A Monument to African-Americans in the Revolution with Maurice Barboza

Congress has bestowed on National Mall Liberty Fund DC the honor of establishing a memorial in Washington’s Monumental Core to tens of thousands of African American solders, sailors, marines, patriots and liberty seekers of the Revolutionary War.  In preparation for the design and construction of such a memorial, the National Mall Liberty Fund has been working to document the histories and stories of these valiant soldiers.  We talk with  Maurice Barboza, the Executive Director of the National Mall Liberty Fund.

Transcript

WEBVTT
 
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 good morning everyone
 
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 welcome to the revolution
 
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 250 podcast I'm bob allison
 
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 I chair the revolution 250
 
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 advisory group we are a
 
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 consortium of 70 plus
 
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 organizations in
 
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 massachusetts looking ways
 
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 to commemorate the
 
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 beginnings of american
 
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 independence and our guest
 
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 today is maurice barboza is
 
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 a actually he is a I'll let
 
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 you tell us more about who
 
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 you are maurice you grew up
 
 00:00:28.835 --> 00:00:29.856
 in plainville connecticut
 
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 got a law degree at Rutgers,
 
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 and now for 40 years have
 
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 been working on the
 
 00:00:37.058 --> 00:00:38.479
 National Mall Liberty Fund,
 
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 that is building a monument
 
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 on the National Mall to the
 
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 African American patriots
 
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 who served in the revolution.
 
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 Yes,
 
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 I didn't set out to build a monument
 
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 or to battle for, well,
 
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 40 years with the Daughters
 
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 of the American Revolution.
 
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 I just thought,
 
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 There was a picture on my
 
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 grandmother's living room
 
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 wall of a man dressed in a
 
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 Civil War uniform.
 
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 All I knew was his last name
 
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 and that was my
 
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 grandmother's grandfather.
 
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 That was about it.
 
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 We knew they were from Maine.
 
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 After my grandmother's death in 1975,
 
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 my mother asked one of my
 
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 aunts if I could take that
 
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 picture and she agreed.
 
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 uh gave it to me and um I
 
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 continued to think about it
 
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 then in 1978 after having
 
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 seen roots and having been
 
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 through the semi the
 
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 bicentennial I decided to
 
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 go to the archives and
 
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 figure out who this person
 
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 was and to my surprise I
 
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 found his war records um
 
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 and it was easy because um
 
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 They were in folders.
 
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 They gave me three at a time.
 
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 I looked through the first one.
 
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 I knew it wasn't my ancestor.
 
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 The next one,
 
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 I saw all these familiar names,
 
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 names that my aunts and
 
 00:02:08.901 --> 00:02:10.043
 uncles had been named.
 
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 and other information that, of course,
 
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 my great-grandfather's name
 
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 as the son of the soldier.
 
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 And so that's what got me going.
 
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 And I traveled through museums, libraries,
 
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 cemeteries, beginning in Maine,
 
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 which was Massachusetts at the time,
 
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 Union, Maine.
 
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 And then I traveled through
 
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 museums in Massachusetts, bookstores.
 
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 And I discovered the family
 
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 dating back to 1630 and the
 
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 arrival of John and Mary at
 
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 Watertown in Massachusetts.
 
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 And the family just
 
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 burgeoned and moved to Rentham and
 
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 Watertown and other places.
 
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 So it was just such an enjoyable trip.
 
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 Oh yeah, it is.
 
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 It's really a captivating
 
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 thing exploring these
 
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 different generations.
 
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 Now,
 
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 who was this individual whose picture
 
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 captivated you as a boy?
 
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 Who was the individual whose
 
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 picture you saw?
 
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 Oh,
 
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 the photograph is of my
 
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 great-great-grandfather, John Curtis Gay,
 
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 who enlisted in the Civil
 
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 War at the age of 38, Union Army.
 
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 And he was sent to,
 
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 eventually he made his way
 
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 from January when he
 
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 enlisted to June 1st or 3rd.
 
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 He found himself at a very bad place,
 
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 the Battle of Cold Harbor.
 
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 And he was wounded.
 
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 His leg was amputated.
 
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 He was taken to a military
 
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 hospital in New York from Virginia.
 
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 Cold Harbor is just outside of Richmond.
 
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 And then eventually,
 
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 He was taken to a hospital in Augusta,
 
 00:04:06.469 --> 00:04:06.790
 Maine,
 
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 where he died on Christmas Day of 1864.
 
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 So his military service was
 
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 just really a matter of
 
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 four or five months.
 
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 I like to think that the
 
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 Emancipation Proclamation
 
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 had something to do with
 
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 his decision to join.
 
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 I saw nothing in these
 
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 records that would have
 
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 suggested any of his
 
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 ancestors had anything to
 
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 do with the institution of
 
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 slavery or subjugating other people.
 
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 That was a good thing to know.
 
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 So and then did you find
 
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 ancestors in the Revolutionary War?
 
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 Yes.
 
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 I guess it was my trip to
 
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 Maine and to Union, Maine,
 
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 where and I just love this memory.
 
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 I called ahead of time and they said, oh,
 
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 sure, come down.
 
 00:05:06.947 --> 00:05:08.107
 We'll make the records
 
 00:05:08.127 --> 00:05:10.067
 available for this particular family.
 
 00:05:10.767 --> 00:05:11.827
 And when I walked into the
 
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 small town hall,
 
 00:05:14.649 --> 00:05:15.951
 I saw that there was an
 
 00:05:16.071 --> 00:05:18.033
 enormous walk-in safe with
 
 00:05:18.574 --> 00:05:21.216
 huge volumes stacked up
 
 00:05:21.295 --> 00:05:23.559
 against all three walls
 
 00:05:23.658 --> 00:05:24.500
 that were visible.
 
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 And so I explained who I was
 
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 and they remembered the
 
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 phone call and said, oh,
 
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 come on in and just walk in.
 
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 The records beginning with G
 
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 are on this side and I
 
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 started taking these large volumes.
 
 00:05:38.949 --> 00:05:40.310
 They seem to be like two
 
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 feet by three feet or
 
 00:05:41.970 --> 00:05:43.031
 whatever with this
 
 00:05:43.170 --> 00:05:44.571
 remarkable handwriting.
 
 00:05:46.151 --> 00:05:47.992
 I can't recall how far I got back.
 
 00:05:48.052 --> 00:05:51.312
 I believe it was to the
 
 00:05:51.353 --> 00:05:55.733
 grandfather of John Curtis Gay,
 
 00:05:55.754 --> 00:05:56.934
 the Civil War soldier.
 
 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:01.740
 thought at that moment that
 
 00:06:01.819 --> 00:06:02.860
 maybe there was a
 
 00:06:02.901 --> 00:06:05.702
 possibility that one of his
 
 00:06:06.023 --> 00:06:07.803
 ancestors had served in the
 
 00:06:07.843 --> 00:06:09.043
 Revolutionary War.
 
 00:06:09.103 --> 00:06:10.845
 There were two previous
 
 00:06:10.906 --> 00:06:15.747
 generations in that town of
 
 00:06:16.007 --> 00:06:19.110
 gays after they had left Massachusetts.
 
 00:06:19.951 --> 00:06:23.233
 And I decided to go to the
 
 00:06:23.312 --> 00:06:24.994
 archives in Augusta.
 
 00:06:26.053 --> 00:06:28.596
 And I found another half of the family,
 
 00:06:29.036 --> 00:06:30.218
 which I thought may have
 
 00:06:30.257 --> 00:06:30.997
 had a connection.
 
 00:06:31.038 --> 00:06:31.959
 It wasn't until I got back
 
 00:06:31.999 --> 00:06:33.300
 to Washington that I
 
 00:06:33.339 --> 00:06:36.341
 confirmed finding a very
 
 00:06:36.682 --> 00:06:38.603
 detailed genealogy,
 
 00:06:38.704 --> 00:06:41.346
 which I discovered at the
 
 00:06:41.386 --> 00:06:42.346
 Daughters of the American
 
 00:06:42.387 --> 00:06:43.548
 Revolution Library.
 
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 And it contained the name of
 
 00:06:46.310 --> 00:06:48.732
 my great-grandfather.
 
 00:06:50.396 --> 00:06:51.656
 every generation,
 
 00:06:51.757 --> 00:06:52.937
 eight or nine generations,
 
 00:06:52.978 --> 00:06:55.119
 going back to John Gay,
 
 00:06:55.559 --> 00:06:56.740
 who arrived on the John and
 
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 Mary and eventually settled
 
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 in Dedham and was active in
 
 00:07:03.124 --> 00:07:04.824
 some of the town hall
 
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 meetings that I was
 
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 discussing with Jonathan Lane.
 
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 Interesting.
 
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 Interesting.
 
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 And your aunt, Lena Ferguson, you
 
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 you became a member of the
 
 00:07:19.035 --> 00:07:19.954
 Sons of the American
 
 00:07:20.014 --> 00:07:21.336
 Revolution and then pushed
 
 00:07:21.375 --> 00:07:23.276
 for her to join the DAR.
 
