Supposedly, slavery ended in 1865. However, we were treated just like we were still enslaved, and this is still the case today. Most of the immigrants came to this country seeking freedom of one sort or another. This includes the ‘founding fathers’, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the men who drafted the Constitution of the United States. Many other immigrants came here through Ellis Island seeking a better life from tyranny and persecutions. We, however, came to these shores as slaves, stolen from Africa, in the bottom of special ships peddling a commodity, and we are still treated in this manner one hundred and fifty years later.
After the Civil War, we as a people created our own towns and cities using the various resources available to us. We made our own schools, businesses, churches and colleges. Our schools were burned down and our teachers lynched. Our colleges were destroyed as well as our churches and businesses. In Oklahoma we had our own Wall Street. This was bombed. Rosewood was a community in Florida that was completely destroyed, and many of its citizens slaughtered for nothing.
Recently, I learned that one of my father’s brothers was taken from jail in Florida in 1945 and lynched because some white person told a lie on him. No one was ever brought to justice for this murder. This is a case they are still talking about today in the Florida legal system. Neither my father nor his relatives ever mentioned this to us.
