 1891. My Grandmother’s mother apparently lived with my Grandmother and helped her raise her children that were born between 1911-1930s. Great-Grandmother had been a slave (there are stories there) and there were stories that my Grandmother and my aunts/uncles would share about America. Some of the stories were in the forms of jokes/humor/tales of America that imparted a lesson. But one thing is particular you learned was that their stories were our history that had not been told in history books.

Since we also attended Segregated Schools - the history was reinforced by our Teachers. One day a month when the teachers were paid, they would spend the last half of that school day - talking about white people. What they said versus what they did, and what was in like in the past that white people didn’t talk about what they did.

As I’ve said a few times before in the past, my older brothers and sisters knew nothing of our antidotal history because they were raised in the North and their history was different than mine. There was both good and bad from being raised in the environment that I was, but looking back - I would not change things one bit.

Interesting times.

We're you raised in a small town, or in a city? I ask, because if it was a small town, I have some pictures of a schoolhouse that may interest you.

Population around 2200 then 2800 now.
As I recall - approximately 600 Native Americans,
400+ Afro-Americans,
1,200 Whites.

Once, the A.A. population was 30 percent. But over the years many blacks left. Today there is only a small handful of families -- mostly just the older ones left.
Our county was apparently one of the last to desegregate the schools. There is a one-room schoolhouse still on the property of the cemetery that was used for grades 1-8 until 1965. The county never provided a high school for Black students.
Myself and a couple of neighbors have been working at restoring the schoolhouse. Thought you might like to see it.

Our School House was built on land that my family donated to the community back in the thirties or forties…who remembers. Once they integrated the school system the property became city property and now (from what I have been told) is used to store boats or something.

Thanks for sharing the picture and history.

but these schools should be protected, and should serve the purpose for which they were built -- to EDUCATE.
After Desegregation, it seems that many towns in the South were quick to demolish those old schools, perhaps as an attempt to erase an uncomfortable past. But of the schools that have survived, many are receiving protection and funding as buildings of historical significance.
One quick way to gain federal protection for an African American school building, is to check to see if it was built with funding from the Rosenwald Foundation. My understanding is, any school that was built with Rosenwald funds is entitled to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Here is the link to the Fisk University database for the Rosenwald Foundation.
https://fisk.libguides.com/c.php?g=1057119&p=7710823
On that page, you will find a link to the 'Rosenwald School Database', where you can find if a Rosenwald school was built in a specific location.
Good luck, Dan!!!!

Thanks for sharing the information.

Lots of issues associated with the past in the small town where I lived.

But thanks.

It's like thousands of people never existed. Thank you so much for telling this story and for bringing them back to life for their families.
Thank you for your miracle.

It's a great feeling to contact someone to let them know that I found the grave of one of their grandparents.

I only had luck with one family and sent it to them when I found them at Ancestry.com.
Unfortunately, I haven't had time to trace some others which I have recently found but will try when time allows.

It's very difficult to a) read the wills b) acknowledge it was your bloodline c) some of the wording just shocks me.

The last will I found basically willed the slaves and their "issue" to their children and their heirs... and the heirs heirs into perpetuity.
It hit me hard to read that these people thought slavery would last forever and they would own their offspring until the end of time.

I think that will haunt me until I am no more.

I hadn't seen that reference to 'perpetuity' in a will regarding slaves.
One obstacle I keep finding in trying to trace a family after slavery, is that immediately after the war they will use the last name of their enslaver, but will later choose their OWN last name.

You are right that they did take the last names and some changed them, some did not. It's all so sad to read about.

I do have one interesting history where a slave woman escaped after poisoning the dinner she made for the family (this was a gggg uncle).
He died but the rest survived. She ran to the other side of the river and years later she returned and was given a house on the property.

Makes you wonder about that Uncle.

2 years ago and saw the same thing. I’ve seen it in Virginia where I was born. I think I will do an op and expand on this topic. Thank you 🙏🏽.

They are all over EVERYWHERE. North, South, East, West.

Black people could not be buried with white people. Segregated at birth, segregated in life, segregated at death.

There was a whole production in NYC to get one designated as a National Monument (better look at the National Park Service website for it it now before it is banned - a link on the below page has already been censored and removed) -

New York: African Burial Ground National Monument

For a century, from the 1690s to the 1790s, a small plot of land in Lower Manhattan became the final resting place for over 15,000 free and enslaved Africans. The burial ground was then lost under years of urban development and landfill, until workers rediscovered the burial ground in 1991 during an excavation of the land for a Federal Government office building. Excavations at the site revealed the remains of 419 Africans and over 500 individual artifacts. Considered one of the most important archeological finds of the 20th century, the African Burial Ground is of national significance because of what it can tell us about the lives of Africans and African Americans in an urban context. Both the deceased and their possessions help piece together a more complete history of New York City in the 17th and 18th centuries and what life was like for Africans in the city. The discoveries demonstrate the power of collaboration between anthropology, archaeology, and history.



(snip)

Thanks.

I give and bequeath unto my son James W my negro man Jesse to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath unto my son Beverly my negro woman Mary to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath unto my son Elijah my negro girl named Peggy to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath unto my beloved wife Nancy one negro woman named Sally also a negro girl named Caroline also my negro girl Martha to have and to hold and dispose of in any way she may think proper. I also will and bequeath to my wife Nancy three negro boys Charles, John and Bob also my negro woman Mehala and her child Jerry to hold during her natural life and after her death to be sold and the proceeds divided equally between all my children and their heirs.


Makes one's skin crawl reading that.

It's "The Hemingses of Monticello" by Anette Gordon Reed.

These historic places are being destroyed by gentrification and developers and at an alarming rate; I've seen it firsthand.

There is an unspoken knowledge in the south that Black People did and do all the work. They built everything you see, did all the farm work, did all the skilled trades, were and are the cooks, maids, and nannies for the white households.

They did all of this while raising their own families and building their own communities with parallel institutions (banks, schools, shops) and professions (doctors, lawyers, engineers).

There is a wealthy, advanced country built by people of African descent; It's called the United States of America.

For what you do and shedding light.