 00:07:23.317 --> 00:07:25.398
 And then that's a story in
 
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 and of itself of her
 
 00:07:27.158 --> 00:07:29.439
 attempt to join the DAR.
 
 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:34.202
 And she did ultimately.
 
 00:07:34.242 --> 00:07:36.983
 And I wonder if we can talk about that,
 
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 but also I really wanna
 
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 know what sparked you then
 
 00:07:39.024 --> 00:07:41.305
 to the idea of a monument
 
 00:07:41.427 --> 00:07:43.166
 on the National Mall to the
 
 00:07:43.367 --> 00:07:44.767
 black soldiers and others
 
 00:07:44.827 --> 00:07:46.009
 at the time of the revolution.
 
 00:07:46.932 --> 00:07:47.211
 Well,
 
 00:07:49.293 --> 00:07:51.095
 I was welcomed into the Sons of the
 
 00:07:51.134 --> 00:07:52.095
 American Revolution.
 
 00:07:52.136 --> 00:07:55.158
 The book collector, Charles Bloxson,
 
 00:07:56.398 --> 00:07:59.199
 who donated 50,000 volumes
 
 00:07:59.220 --> 00:08:00.060
 to Temple University,
 
 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:00.961
 it's now somewhere about
 
 00:08:01.021 --> 00:08:03.362
 half a million volumes of
 
 00:08:03.502 --> 00:08:04.384
 the roles of
 
 00:08:04.483 --> 00:08:05.764
 African-Americans in history.
 
 00:08:06.204 --> 00:08:07.786
 And I met him one day and I
 
 00:08:07.985 --> 00:08:09.346
 told him what I'd done,
 
 00:08:09.427 --> 00:08:10.588
 just as I've explained to you.
 
 00:08:10.608 --> 00:08:10.827
 And he said,
 
 00:08:11.007 --> 00:08:12.069
 you ought to join the Sons of
 
 00:08:12.108 --> 00:08:13.088
 the American Revolution.
 
 00:08:13.370 --> 00:08:14.350
 I'd never heard of the Sons
 
 00:08:14.389 --> 00:08:15.170
 of the American Revolution.
 
 00:08:17.216 --> 00:08:18.357
 Made a phone call to the
 
 00:08:18.456 --> 00:08:19.497
 office in Washington and
 
 00:08:19.536 --> 00:08:21.377
 they explained to me what I needed to do.
 
 00:08:21.458 --> 00:08:24.759
 You needed two members to
 
 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:25.920
 sign your application
 
 00:08:25.980 --> 00:08:27.721
 papers and they gave me the
 
 00:08:27.882 --> 00:08:30.744
 papers and I filled them out.
 
 00:08:30.843 --> 00:08:32.464
 And one Saturday morning I
 
 00:08:32.544 --> 00:08:34.926
 called the two men and they said, okay,
 
 00:08:34.966 --> 00:08:36.167
 come by and we'll talk to
 
 00:08:36.187 --> 00:08:36.706
 you a little bit.
 
 00:08:36.787 --> 00:08:38.508
 And they did and they signed my paper.
 
 00:08:39.048 --> 00:08:40.727
 my papers and I submitted
 
 00:08:40.768 --> 00:08:42.609
 them the next monday and
 
 00:08:43.149 --> 00:08:45.570
 within two months I heard
 
 00:08:45.649 --> 00:08:47.929
 back that I accepted and
 
 00:08:48.070 --> 00:08:49.471
 that they wanted me to come
 
 00:08:49.551 --> 00:08:51.910
 to a formal uh dinner that
 
 00:08:51.931 --> 00:08:52.910
 they were having so they
 
 00:08:52.931 --> 00:08:54.552
 could get my certificate so
 
 00:08:54.572 --> 00:08:55.392
 it was a wonderful
 
 00:08:55.451 --> 00:08:57.633
 experience I i like the
 
 00:08:57.673 --> 00:08:59.773
 association with these guys
 
 00:09:00.072 --> 00:09:03.933
 uh and um then um I was
 
 00:09:03.974 --> 00:09:06.855
 showing the photographs the other
 
 00:09:08.115 --> 00:09:10.017
 findings of my trips to
 
 00:09:10.236 --> 00:09:12.197
 Massachusetts and Maine to my aunts,
 
 00:09:12.258 --> 00:09:12.998
 three of my aunts,
 
 00:09:13.057 --> 00:09:14.238
 including Lena Ferguson.
 
 00:09:15.019 --> 00:09:16.479
 And I said to them,
 
 00:09:16.678 --> 00:09:18.179
 would you want to join the
 
 00:09:18.220 --> 00:09:19.080
 Daughters of the American
 
 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:20.259
 Revolution because your
 
 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:21.280
 requirements are the same?
 
 00:09:22.436 --> 00:09:25.458
 and um nina said that
 
 00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:27.980
 maurice I'll do it but it's
 
 00:09:28.041 --> 00:09:30.202
 not going to be easy and
 
 00:09:30.823 --> 00:09:32.965
 she more than any of the
 
 00:09:33.105 --> 00:09:35.628
 other uh aunts and uncles
 
 00:09:36.227 --> 00:09:37.610
 well I don't know whether I
 
 00:09:37.629 --> 00:09:39.071
 should say that but she
 
 00:09:39.130 --> 00:09:41.993
 understood racism and she had come from
 
 00:09:42.854 --> 00:09:42.894
 in 1950.
 
 00:09:42.994 --> 00:09:45.495
 And so she knew what it was
 
 00:09:45.554 --> 00:09:46.634
 like to sit on the back of
 
 00:09:46.654 --> 00:09:49.735
 the bus in restaurants.
 
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 And she knew all about the DAR.
 
 00:09:52.496 --> 00:09:53.378
 And in fact,
 
 00:09:53.697 --> 00:09:56.239
 she told me that she and my
 
 00:09:56.298 --> 00:09:57.839
 grandparents and others in
 
 00:09:57.859 --> 00:09:59.320
 the family had watched
 
 00:09:59.379 --> 00:10:00.700
 Marian Anderson's concert.
 
 00:10:01.220 --> 00:10:02.701
 So she immediately wrote to
 
 00:10:02.721 --> 00:10:04.501
 the DAR and asked for
 
 00:10:04.522 --> 00:10:07.022
 information and explained
 
 00:10:07.042 --> 00:10:07.962
 that I was a member of the
 
 00:10:08.003 --> 00:10:09.182
 Sons of the American Revolution.
 
 00:10:12.105 --> 00:10:14.092
 A few days later, she called me and said,
 
 00:10:14.113 --> 00:10:18.061
 I have this letter from the –
 
 00:10:18.061 --> 00:10:19.322
 the registrar for,
 
 00:10:19.341 --> 00:10:21.764
 or I think she was a higher level.
 
 00:10:21.823 --> 00:10:23.085
 I'm not quite sure she was
 
 00:10:23.125 --> 00:10:24.547
 the top person in Washington.
 
 00:10:25.486 --> 00:10:29.270
 And it was a recitation of the bylaws.
 
 00:10:29.291 --> 00:10:30.932
 You need to have two sponsors.
 
 00:10:30.971 --> 00:10:31.572
 You need to do this.
 
 00:10:31.993 --> 00:10:33.494
 So it was a standoffish
 
 00:10:33.573 --> 00:10:35.676
 letter that adjusted to
 
 00:10:35.735 --> 00:10:38.918
 Lena that they really don't want me.
 
 00:10:41.461 --> 00:10:41.980
 And so that's...
 
 00:10:43.361 --> 00:10:45.923
 That was the beginning of
 
 00:10:46.442 --> 00:10:47.163
 this whole thing.
 
 00:10:47.263 --> 00:10:49.224
 And she went to meetings,
 
 00:10:49.303 --> 00:10:50.844
 eventually found a sponsor.
 
 00:10:51.844 --> 00:10:52.284
 In 1983,
 
 00:10:52.284 --> 00:10:54.625
 there was a story in the Post about it,
 
 00:10:54.725 --> 00:10:56.405
 that the DAR didn't want
 
 00:10:56.426 --> 00:10:57.326
 her in a local chapter.
 
 00:10:57.346 --> 00:10:58.785
 And at the same time, the DAR was...
 
 00:11:02.707 --> 00:11:05.389
 was pocketing 800 to a
 
 00:11:05.408 --> 00:11:06.828
 million dollars a year and
 
 00:11:06.969 --> 00:11:09.029
 tax breaks from the District of Columbia.
 
 00:11:09.049 --> 00:11:10.629
 There were no black members
 
 00:11:11.009 --> 00:11:12.630
 and people were happy about it.
 
 00:11:14.530 --> 00:11:18.412
 I called the Washington Post
 
 00:11:18.812 --> 00:11:19.472
 several times.
 
