history buffs unite
“The long memory is the most radical idea in this country. It is the loss of that long memory which deprives our people of that connective flow of thoughts and events that clarifies our vision - not of where we're going, but where we want to go.” - Utah Phillips
**The audio recording of this Morton Train is available to paid subscribers here.**
In the fall of 1991, a construction crew in lower Manhattan dug deep below street level, preparing to lay the foundation of a new federal office building at 290 Broadway. To their great astonishment, far underground, the crew came upon the skeletal remains of several human beings.
Many consider this to be the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century in the United States.
What was discovered (uncovered) that day was the largest and oldest known African American cemetery, dating back to the 17th century and spanning 6.6 acres underground, the final resting place for thousands of both free and enslaved people.
The 419 bodies and hundreds of artifacts that were excavated from that city block in 1991 were sent to Howard University for years of careful analyzation. And then, in October of 2003, thousands of people participated in the “Rites of Ancestral Return,” ceremoniously reinterring those remains on the site.
The African Burial Ground, as it is officially called, in New York City was declared a National Monument in 2006 and is referred to as a “sacred space” on the National Park Service website. There is both an indoor visitor center with various exhibits and a gorgeous outdoor memorial in honor of “all those who were lost, all those who were stolen, all those who were left behind, all those who were not forgotten.” It’s a powerful experience to visit this place and I highly recommend that you do, if given the chance.
History matters.
***
In Olympia Dukakis’s autobiography, she describes coming upon a passage in a Greek history book that read, “the teachings of the Great Mother” were “buried in oblivion and covered with silence.” Olympia described that single sentence as stirring her heart and zapping her in the gut. It does the same for me.
So much of human history, not just the wisdom of the Divine Feminine and past matriarchal cultures, has been buried in oblivion and covered with silence. All of it deemed either unimportant or a threat to the Powers That Be.
The patriarchal, capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist forces have dominated, exploited, and controlled the western narrative for centuries, in the same way those forces have sought to dominate, exploit, and control everything else. As an African proverb poetically states, “Until the lion tells the story, the hunter will always be the hero.”
That’s why books like Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States are so necessary in helping us to gain a robust understanding of the past - and the present - in this country. Heck, the entire Hidden History book series by Thom Hartmann guarantees that any reader will never view politics the same way ever again. Our knowledge, as the saying goes, is power.
For me personally, when I was coming out as gay in the ‘90s, in a society that had done its darnedest to invisiblize women like me, I was desperate to find those stories and to know those names. My courage & confidence were buoyed with each new discovery. And boy I really hit the jackpot when Lillian Faderman published her book in 1999 called To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America - A History. It’s described as being “a source of enlightenment for all, and for many a singular source of pride.” Yes indeed.
Archivists, artists, researchers, writers, storytellers, historians, librarians, anthropologists, journalists, and teachers over the centuries have unearthed, chronicled, and gifted us with a wealth of information. And, because of the Internet, we have greater access to that dynamic, diverse history than ever before. We must take advantage of this in every way we can.
***
The current administration’s overt aim to erase diverse historical perspectives from museums, landmarks, websites, airwaves, and classrooms that don’t comport with their twisted version of reality is propagandistic and authoritarian. Those obsessed with supposed “patriotic education” have even removed content about Black and female veterans from the Arlington National Cemetery website. Their disrespect, ignorance, and hypocrisy know no bounds.
They position themselves (and their loyal followers) as being victimized by humanity’s diversity, by any nuanced perspective of America’s past, and by truth itself. History, therefore, must be - as Chris Hedges puts it - “calcified into myth to buttress their ruling ideology.” Their agenda is clearly stated in the title of Jason Stanley’s new book: Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.
They want to strip us of our collective history in order to strip us of our collective power.
So let’s boldly claim it, protect it, and wield it.
If we really understand the long history of voter suppression in this country, we have a greater facility to call out (and rage against) the extreme tactics of voter suppression being implemented right now.
If we really understand that this government-by-oligarchy is the fulfillment of a plan set forth in the 1971 Powell Memo, aided and abetted by an insidious right-wing media propaganda machine, we can better recognize the giant that we are up against.
If we really understand the efficacy of the social justice movements and leadership from our past (anti-war, suffrage, abolition, civil rights, free speech rights, labor rights, environmental rights, etc.), we can utilize their tactics, draw from their courage, and proudly take hold of that great legacy.
Just last night, when Susan Crawford won the election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, she ended her acceptance speech with the words of the late Thurgood Marshall. Just last night, Cory Booker ended his 25 hour long speech on the Senate floor with the words of the late John Lewis.
History is all around us and inside us. It is there to empower us, if we let it.
***
When the African Burial Ground was discovered at 290 Broadway by that construction crew in 1991, it was a community of citizen activists that made sure those bodies were treated with reverence, that the land was protected, and that the site be designated a National Historic Landmark. They held night vigils, organized rallies, got petitions signed, met with government officials, and gathered international support with the help of the press. It was a community of citizen activists who demanded the history of that place and those people be honored and known.
Here we are now, an entire country made up of citizen activists, demanding that our rights be honored and known. Demanding - in the words of the Gettysburg Address of 1863 - that “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” not perish from this earth.
Yes, these are perilous times. Yes, these are unprecedented times. And these are hopeful times.
Historian Howard Zinn promised this to us:
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.”
In solidarity,
E.M.
Thank you, Liz. I had never heard the story of that cemetery and the work done to honor those buried there. Your writing this morning gives me courage and inspires me to make good trouble.
Thank you, Elizabeth!