r
2A
NEWS/ The Charlotte Post
Thursday, February 6,1997
March leads to Day of Healing plans
Continued from page 1A
Barnett criticized those who
reacted to Cooper’s death, but
did not respond to black-on-
black homicides. Some black
leaders were openly hostile to
the Jan. 27 Black Monday rally
and boycott, while others
ignored it.
Barnett’s remarks came after
his own 1,000 Man March
Against Drugs and Violence on
Saturday drew
more than 300
marchers.
Demonstrators
marched from
First Mayfield
Baptist Church
off Oaklawn
Avenue to West
Charlotte High
School for a
rally.
Barnett
“Black Monday caused divi
sions,” Barnett said. “We have
got that behind us. We want to
deal vrith the fallout as a result
of that.
“It is OK to focus on black-
white relations but we have got
to do some serious work on our
selves...mainly among us
adults,” Barnett said. “Nobody is
campaigning for that cause.
That’s one of the things we are
really going to start focusing on.”
Barnett said he is mailing invi
tations to the Day of Healing
meetings to leaders of black
organizations, among others.
Also as a result of Saturday’s
march, Barnett said black men
wfill cook for black women at a
March 1 cookout. The location
for the cookout will be
announced later, he said.
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAMPTON, Va. - Five
floors up in Hampton
University’s elegant main
library, slim boxes of files hold
the stories of American slav
ery.
The crumbling sheets of
lined paper are not official
accounts, but the words of
men and women telling what
it was like to be bom as prop
erty.
They talk of work and
hunger, some situations so
cruel that editors collecting
the conversations doubted
them. Some tell of favored
treatment and white relatives.
Some describe slavery after
the war - before news of free
dom reached their ears.
By the time they were inter
viewed it was the 1930s, 70
years after the Emancipation
Proclamation. Hampton
Agricultural and Normal
School had just become
Hampton Institute, a transfor
mation that made it eager to
take on serious research.
Nationwide, the Depression
was on and the government
was putting people to work,
some through the Federal
Writers’ Project.
Why not send out a team of
black interviewers, proposed
Thomas Calhoun Walker, the
accomplished former slave
iron? Gloucester. Virginia had
no black writers on its work-
project rolls. Who better to
approach former slaves, who
were unlikely to be frank with
white listeners?
Several black colleges were
approached, but only
Hampton Institute came
through with money. College
President Arthur Howe
lamented that Negro history
was neglected at all levels of
schooling, even college, said
Jeanne Zeidler, director of the
Hampton University Museum.
In a letter, he talked of the
interviews’ importance in sup
plying that information.
“He says that if we are ever
going to prove that democracy
works and that a minority
group can exist congenially
and prosper ... we must edu
cate white people about the
experience of the Negro,”
Zeidler said.
The team of 13 black work
ers got cramped quarters;
three desks and a single type
writer, said historian Charles
L. Perdue Jr. at the
University of Virginia.
By then, former slaves were
difficult to find. But the inter
viewers set out in 1936 with a
long list of questions. Who
named slave babies? Did
slaves attend funerals of
whites? Can you read and
write?
Soon, they let their subjects
talk as they pleased, seeing
that their own stories were
more compelling. In this way
more than 300 Virginiems who
were former slaves dictated
their life histories.
“Did I see any genals? Sho, I
seen Grant and Butler all de
time. Yessuh, I seen Lincoln
an’ shook hands vrid him. My
mother, Ellen Wynder, uster
cook things an’ sell em in de
camps ... Dat’s how come I
seen so many dose big men,”
said Matilda Carter of
Hampton in an interview con
ducted by Anderson on Jan. 4,
1937.
Sixty years later, the effort
to interview former slaves has
itself become a piece of
Virginia history.
A book called “The Negro in
Virginia” was the result of the
project, but it quoted little of
the material. Roscoe Lewis, a
Hampton Institute chemistry
professor, headed the team of
black writers.