 00:11:19.552 --> 00:11:22.513
 Finally, I hit pay dirt and they said,
 
 00:11:22.533 --> 00:11:23.754
 come on in, we'll talk about it.
 
 00:11:25.046 --> 00:11:26.988
 did interviews with the D.A.R.
 
 00:11:27.028 --> 00:11:27.828
 president general,
 
 00:11:27.889 --> 00:11:28.529
 and she said some
 
 00:11:28.590 --> 00:11:29.991
 remarkable things like
 
 00:11:30.011 --> 00:11:31.714
 yelled at dinner party.
 
 00:11:31.793 --> 00:11:32.475
 Well,
 
 00:11:33.735 --> 00:11:35.697
 and somebody came and they weren't
 
 00:11:35.738 --> 00:11:36.139
 invited.
 
 00:11:36.239 --> 00:11:36.980
 What would you do?
 
 00:11:37.340 --> 00:11:38.802
 And what she was expressing
 
 00:11:38.881 --> 00:11:41.924
 was a generations long
 
 00:11:45.042 --> 00:11:46.523
 effort to prevent Black
 
 00:11:46.562 --> 00:11:47.423
 people from joining.
 
 00:11:47.783 --> 00:11:49.322
 So they had various rules.
 
 00:11:49.363 --> 00:11:51.844
 The chapters could blackball
 
 00:11:51.884 --> 00:11:52.663
 a member if they didn't
 
 00:11:52.724 --> 00:11:55.624
 like them for various reasons.
 
 00:11:55.764 --> 00:11:56.543
 That's how it started.
 
 00:11:56.844 --> 00:11:58.764
 And the memorial came out of that.
 
 00:11:58.804 --> 00:11:59.725
 I said to myself, well,
 
 00:11:59.804 --> 00:12:01.024
 I'm sure there were a
 
 00:12:01.044 --> 00:12:01.945
 handful of Blacks who
 
 00:12:01.965 --> 00:12:04.466
 served in the Revolutionary War.
 
 00:12:05.346 --> 00:12:08.365
 That's how I discovered Dr. Corral's book.
 
 00:12:08.426 --> 00:12:09.486
 And I thought, right, God,
 
 00:12:09.527 --> 00:12:10.366
 he estimates that there
 
 00:12:10.386 --> 00:12:11.787
 were 5,000 and they ought to be honest.
 
 00:12:13.270 --> 00:12:15.792
 It's an amazing number.
 
 00:12:15.892 --> 00:12:17.932
 And then you've found that a
 
 00:12:18.273 --> 00:12:19.692
 big percentage were from
 
 00:12:20.332 --> 00:12:22.594
 Massachusetts and New England.
 
 00:12:22.634 --> 00:12:25.355
 So I'm wondering, and you've broken this.
 
 00:12:25.495 --> 00:12:25.715
 I mean,
 
 00:12:25.735 --> 00:12:27.315
 you see the monument is more than
 
 00:12:27.414 --> 00:12:29.096
 simply a piece of marble.
 
 00:12:29.135 --> 00:12:30.976
 It's really an educational tool.
 
 00:12:31.157 --> 00:12:32.277
 And you've done tremendous
 
 00:12:32.356 --> 00:12:33.716
 research into the people
 
 00:12:33.777 --> 00:12:36.557
 behind the monument and the
 
 00:12:36.597 --> 00:12:37.678
 stories behind them and the
 
 00:12:37.719 --> 00:12:38.839
 towns they came from.
 
 00:12:40.003 --> 00:12:41.065
 Yes,
 
 00:12:42.947 --> 00:12:45.552
 after the front page story hit the
 
 00:12:45.633 --> 00:12:46.214
 Washington Post,
 
 00:12:51.302 --> 00:12:53.384
 It created a firestorm and the D.A.R.
 
 00:12:53.404 --> 00:12:54.946
 was with the loss of its tax
 
 00:12:54.985 --> 00:12:57.707
 exemption line called and
 
 00:12:57.967 --> 00:12:59.168
 said that she worked with
 
 00:12:59.249 --> 00:13:01.711
 the Washington Lawyers
 
 00:13:01.770 --> 00:13:02.510
 Committee and they were
 
 00:13:02.551 --> 00:13:04.072
 interested in talking to my aunt.
 
 00:13:04.932 --> 00:13:06.653
 We did with them and they
 
 00:13:06.673 --> 00:13:08.095
 decided that they would ask
 
 00:13:08.154 --> 00:13:09.556
 the law firm Hogan Hartson
 
 00:13:10.096 --> 00:13:12.197
 to take this on as a case.
 
 00:13:12.918 --> 00:13:13.038
 And
 
 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:17.280
 Lena did not want to sue them,
 
 00:13:17.701 --> 00:13:19.360
 so we came up with ideas
 
 00:13:19.561 --> 00:13:21.721
 that would cause them to,
 
 00:13:22.562 --> 00:13:25.481
 maybe over a period of time, to change.
 
 00:13:25.581 --> 00:13:27.003
 And one of them was, of course,
 
 00:13:27.043 --> 00:13:28.243
 to bar discrimination in
 
 00:13:28.283 --> 00:13:30.043
 membership and to explain
 
 00:13:30.102 --> 00:13:32.063
 to respective members that
 
 00:13:32.423 --> 00:13:33.923
 they could join the
 
 00:13:33.984 --> 00:13:35.283
 organization if they had an
 
 00:13:35.384 --> 00:13:36.524
 ancestor regardless of
 
 00:13:36.544 --> 00:13:37.865
 their color in the Revolutionary War.
 
 00:13:38.465 --> 00:13:39.986
 But the real key thing was
 
 00:13:40.006 --> 00:13:41.748
 the requirement that they
 
 00:13:42.889 --> 00:13:44.750
 research and publish a
 
 00:13:44.770 --> 00:13:46.993
 document that contained the
 
 00:13:47.033 --> 00:13:48.754
 names of every African
 
 00:13:48.793 --> 00:13:50.436
 American who served in the
 
 00:13:50.475 --> 00:13:52.837
 Revolutionary War, patriots and soldiers,
 
 00:13:52.898 --> 00:13:55.179
 people who would have made
 
 00:13:55.480 --> 00:13:56.981
 their descendants eligible
 
 00:13:57.062 --> 00:13:58.283
 to join the organization.
 
 00:14:01.687 --> 00:14:06.231
 And several steps were published,
 
 00:14:06.251 --> 00:14:07.994
 a series of pamphlets that
 
 00:14:08.114 --> 00:14:10.817
 were incomplete and did not,
 
 00:14:11.278 --> 00:14:13.519
 in our opinion, meet the requirements.
 
 00:14:14.280 --> 00:14:15.562
 They did a compendium in
 
 00:14:15.562 --> 00:14:16.744
 2001 that nearly got to
 
 00:14:16.823 --> 00:14:17.465
 about 2,000 soldiers.
 
 00:14:20.707 --> 00:14:22.289
 I did an op-ed in The New
 
 00:14:22.330 --> 00:14:23.850
 York Times with the great
 
 00:14:23.870 --> 00:14:26.511
 historian Gary Nash and
 
 00:14:26.832 --> 00:14:28.033
 claimed that they were
 
 00:14:28.193 --> 00:14:29.615
 using criteria that would
 
 00:14:29.855 --> 00:14:31.235
 automatically limit the
 
 00:14:31.275 --> 00:14:33.236
 number of African-Americans
 
 00:14:33.256 --> 00:14:34.197
 who were identified.
 
 00:14:36.188 --> 00:14:37.409
 And the year later,
 
 00:14:37.450 --> 00:14:39.812
 they asked Gary Nash to
 
 00:14:39.852 --> 00:14:40.773
 conduct a seminar at
 
 00:14:40.832 --> 00:14:43.316
 Constitution at our headquarters,
 
 00:14:43.355 --> 00:14:45.217
 and he brought in a number of historians.
 
 00:14:45.658 --> 00:14:47.158
 And they went through my
 
 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:48.980
 explanations of the reasons
 
 00:14:49.061 --> 00:14:50.322
 why these criteria were
 
 00:14:51.243 --> 00:14:52.605
 improper and limited.
 
 00:14:54.644 --> 00:14:55.544
 The only people they would
 
 00:14:55.585 --> 00:15:00.486
 include were black, rather, Negro,
 
 00:15:00.767 --> 00:15:03.768
 mulatto, and the term black.
 
 00:15:04.067 --> 00:15:05.947
 So it left out all the mixed
 
 00:15:06.048 --> 00:15:07.148
 race people who might have
 
 00:15:07.208 --> 00:15:10.208
 been described as yellow, copper, bronze,
 
 00:15:10.349 --> 00:15:10.688
 brown.
 
 00:15:11.289 --> 00:15:12.289
 And there were ways to
 
 00:15:12.529 --> 00:15:14.210
 verify that these people
 
 00:15:14.269 --> 00:15:16.711
 were in fact of African descent.
 