An easygoing, personable
man, he was as comfortable
with the illiterate and poor as
he was with students, friends
recall.
Lewis kept interviewing for
mer slaves long after the book
was published in 1940. He
died in 1961 at 57, never hav
ing fulfilled his dream of pub
lishing his transcripts in their
entirety.
His files at the Hampton
University archives hold some
of the original documents of
the Virginia Writers’ Project
interviews, such as this one.
“When ah was a slave, ah
minded cows. Ah had seven
brothers an’ sistuhs. Ah doan
know how old ah am. Back
dah nobuddy know how old
dey is. Twarn’t no book. Hain’t
ah tell you white folks sell col
ored folks lak cattle, sheep,
pigs,” said former slave Ellis
Bennett in a Jan. 7, 1937
interview.
In the 1960s, Perdue found
roughly half of the documents,
then scattered, and published
them, changing as little as
possible.
Suiiimit on race relations
Continued from page 1A
“While I continue to believe
Don Reid’s comments were
inappropriate for the forum
where they were made and that
he ran the risk of inflaming the
community, I agree that, statis
tically, his comments were cor
rect,” Simms said. “But before
we get any further down this
road of division, distrust and
suspicion, leaders of this com
munity need to stop, take a
hard look at where we are head
ed and confront the racial issues
that threaten our future.”
Simms said he supports a
county proposal for a task force
on race relations.
Mecklenburg County commis
sioners chair Parks Helms
noted the poor state of race rela
tions in his state of the coimty
address last month. He also
wants to convene a task force
which will report back to com
missioners this fall.
Race was one of three issues
discussed at a recent seminar by
the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Urban League, of which Simms
is chairman of the board.
President Clinton even men
tioned race relations in his inau
gural address and again in his
State of the Union address
Wednesday.
Simms proposed an event last
ing two or three days, if neces
sary, and involving local leaders
and national experts heading
workshops to help improve
schools, government and the
criminal justice system.
The summit would be an
opportunity for citizens to air
their frustrations and learn
more about each other.
“I hope we can enter the year
2000 with a clear agenda of
where we’re going, and leave
the baggage of the old years
i
1.
1 I
Davis
behind,” Siimns said.
Bob Davis, who also criticized
Reid, said it looks like Reid and
others have
recognized
the race
problem
“and some
thing needs
to be done
about it,
but nobody
knows
what.”
“I think
race rela
tions are terrible, because
nobody wants to admit we have
got a problem,” said Davis,
chairman of the Black Political
Caucus.
He noted that an interdenomi
national, interracial group
headed by the Rev. James
Samuel of Little Rock AME Zion
Church has discussed a revival
of the city’s Community
Relations Commission.
That commission is credited
with keeping the city together
during the turbulent days of the
civil rights movement. The
semi-independent agency was
restructured about four years
ago and now is considered a gov
ernment agency.
“Now it is a tiger without
teeth,” Davis said.
Simms said major topics of the
race summit would include edu
cation, employment, housing,
health care and public safety.
Concurrent workshops would
be held over the two- or three-
day period so those attending
could sit in on several different
meetings.
“It would be my intention that
the output of this conference
would form an agenda for this
community as we enter the next
century,” Simms said.
“We need to initiate broad,
public dialogue in order to
improve race relations in this
community. One of the biggest
barriers to resolving race issues
is avoidance of these painful,
stressful issues. But we cannot
confront problems if we won’t
acknowledge their existence and
begin constructive dialogue.”
Cljarlotte
For
Comments
or questions,
Please call us
at 704-376-0496
or
1-888-376-POST
“History’s about everybody,”
said Perdue, whose book
based on the interviews is
called “Weevils in the Wheat.”
Perdue asserts that no
source is superior: Amy inter
view, even with an ex-presi
dent, must be considered the
imperfect account of one indi
vidual.
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Extended Office Hours:
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February 1,1997 - March 7,1997
Application forms are available at all magnet
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