 00:15:24.495 --> 00:15:25.855
 I went to Congresswoman
 
 00:15:25.895 --> 00:15:26.816
 Nancy Johnson from
 
 00:15:26.996 --> 00:15:28.998
 Connecticut and got a lot of support.
 
 00:15:29.018 --> 00:15:32.181
 In fact,
 
 00:15:32.280 --> 00:15:34.381
 Massachusetts were of great help
 
 00:15:34.481 --> 00:15:37.284
 in this legislation from Congress.
 
 00:15:37.304 --> 00:15:38.785
 But President Reagan signed
 
 00:15:38.846 --> 00:15:40.967
 a bill that was introduced
 
 00:15:41.008 --> 00:15:43.208
 to honor the role of African-Americans.
 
 00:15:43.690 --> 00:15:44.811
 That was at the same time
 
 00:15:44.850 --> 00:15:46.412
 the Post article hit the paper.
 
 00:15:46.432 --> 00:15:46.532
 Right.
 
 00:15:48.013 --> 00:15:50.234
 And so gave us a little bit of, well,
 
 00:15:50.354 --> 00:15:52.014
 quite a bit of leverage at the time.
 
 00:15:53.053 --> 00:15:54.434
 And then the idea came at
 
 00:15:54.475 --> 00:15:56.475
 the end of 1984 when people,
 
 00:15:56.774 --> 00:15:58.115
 after the settlement had been signed,
 
 00:15:58.296 --> 00:16:00.196
 people were, reporters rather,
 
 00:16:00.235 --> 00:16:01.596
 were still calling Lena and me,
 
 00:16:02.255 --> 00:16:04.136
 and I decided that we
 
 00:16:04.177 --> 00:16:05.657
 needed to build a monument.
 
 00:16:05.836 --> 00:16:08.977
 And that came about.
 
 00:16:09.057 --> 00:16:09.878
 Right, right.
 
 00:16:09.898 --> 00:16:11.119
 It's fascinating.
 
 00:16:11.139 --> 00:16:12.739
 We're talking with Maurice Barboza,
 
 00:16:12.839 --> 00:16:14.798
 who is the founder and CEO
 
 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:16.559
 of the National Liberty Memorial.
 
 00:16:23.056 --> 00:16:25.158
 in the Revolutionary War.
 
 00:16:25.957 --> 00:16:26.618
 And as I said,
 
 00:16:26.638 --> 00:16:28.259
 you've come up with a
 
 00:16:28.379 --> 00:16:31.761
 tremendous database of people and places.
 
 00:16:31.861 --> 00:16:32.881
 So I'm just looking at it
 
 00:16:32.903 --> 00:16:35.504
 and seeing that there were
 
 00:16:35.504 --> 00:16:36.605
 115 actually from what is
 
 00:16:36.664 --> 00:16:37.905
 now the city of Boston,
 
 00:16:37.905 --> 00:16:39.527
 93 from the town of Boston,
 
 00:16:39.567 --> 00:16:41.107
 others from Charlestown, Roxbury,
 
 00:16:41.148 --> 00:16:41.868
 Dorchester.
 
 00:16:42.749 --> 00:16:42.869
 And
 
 00:16:43.703 --> 00:16:44.465
 And you've done similar
 
 00:16:44.504 --> 00:16:45.865
 things in other states like
 
 00:16:45.945 --> 00:16:48.167
 North Carolina and South,
 
 00:16:48.187 --> 00:16:49.326
 have you done South Carolina?
 
 00:16:49.807 --> 00:16:50.048
 Yes.
 
 00:16:51.008 --> 00:16:54.190
 And one of the really
 
 00:16:54.350 --> 00:16:55.410
 interesting things is
 
 00:16:55.490 --> 00:16:56.792
 tracking then the stories
 
 00:16:56.851 --> 00:16:57.972
 of these individuals,
 
 00:16:58.113 --> 00:17:01.073
 both at the time and afterward.
 
 00:17:01.094 --> 00:17:03.316
 I know in the New Jersey site,
 
 00:17:03.436 --> 00:17:04.316
 there is a fellow named
 
 00:17:04.375 --> 00:17:05.717
 Cesar who lives to be 106.
 
 00:17:05.717 --> 00:17:06.196
 I mean,
 
 00:17:06.817 --> 00:17:08.919
 the story itself is interesting and it's,
 
 00:17:16.137 --> 00:17:17.239
 that you've been uncovering
 
 00:17:17.278 --> 00:17:20.721
 in this project yes um I uh
 
 00:17:20.862 --> 00:17:22.063
 this person is not from
 
 00:17:22.103 --> 00:17:23.664
 massachusetts but his story
 
 00:17:23.724 --> 00:17:26.307
 is so remarkable it just
 
 00:17:27.468 --> 00:17:29.309
 excuse me his name is james
 
 00:17:29.390 --> 00:17:32.172
 robinson and I became aware
 
 00:17:32.211 --> 00:17:34.114
 of him I believe he's mentioned in uh
 
 00:17:35.196 --> 00:17:36.357
 Dr. Coral Burke.
 
 00:17:38.278 --> 00:17:39.979
 And I knew he'd served in the Revolution.
 
 00:17:40.098 --> 00:17:41.640
 He also served in the War of 1812.
 
 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:45.602
 And how he got there is remarkable.
 
 00:17:45.701 --> 00:17:46.961
 He was born in Maryland.
 
 00:17:47.482 --> 00:17:49.663
 He went and served in the
 
 00:17:49.703 --> 00:17:52.565
 Revolutionary War with his master.
 
 00:17:54.046 --> 00:17:57.507
 He served the full eight years of the war.
 
 00:17:58.528 --> 00:17:59.768
 And in fact, when
 
 00:18:04.271 --> 00:18:07.236
 His master's name was Scales.
 
 00:18:07.276 --> 00:18:09.538
 He died before.
 
 00:18:10.159 --> 00:18:12.241
 He volunteered to take all
 
 00:18:12.261 --> 00:18:13.643
 of his possessions in a
 
 00:18:13.702 --> 00:18:15.605
 wagon from Pennsylvania
 
 00:18:16.105 --> 00:18:18.269
 back to the eastern shore of Maryland.
 
 00:18:18.328 --> 00:18:20.050
 So he was a guy who was...
 
 00:18:22.494 --> 00:18:25.057
 who understood who who felt
 
 00:18:25.136 --> 00:18:27.577
 the the sense of duty so he
 
 00:18:28.078 --> 00:18:29.680
 he his the promise to free
 
 00:18:29.720 --> 00:18:34.623
 him um and he was instead
 
 00:18:34.903 --> 00:18:36.724
 sent deeper into the south
 
 00:18:36.845 --> 00:18:38.986
 into slavery to uh new
 
 00:18:39.066 --> 00:18:40.386
 orleans and then to
 
 00:18:40.507 --> 00:18:44.970
 mississippi and he um he
 
 00:18:45.009 --> 00:18:46.711
 was stripped of his medals
 
 00:18:46.810 --> 00:18:48.392
 he was at yorktown and he
 
 00:18:48.451 --> 00:18:49.932
 was decorated by lafayette
 
 00:18:53.806 --> 00:18:56.467
 He, one day,
 
 00:18:56.487 --> 00:18:59.628
 none other than Andrew Jackson
 
 00:19:00.009 --> 00:19:03.010
 comes by and is recruiting blacks,
 
 00:19:03.070 --> 00:19:04.411
 just as they did during the
 
 00:19:04.570 --> 00:19:05.592
 Revolutionary War.
 
 00:19:05.892 --> 00:19:06.551
 We're going to give you your
 
 00:19:06.571 --> 00:19:08.532
 freedom if you join up and
 
 00:19:08.913 --> 00:19:10.854
 serve in this war.
 
 00:19:10.913 --> 00:19:12.654
 So he said he was reluctant
 
 00:19:12.694 --> 00:19:15.317
 to do it because he'd been there before,
 
 00:19:15.616 --> 00:19:16.057
 but he did.
 
 00:19:16.297 --> 00:19:18.718
 And he served one or two years in the...
 
 00:19:21.457 --> 00:19:23.298
 in the War of 1812,
 
 00:19:23.298 --> 00:19:24.819
 and he remained a slave.
 
 00:19:24.861 --> 00:19:26.382
 He came back in Jackson and said,
 
 00:19:26.902 --> 00:19:28.884
 we're not going to free you.
 
 00:19:28.983 --> 00:19:30.685
 You'll have to ask your
 
 00:19:30.726 --> 00:19:32.347
 masters to do that.
 
 00:19:32.367 --> 00:19:34.169
 He was never paid.
 
 00:19:34.210 --> 00:19:35.330
 He never received a pension.
 
 00:19:36.692 --> 00:19:40.015
 And then after the war, it was about,
 
 00:19:40.395 --> 00:19:42.057
 I guess, Buchanan and
 
 00:19:43.178 --> 00:19:45.278
 He somehow made his way to
 
 00:19:45.319 --> 00:19:46.420
 Washington and he pleaded
 
 00:19:46.460 --> 00:19:48.701
 with Buchanan for help getting a pension.
 
 00:19:49.321 --> 00:19:50.282
 He was refused.
 
 00:19:50.623 --> 00:19:52.223
 Somehow he made it to Detroit.
 
 00:19:52.743 --> 00:19:55.526
 And by now, that is well into his 70s.
 
 00:19:55.546 --> 00:19:57.426
 He lived to be 115 years old.
 
 00:19:57.586 --> 00:19:58.067
 That's pretty old.
 
 00:20:01.849 --> 00:20:04.291
 example, and he became a preacher,
 
 00:20:05.833 --> 00:20:08.134
 you know, a citizen of Michigan,
 
 00:20:08.154 --> 00:20:12.337
 and he's buried, and he has a headstone,
 
 00:20:13.077 --> 00:20:15.740
 and a wonderful member of
 
 00:20:15.779 --> 00:20:17.240
 the Michigan Sons of the
 
 00:20:17.300 --> 00:20:18.541
 American Revolution,
 
 00:20:18.561 --> 00:20:28.269
 Elijah Elijah Elijah Shato had
 
 00:20:31.484 --> 00:20:33.669
 honored him by getting an
 
 00:20:33.788 --> 00:20:36.212
 SAR plaque and ceremony.
 
 00:20:36.292 --> 00:20:37.034
 And it was great.
 
 00:20:37.054 --> 00:20:39.096
 It was in the various newspapers,
 
 00:20:39.478 --> 00:20:40.398
 the Washington Post and the
 
 00:20:40.439 --> 00:20:41.259
 Baltimore paper.
 
 00:20:44.580 --> 00:20:47.083
 uh so he eventually many
 
 00:20:47.143 --> 00:20:48.483
 generations later was
 
 00:20:49.045 --> 00:20:51.646
 recognized for his service
 
 00:20:51.787 --> 00:20:53.567
 his patriotism I don't know
 
 00:20:53.587 --> 00:20:54.108
 whether you call it
 
 00:20:54.128 --> 00:20:55.308
 patriotism or not he
 
 00:20:55.690 --> 00:20:56.830
 certainly had an interest
 
 00:20:56.871 --> 00:20:57.851
 just as all these others
 
 00:20:57.871 --> 00:20:59.472
 had an interest in winning
 
 00:20:59.492 --> 00:21:01.013
 their freedom and so as
 
 00:21:01.094 --> 00:21:02.013
 coral said they were going
 
 00:21:02.034 --> 00:21:03.855
 to go to wherever they
 
 00:21:03.895 --> 00:21:04.936
 thought they could get the
 
 00:21:04.957 --> 00:21:07.499
 best deal and apparently uh
 
 00:21:07.919 --> 00:21:09.079
 his deal was not with uh
 
 00:21:11.309 --> 00:21:14.392
 with the side of the Americans,
 
 00:21:14.912 --> 00:21:17.873
 although... Well,
 
 00:21:17.913 --> 00:21:19.134
 that's where he thought it was.
 
 00:21:19.233 --> 00:21:20.534
 And then a lot of others
 
 00:21:20.713 --> 00:21:23.055
 served on the other side in
 
 00:21:23.134 --> 00:21:24.336
 the revolution,
 
 00:21:24.435 --> 00:21:25.436
 seeing that that would be
 
 00:21:25.777 --> 00:21:28.238
 the more advantageous deal for them.
 
 00:21:29.637 --> 00:21:31.798
 But then there are others who do serve.
 
 00:21:31.838 --> 00:21:32.079
 Again,
 
 00:21:32.259 --> 00:21:33.819
 we're always trying to understand
 
 00:21:33.859 --> 00:21:35.260
 what motivated people.
 
 00:21:36.854 --> 00:21:40.756
 Why if free men or in some
 
 00:21:40.776 --> 00:21:42.317
 cases enslaved men who
 
 00:21:42.457 --> 00:21:44.518
 didn't have to did serve?
 
 00:21:44.637 --> 00:21:44.817
 I mean,
 
 00:21:44.938 --> 00:21:47.579
 that's one of the big questions we
 
 00:21:47.619 --> 00:21:48.740
 have is what motivated
 
 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:49.641
 these people and what do
 
 00:21:49.661 --> 00:21:50.901
 you see as the motivation
 
 00:21:51.021 --> 00:21:53.063
 for people of any kind to serve?
 
 00:21:54.002 --> 00:21:55.384
 I think it's human nature to
 
 00:21:55.424 --> 00:21:56.205
 want to be free.
 
 00:21:56.365 --> 00:21:57.307
 I don't think you want to
 
 00:21:57.346 --> 00:21:59.109
 hit your star to a dictator,
 
 00:21:59.130 --> 00:22:03.555
 a person or a society
 
 00:22:03.595 --> 00:22:05.037
 that's going to tell you what to do,
 
 00:22:05.176 --> 00:22:08.441
 where you can eat, whether you can work,
 
 00:22:08.800 --> 00:22:10.522
 whether you receive pay or
 
 00:22:10.603 --> 00:22:12.144
 pensions or whatever.
 
 00:22:13.646 --> 00:22:15.567
 they were intelligent people
 
 00:22:15.607 --> 00:22:17.008
 they're not going to be any
 
 00:22:17.067 --> 00:22:19.509
 different than the uh than
 
 00:22:19.528 --> 00:22:21.068
 uh african-americans of
 
 00:22:21.209 --> 00:22:23.950
 today uh yeah I mean and
 
 00:22:23.990 --> 00:22:25.490
 you think of the tragedy of
 
 00:22:25.570 --> 00:22:27.030
 losing all that brain power
 
 00:22:27.191 --> 00:22:29.031
 and yeah and and
 
 00:22:30.092 --> 00:22:31.252
 but the motivation was
 
 00:22:32.374 --> 00:22:35.454
 personal freedom and secure
 
 00:22:35.575 --> 00:22:38.777
 freedom for subsequent generations.
 
 00:22:38.836 --> 00:22:40.178
 And this was a generation
 
 00:22:40.218 --> 00:22:41.357
 that created the
 
 00:22:41.479 --> 00:22:42.499
 infrastructure for the
 
 00:22:42.519 --> 00:22:43.359
 civil rights movement.
 
 00:22:43.700 --> 00:22:44.799
 There would not be a civil
 
 00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:45.421
 rights movement.
 
 00:22:45.461 --> 00:22:48.622
 There would not be Prince
 
 00:22:48.642 --> 00:22:52.924
 Hall Masons or churches and
 
 00:22:53.404 --> 00:22:56.567
 self-help groups and the whole host of
 
 00:22:57.595 --> 00:22:59.057
 of institutions that were
 
 00:22:59.136 --> 00:23:00.878
 created by these people and
 
 00:23:00.939 --> 00:23:03.761
 inspired by them and passed on.
 
 00:23:04.021 --> 00:23:06.423
 And this desire to be free
 
 00:23:06.503 --> 00:23:08.365
 and to be fully citizens of
 
 00:23:08.405 --> 00:23:09.788
 the United States of America,
 
 00:23:10.548 --> 00:23:11.670
 that was passed on.
 
 00:23:12.170 --> 00:23:13.151
 And it just continued from
 
 00:23:13.250 --> 00:23:14.313
 one generation to the other.
 
 00:23:14.853 --> 00:23:16.414
 And it was
 
 00:23:18.846 --> 00:23:19.846
 It was something that was
 
 00:23:19.945 --> 00:23:22.487
 embedded in this culture
 
 00:23:22.547 --> 00:23:23.586
 and that these people could
 
 00:23:23.987 --> 00:23:25.627
 serve in subsequent wars
 
 00:23:25.688 --> 00:23:28.647
 like James Robinson serving
 
 00:23:28.688 --> 00:23:30.288
 in the War of 1812 and
 
 00:23:30.308 --> 00:23:33.710
 their descendants serving
 
 00:23:33.750 --> 00:23:36.329
 in the Civil War and World
 
 00:23:36.349 --> 00:23:37.810
 War I and World War II.
 
 00:23:37.911 --> 00:23:42.332
 And it seemed not to deter them
 
 00:23:43.291 --> 00:23:44.752
 uh and so that makes this
 
 00:23:44.873 --> 00:23:45.933
 the most remarkable story
 
 00:23:45.953 --> 00:23:46.894
 this is the most remarkable
 
 00:23:46.934 --> 00:23:48.055
 story in american history
 
 00:23:48.095 --> 00:23:49.777
 period uh these were the
 
 00:23:49.817 --> 00:23:51.817
 people who made the words
 
 00:23:51.857 --> 00:23:53.419
 that were written by those
 
 00:23:53.959 --> 00:23:56.260
 elegant eloquent men in
 
 00:23:56.701 --> 00:23:58.622
 philadelphia um they made
 
 00:23:58.642 --> 00:24:00.022
 it real just as in
 
 00:24:00.143 --> 00:24:01.683
 automobiles were perfected
 
 00:24:02.045 --> 00:24:03.965
 not because of the design
 
 00:24:04.086 --> 00:24:07.327
 of mr ben's or mr ford but
 
 00:24:07.367 --> 00:24:08.608
 because there were people
 
 00:24:08.648 --> 00:24:09.710
 who were willing to drive
 
 00:24:09.750 --> 00:24:11.730
 these things and test them out and
 
 00:24:13.372 --> 00:24:15.353
 demonstrate uh where they
 
 00:24:15.394 --> 00:24:17.095
 needed to be tweaked and uh
 
 00:24:17.315 --> 00:24:19.155
 and look at what we now um
 
 00:24:19.316 --> 00:24:21.487
 cars can go you know 200
 
 00:24:21.487 --> 00:24:23.278
 340 miles an hour so um
 
 00:24:24.179 --> 00:24:25.259
 this is the same thing with
 
 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:26.881
 the democracy we're still
 
 00:24:26.941 --> 00:24:27.840
 learning and hopefully
 
 00:24:27.901 --> 00:24:29.041
 we've learned enough to be
 
 00:24:29.102 --> 00:24:31.324
 able to survive as such
 
 00:24:32.463 --> 00:24:34.665
 over the and between now and the
 
 00:24:36.288 --> 00:24:40.531
 semi-quincentennial and tricentennial.
 
 00:24:43.433 --> 00:24:45.295
 We're talking with Maurice Barboza,
 
 00:24:45.355 --> 00:24:47.056
 who is the founder and
 
 00:24:47.115 --> 00:24:48.457
 chief executive officer of
 
 00:24:48.497 --> 00:24:50.198
 the Liberty National Memorial.
 
 00:24:50.597 --> 00:24:53.599
 So where is the memorial going to be?
 
 00:24:54.580 --> 00:24:54.800
 Yes.
 
 00:24:58.071 --> 00:24:59.755
 We looked at 42 sites in
 
 00:24:59.795 --> 00:25:02.239
 Washington and the day that
 
 00:25:02.298 --> 00:25:04.602
 we took a tour with the
 
 00:25:04.762 --> 00:25:06.965
 National Park Service representative,
 
 00:25:06.986 --> 00:25:08.489
 he took us to a spot
 
 00:25:10.675 --> 00:25:12.577
 that I thought this couldn't be real.
 
 00:25:12.877 --> 00:25:14.579
 It's a little hidden now
 
 00:25:14.660 --> 00:25:17.061
 because it's a parking lot on the mall.
 
 00:25:17.162 --> 00:25:17.942
 It's probably the only
 
 00:25:18.002 --> 00:25:19.544
 parking lot on the mall,
 
 00:25:19.944 --> 00:25:21.006
 Washington Monument.
 
 00:25:21.266 --> 00:25:22.606
 And it's hidden behind
 
 00:25:23.407 --> 00:25:25.670
 shrubbery and trees and everything else.
 
 00:25:27.251 --> 00:25:27.672
 And he said,
 
 00:25:27.711 --> 00:25:29.374
 this is the site and it's on the mall,
 
 00:25:29.413 --> 00:25:30.055
 it's available.
 
 00:25:30.714 --> 00:25:32.076
 And I thought, this is the one.
 
 00:25:32.115 --> 00:25:33.096
 We looked at all the others.
 
 00:25:34.356 --> 00:25:36.397
 And after submitting site
 
 00:25:36.478 --> 00:25:38.700
 studies and discussions
 
 00:25:38.759 --> 00:25:40.560
 with both agencies,
 
 00:25:40.701 --> 00:25:44.182
 we were able to narrow it
 
 00:25:44.282 --> 00:25:45.384
 down to two sites.
 
 00:25:45.483 --> 00:25:48.105
 The site is directly across
 
 00:25:48.144 --> 00:25:50.467
 from the Washington Monument.
 
 00:25:50.666 --> 00:25:54.749
 It's on 14th Street and
 
 00:25:55.348 --> 00:25:56.410
 Independence Avenue.
 
 00:25:57.076 --> 00:25:59.259
 And if you're coming in from Virginia,
 
 00:26:00.421 --> 00:26:02.022
 this is the busiest route
 
 00:26:02.443 --> 00:26:04.306
 coming into and out of Washington.
 
 00:26:04.326 --> 00:26:05.267
 You pass the Pentagon.
 
 00:26:05.586 --> 00:26:07.990
 You cross over what was the
 
 00:26:08.170 --> 00:26:12.095
 Trail of Rochambeau heading south.
 
 00:26:13.936 --> 00:26:15.798
 And you cross the Rochambeau Bridge,
 
 00:26:15.877 --> 00:26:17.357
 or better known as the 14th
 
 00:26:17.397 --> 00:26:18.058
 Street Bridge.
 
 00:26:18.838 --> 00:26:21.400
 And when you approach Independence Avenue,
 
 00:26:21.559 --> 00:26:22.359
 just to the right,
 
 00:26:23.260 --> 00:26:24.601
 as you're heading into
 
 00:26:24.980 --> 00:26:28.102
 downtown Washington in the city hall,
 
 00:26:28.843 --> 00:26:30.143
 you pass this site that
 
 00:26:30.222 --> 00:26:32.284
 sort of juts out into the street.
 
 00:26:33.183 --> 00:26:35.285
 And there is a place that we
 
 00:26:35.325 --> 00:26:36.645
 want to place the memorial.
 
 00:26:37.145 --> 00:26:41.307
 And with the sufficient support to do so,
 
 00:26:41.367 --> 00:26:42.028
 we need to do an
 
 00:26:42.087 --> 00:26:43.388
 environmental assessment
 
 00:26:43.528 --> 00:26:44.449
 and some preliminary
 
 00:26:44.509 --> 00:26:47.589
 designs in order to secure the site.
 
 00:26:47.650 --> 00:26:49.891
 So it went from 42 sites to two sites.
 
 00:26:50.291 --> 00:26:51.432
 And this is a favorite site
 
 00:26:51.571 --> 00:26:54.894
 of the foundation and the preferred site.
 
 00:26:55.054 --> 00:26:55.473
 Also,
 
 00:26:57.015 --> 00:27:00.695
 we were told by various commissions
 
 00:27:00.756 --> 00:27:02.217
 and agencies which thought that
 
 00:27:02.797 --> 00:27:04.317
 This would indeed tell the
 
 00:27:04.397 --> 00:27:06.438
 story of African Americans
 
 00:27:06.458 --> 00:27:08.058
 in the Revolutionary War by
 
 00:27:08.818 --> 00:27:10.619
 its relationship with the
 
 00:27:10.680 --> 00:27:11.880
 Washington Monument,
 
 00:27:12.180 --> 00:27:13.861
 the African American History Museum,
 
 00:27:14.421 --> 00:27:15.981
 the Holocaust Museum,
 
 00:27:16.761 --> 00:27:20.042
 and other remarkable
 
 00:27:21.584 --> 00:27:24.365
 museums nearby on the Mall.
 
 00:27:26.704 --> 00:27:29.246
 And it's about 2.2 miles
 
 00:27:29.286 --> 00:27:30.426
 from the Pentagon and then
 
 00:27:30.446 --> 00:27:31.267
 another two miles
 
 00:27:31.977 --> 00:27:33.557
 continuing on 14th Street,
 
 00:27:33.979 --> 00:27:35.220
 you come to U Street,
 
 00:27:35.299 --> 00:27:37.300
 an area that was a haven
 
 00:27:37.381 --> 00:27:38.422
 for African-Americans
 
 00:27:38.461 --> 00:27:40.523
 during Jim Crow segregation.
 
 00:27:40.544 --> 00:27:42.105
 So, you know,
 
 00:27:42.125 --> 00:27:45.288
 if you couldn't stay at the Willard Hotel,
 
 00:27:45.667 --> 00:27:47.329
 you went to U Street and
 
 00:27:47.349 --> 00:27:48.411
 you had your meal,
 
 00:27:48.510 --> 00:27:50.813
 you enjoyed entertainment
 
 00:27:51.472 --> 00:27:53.474
 and you could function as a human being.
 
 00:27:54.796 --> 00:27:56.998
 Well, that's fascinating.
 
 00:27:57.357 --> 00:27:59.038
 And so how far along are we
 
 00:27:59.078 --> 00:28:00.079
 in the process of
 
 00:28:01.791 --> 00:28:04.073
 making sure it is available
 
 00:28:04.153 --> 00:28:06.295
 for the next generations to enjoy?
 
 00:28:09.736 --> 00:28:13.137
 We need to raise some serious money.
 
 00:28:14.019 --> 00:28:14.659
 First off,
 
 00:28:14.818 --> 00:28:16.440
 to be able to do the things that
 
 00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:18.621
 I explained, the environmental assessment,
 
 00:28:19.201 --> 00:28:21.643
 and that's going to cost us funding.
 
 00:28:21.942 --> 00:28:25.424
 And I think I can be
 
 00:28:25.505 --> 00:28:28.727
 optimistic that even though we still have
 
 00:28:31.641 --> 00:28:33.041
 There's three years
 
 00:28:33.182 --> 00:28:35.682
 remaining on the authorization.
 
 00:28:37.022 --> 00:28:38.104
 This couldn't be a better
 
 00:28:38.163 --> 00:28:40.285
 time to talk about the role
 
 00:28:40.365 --> 00:28:42.226
 of a forgotten people in
 
 00:28:42.385 --> 00:28:43.746
 the Revolutionary War.
 
 00:28:43.806 --> 00:28:46.167
 It's like once in a
 
 00:28:46.248 --> 00:28:51.269
 generation appearance of an eclipse.
 
 00:28:51.910 --> 00:28:54.730
 Everything comes together at this point.
 
 00:28:54.810 --> 00:28:57.553
 We have year 77 organizations.
 
 00:28:57.613 --> 00:29:00.074
 We have organizations that were set up
 
 00:29:01.494 --> 00:29:02.595
 in their charters like the
 
 00:29:02.635 --> 00:29:03.675
 Sons and the Daughters of
 
 00:29:03.695 --> 00:29:05.258
 the American Revolution to
 
 00:29:05.337 --> 00:29:06.838
 honor people who served in
 
 00:29:06.858 --> 00:29:07.679
 the Revolutionary War.
 
 00:29:07.699 --> 00:29:08.299
 And if you're not going to
 
 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:09.961
 honor them at this time,
 
 00:29:10.682 --> 00:29:14.384
 as we await the semi-quintennial,
 
 00:29:15.105 --> 00:29:16.105
 then there must be
 
 00:29:16.165 --> 00:29:18.847
 something wrong then with
 
 00:29:18.867 --> 00:29:20.028
 the thinking that's going on,
 
 00:29:20.068 --> 00:29:22.171
 because this is new history.
 
 00:29:22.290 --> 00:29:24.532
 It's not history in the last 40 years.
 
 00:29:27.723 --> 00:29:29.505
 Ira Berlin and other great
 
 00:29:29.545 --> 00:29:32.684
 historians undertaken these
 
 00:29:34.165 --> 00:29:35.806
 efforts to honor these people.
 
 00:29:35.905 --> 00:29:38.686
 And they've added great scholarship,
 
 00:29:38.846 --> 00:29:42.788
 books and other ways of
 
 00:29:42.827 --> 00:29:43.788
 depicting these people.
 
 00:29:45.128 --> 00:29:45.568
 Just made it...
 
 00:29:46.596 --> 00:29:48.939
 incumbent on us to get this done.
 
 00:29:49.699 --> 00:29:49.900
 Right.
 
 00:29:50.279 --> 00:29:52.362
 So this is our task now, you know,
 
 00:29:52.422 --> 00:29:54.605
 the generation of Benjamin Quarles,
 
 00:29:54.684 --> 00:29:56.125
 Gary Nash advanced the
 
 00:29:56.165 --> 00:29:57.587
 story in the scholarly
 
 00:29:57.667 --> 00:29:59.589
 field that is identifying
 
 00:29:59.670 --> 00:30:02.894
 and reshaping the story and now ours is
 
 00:30:03.564 --> 00:30:04.604
 getting the monument so the
 
 00:30:04.644 --> 00:30:05.984
 next generation can start
 
 00:30:06.025 --> 00:30:06.845
 there and not have,
 
 00:30:06.944 --> 00:30:08.526
 this won't be a hidden history.
 
 00:30:09.486 --> 00:30:12.007
 So it will be something that
 
 00:30:12.086 --> 00:30:13.826
 is part of the narrative.
 
 00:30:14.166 --> 00:30:15.528
 So what's the best way if
 
 00:30:15.607 --> 00:30:17.067
 people wanted to support this?
 
 00:30:17.127 --> 00:30:18.068
 What would you suggest
 
 00:30:18.189 --> 00:30:19.308
 someone who's listening
 
 00:30:19.808 --> 00:30:20.929
 might do if they wanted to
 
 00:30:20.990 --> 00:30:22.190
 help move this along?
 
 00:30:22.869 --> 00:30:23.190
 Yeah,
 
 00:30:23.349 --> 00:30:24.351
 one of the things that we'd like to
 
 00:30:24.391 --> 00:30:26.171
 do is we'd like these communities,
 
 00:30:26.711 --> 00:30:31.252
 as you explained so well, who now know
 
 00:30:32.272 --> 00:30:33.874
 that they were a community
 
 00:30:33.933 --> 00:30:36.453
 where African-Americans had
 
 00:30:36.954 --> 00:30:39.174
 served from in the Revolutionary War.
 
 00:30:39.796 --> 00:30:42.715
 And we received,
 
 00:30:43.457 --> 00:30:44.196
 I think it was something
 
 00:30:44.217 --> 00:30:46.038
 like 14 resolutions from
 
 00:30:46.077 --> 00:30:47.478
 communities and counties
 
 00:30:47.577 --> 00:30:50.259
 and cities in Massachusetts
 
 00:30:50.378 --> 00:30:54.380
 and Virginia and seven or
 
 00:30:54.420 --> 00:30:56.080
 eight other states as well.
 
 00:30:56.780 --> 00:30:59.021
 And we'd like to translate this
 
 00:30:59.741 --> 00:31:02.484
 into a realization that they
 
 00:31:02.505 --> 00:31:03.986
 have a stake in seeing this
 
 00:31:04.066 --> 00:31:06.248
 built and that it'll be on
 
 00:31:06.288 --> 00:31:08.108
 the National Mall and it
 
 00:31:08.170 --> 00:31:10.771
 will define not only American history,
 
 00:31:10.811 --> 00:31:11.813
 but it'll define the
 
 00:31:11.853 --> 00:31:13.253
 history of these localities
 
 00:31:13.354 --> 00:31:15.596
 and their remarkable involvement.
 
 00:31:15.776 --> 00:31:17.577
 So we want them to tell their legislators,
 
 00:31:21.048 --> 00:31:25.171
 pass appropriations and get them,
 
 00:31:25.471 --> 00:31:26.632
 put some money into this
 
 00:31:26.912 --> 00:31:28.373
 and make this a central
 
 00:31:28.532 --> 00:31:31.194
 theme of the semi-quincentennial.
 
 00:31:31.355 --> 00:31:32.336
 Because if it's not,
 
 00:31:33.476 --> 00:31:35.116
 future generations and leaders,
 
 00:31:36.817 --> 00:31:38.959
 if we still care about these things,
 
 00:31:38.979 --> 00:31:39.779
 you know,
 
 00:31:39.799 --> 00:31:41.000
 five or 10 years from now are
 
 00:31:41.020 --> 00:31:42.402
 gonna be wondering, well, gee,
 
 00:31:42.602 --> 00:31:44.583
 we went through the, you know,
 
 00:31:47.778 --> 00:31:51.462
 The centennial, 1876, 1976,
 
 00:31:51.462 --> 00:31:54.586
 we saw tall ships, and we saw very little,
 
 00:31:54.885 --> 00:31:55.646
 if anything,
 
 00:31:56.827 --> 00:32:00.050
 that promoted new history and
 
 00:32:00.711 --> 00:32:01.612
 forgotten history.
 
 00:32:04.694 --> 00:32:06.596
 So I'm excited by the fact
 
 00:32:06.856 --> 00:32:07.939
 that we're in this
 
 00:32:07.979 --> 00:32:09.119
 situation at this point.
 
 00:32:09.579 --> 00:32:10.881
 This is a very exciting place to be.
 
 00:32:10.901 --> 00:32:11.780
 And let me just say,
 
 00:32:11.961 --> 00:32:13.721
 I focused on the folks from
 
 00:32:13.781 --> 00:32:15.682
 around Boston who were part of this,
 
 00:32:15.762 --> 00:32:18.224
 but then there were 23 from
 
 00:32:18.325 --> 00:32:22.047
 Andover and 15 from Concord,
 
 00:32:22.047 --> 00:32:23.768
 25 from the town of Dartmouth,
 
 00:32:23.768 --> 00:32:25.749
 12 from Falmouth, which is probably
 
 00:32:26.108 --> 00:32:27.509
 Smith, Portland up in Maine,
 
 00:32:28.269 --> 00:32:30.951
 nine from Grafton, 23 from Lancaster,
 
 00:32:30.951 --> 00:32:35.031
 18 from Newbury, 15 from Marblehead,
 
 00:32:35.031 --> 00:32:36.353
 10 from Northampton.
 
 00:32:36.373 --> 00:32:37.613
 That is a surprising number
 
 00:32:38.073 --> 00:32:40.114
 from places like Taunton, Swansea,
 
 00:32:41.054 --> 00:32:42.674
 who are part of this
 
 00:32:42.815 --> 00:32:44.996
 communities then and now.
 
 00:32:45.415 --> 00:32:45.915
 So you're right.
 
 00:32:45.955 --> 00:32:48.557
 And then on your website, you also have
 
 00:32:49.137 --> 00:32:51.682
 in Connecticut and in North Carolina,
 
 00:32:51.761 --> 00:32:52.583
 South Carolina,
 
 00:32:52.663 --> 00:32:54.365
 actually where individuals
 
 00:32:54.425 --> 00:32:56.951
 were from in these towns.
 
 00:32:58.113 --> 00:32:59.895
 Jonathan's reminded me of Bridgewater.
 
 00:32:59.935 --> 00:33:01.198
 We don't want to forget Bridgewater.
 
 00:33:01.218 --> 00:33:02.098
 Yes.
 
 00:33:03.375 --> 00:33:05.637
 So yes, and Bridgewater,
 
 00:33:05.657 --> 00:33:07.419
 did I say 40 people from Bridgewater,
 
 00:33:08.400 --> 00:33:09.641
 which is an amazing number.
 
 00:33:10.721 --> 00:33:11.863
 And you think about areas
 
 00:33:11.942 --> 00:33:15.306
 where maybe historians
 
 00:33:15.346 --> 00:33:16.567
 don't realize the presence
 
 00:33:16.586 --> 00:33:17.647
 of the people of color in
 
 00:33:17.667 --> 00:33:19.788
 these communities then and
 
 00:33:19.909 --> 00:33:21.089
 their importance in the
 
 00:33:21.150 --> 00:33:22.892
 community so that they're part
 
 00:33:26.077 --> 00:33:30.162
 all comes on April of 1775, they're there.
 
 00:33:30.923 --> 00:33:31.563
 We know about some
 
 00:33:31.583 --> 00:33:33.285
 individuals like Peter
 
 00:33:33.345 --> 00:33:35.386
 Salem and Salem Poor.
 
 00:33:35.686 --> 00:33:37.828
 And I think one of the real
 
 00:33:38.089 --> 00:33:39.570
 things that this work has
 
 00:33:39.651 --> 00:33:41.313
 done is highlight
 
 00:33:41.853 --> 00:33:43.973
 how many individuals there were.
 
 00:33:44.034 --> 00:33:45.714
 It's not just the few whose
 
 00:33:45.795 --> 00:33:46.994
 names we have been taught
 
 00:33:47.035 --> 00:33:48.276
 over the last 40 years,
 
 00:33:48.355 --> 00:33:50.916
 but virtually every community.
 
 00:33:50.936 --> 00:33:52.737
 You're going to find people of color,
 
 00:33:53.538 --> 00:33:55.057
 free or enslaved,
 
 00:33:55.137 --> 00:33:56.479
 and many in Massachusetts
 
 00:33:56.519 --> 00:33:57.598
 actually agitating for the
 
 00:33:57.659 --> 00:33:58.460
 end of slavery.
 
 00:33:58.960 --> 00:34:00.160
 Jonathan's reminding us of
 
 00:34:00.200 --> 00:34:01.181
 the first Rhode Island
 
 00:34:01.260 --> 00:34:02.280
 regiment that's now getting
 
 00:34:02.300 --> 00:34:03.402
 a lot of attention that was
 
 00:34:03.761 --> 00:34:05.423
 two companies of free or
 
 00:34:05.522 --> 00:34:06.742
 enslaved or indigenous
 
 00:34:06.782 --> 00:34:08.623
 people who served at the
 
 00:34:08.664 --> 00:34:09.764
 Battle of Rhode Island and
 
 00:34:09.804 --> 00:34:10.525
 in other places.
 
 00:34:12.556 --> 00:34:12.956
 You're right.
 
 00:34:13.016 --> 00:34:13.838
 This is a story.
 
 00:34:13.898 --> 00:34:15.579
 It's essential that part of
 
 00:34:15.659 --> 00:34:17.440
 our legacy be making sure
 
 00:34:17.460 --> 00:34:19.981
 the next generations know
 
 00:34:20.181 --> 00:34:21.661
 about this history so
 
 00:34:21.681 --> 00:34:22.583
 they're not starting off
 
 00:34:22.603 --> 00:34:23.503
 where you and your Aunt
 
 00:34:23.543 --> 00:34:25.264
 Lena did and just trying to
 
 00:34:25.784 --> 00:34:26.525
 learn the story.
 
 00:34:27.105 --> 00:34:27.806
 That's perfect.
 
 00:34:28.025 --> 00:34:28.626
 That's perfect.
 
 00:34:28.927 --> 00:34:29.166
 Yes.
 
 00:34:31.487 --> 00:34:33.628
 So we've been talking with Maurice Barboza,
 
 00:34:33.789 --> 00:34:35.789
 who is from the National Liberty Memorial,
 
 00:34:36.431 --> 00:34:38.731
 and you can add it and tell
 
 00:34:38.751 --> 00:34:40.213
 your legislators to support
 
 00:34:40.253 --> 00:34:41.554
 this on their website,
 
 00:34:53.268 --> 00:34:53.929
 work you're in.
 
 00:34:54.889 --> 00:34:56.010
 So thank you so much, Maurice,
 
 00:34:56.050 --> 00:34:56.992
 for taking this on.
 
 00:34:57.733 --> 00:34:58.733
 Thank you so much, Bob.
 
 00:34:58.753 --> 00:34:59.454
 It was a pleasure.
 
 00:34:59.474 --> 00:35:02.137
 I enjoyed it.
 
 00:35:02.478 --> 00:35:04.481
 Let's know how we can continue helping.
 
 00:35:04.981 --> 00:35:06.362
 I will, absolutely.
 
 00:35:07.123 --> 00:35:07.543
 Very good.
 
 00:35:07.623 --> 00:35:08.545
 So thank you.
 
 00:35:09.065 --> 00:35:09.885
 So thank you.
 
 00:35:09.927 --> 00:35:10.867
 Tremendous work,
 
 00:35:10.947 --> 00:35:12.389
 the National Liberty Memorial,
 
 00:35:12.829 --> 00:35:14.391
 and tremendous work,
 
 00:35:17.914 --> 00:35:20.016
 by going onto your website
 
 00:35:20.056 --> 00:35:20.797
 and exploring it,
 
 00:35:20.918 --> 00:35:22.398
 which I've been able to do.
 
 00:35:23.478 --> 00:35:25.059
 And so thank you for doing this.
 
 00:35:25.079 --> 00:35:25.981
 Thank you.
 
 00:35:26.041 --> 00:35:29.182
 Let me also thank our producer,
 
 00:35:29.222 --> 00:35:30.003
 Jonathan Lane,
 
 00:35:30.043 --> 00:35:31.764
 who's been reminding me of
 
 00:35:31.824 --> 00:35:32.965
 things during the show.
 
 00:35:33.025 --> 00:35:34.746
 And if you have a topic you
 
 00:35:34.786 --> 00:35:35.748
 want to raise or if you
 
 00:35:35.788 --> 00:35:38.550
 want to talk to Jonathan,
 
 00:35:38.590 --> 00:35:40.552
 jlane at revolution250.org.
 
 00:35:40.851 --> 00:35:41.831
 And also I want to thank our
 
 00:35:41.891 --> 00:35:43.253
 listeners around the country,
 
 00:35:43.293 --> 00:35:44.273
 actually around the world,
 
 00:35:44.313 --> 00:35:45.434
 who tune in regularly
 
 00:35:48.461 --> 00:35:48.942
 communities.
 
 00:35:49.021 --> 00:35:50.302
 If you're in one of these places,
 
 00:35:50.362 --> 00:35:51.762
 send Jonathan Lane an email
 
 00:35:51.802 --> 00:35:54.123
 at jlane at revolution250.org.
 
 00:35:54.503 --> 00:35:55.405
 They'll send you one of our
 
 00:35:55.445 --> 00:35:57.005
 posters or lapel pins.
 
 00:35:58.025 --> 00:35:59.967
 And this week, Midlothian, Virginia,
 
 00:36:00.347 --> 00:36:02.967
 Concord, Massachusetts, Mishawaka,
 
 00:36:03.108 --> 00:36:03.648
 Indiana,
 
 00:36:04.128 --> 00:36:06.548
 San Juan Capistrano in California.
 
 00:36:06.688 --> 00:36:07.469
 Spring comes.
 
 00:36:07.650 --> 00:36:08.250
 Inevitably, we
 
 00:36:08.510 --> 00:36:09.791
 about the Swallows returning
 
 00:36:09.851 --> 00:36:11.992
 to Capistrano and Ashford
 
 00:36:12.052 --> 00:36:13.574
 and County Wicklin in
 
 00:36:13.695 --> 00:36:15.335
 Ireland and all places
 
 00:36:15.436 --> 00:36:16.536
 between and beyond.
 
 00:36:16.617 --> 00:36:17.818
 Thanks for joining us and
 
 00:36:17.878 --> 00:36:19.559
 now Jonathan will pipe us
 
 00:36:19.659 --> 00:36:20.880
 out on the road to Boston.