THE BLACK REVOLUTIONARY WAR PATRIOTS MEMORIAL
(BY MAURICE A. BARBOZA)
(Extension of Remarks - April 25, 1989)

Mr. MFUME. Mr. Speaker, today I'd like to take a moment to share with my colleagues the remarks of Maurice A. Barboza, president and founder of the Patriots Foundation's National Advisory Council, concerning the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial.

The History Gap
Remarks of Maurice A. Barboza
(African American Patriots Day, Baltimore, Maryland)

There is a long stretch of Earth in Washington, D.C., known as the Mall. It is the most important land in America. On either end are the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. In the center, the Washington Monument eclipses the White House, the Jefferson Memorial and the entire city. This hallowed ground was set-aside to honor the Nation's most revered men and events. Tourists come to the Mall from all over the country to confirm their American roots. But they leave unaware that the trip was partly a failure.

Marble columns, sculpted bronze, manicured lawns and reflecting pools convey a picture of American history much like the one taught for generations in our schools. With the exception of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, few could ever discern from this traditional depiction that real American history is the combined history of the American people, whose roots are black, brown, red, yellow, white and every hue and color in between.

However, this could change soon. If contributions are forthcoming, this `history gap' will be closed when the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial rises on the Mall. All that is left to be done is to raise about $4 million by October 1991.

The Patriots Memorial will honor the 5,000 black soldiers of the American Revolution, as well as the countless men, women and children who fled slavery or petitioned courts and legislatures to set them free. It will be a monument to their fight for freedom and a symbol in our search for identity and true equality. It will illuminate the subsequent 200 year history of struggle and military service.

This first memorial for us on the National Mall will stand midway between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument--just two blocks from the popular Vietnam Veterans Memorial. There, in its proximity to those symbols, the Patriots Memorial will tell how we, too, helped give birth to America and helped mold her history and laws for the common good.

Predictably, the battle for this extraordinary site raged long and hard for nearly four years. There was substantial media coverage and public praise. At one point, a congressional committee considered seriously a ban on the construction of any new memorial on the Mall.

The crusade in Congress was led by Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-CT), Sen. Albert Gore, Jr. (D-TN) and Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY). Spearheaded by the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Foundation, an unusual and inspired coalition backed the effort. It includes the National Urban League, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Prince Hall Masons, American Jewish Congress, American Bar Association, Vietnam Veterans of America, AFL-CIO, National Education Association, Sons of the American Revolution and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

A question commonly asked is, `Why a memorial to Revolutionary era blacks?' The answer is simple. The Revolutionary era is the Nation's most sacred history. It is where much of the Nation's greatness and many of its greatest mistakes may be traced. If the Nation were a person, it would be where a psychiatrist would begin to probe for answers that could free us from our confining and confounding ignorance and prejudice.

The replacement of stereotypes, ignominy and years thought to be without content with true facts about patriotism, struggle and perseverance would close the `history gap' and give us common ground on which to build understanding and tolerance between our diverse people.

The American Revolution sent hope soaring in black people and gave some of them a viable, although risky, alternative for gaining freedom. The words of the Declaration of Independence, `. . . all men are created equal' and `unalienable rights', gave voice to salves' natural feelings about whom they really were and what they, their children and America could be. Building the Patriots Memorial will make us hear those voices again.

Historians say that 5,000 blacks (an estimated 1 in 60, according to historian Robert Ewell Greene) fought in the Continental Army and Navy, largely as substitutes for their masters, in exchange for promises of freedom. Free blacks served also in the hopes of winning equal rights. They were engaged in all of the major battles, from Lexington and Concord to Yorktown.

These invisible soldiers left tens of thousands of descendants, most of whom are sadly unaware of their ancestry and of this history. It is an awful irony that a master would send a slave to fight for the master's freedom and historians would relegate the slave's contribution to obscurity. But thanks to the prodding of Lena Santos Ferguson, who waged a successful four year fight for membership in the DAR, the organization is now identifying those soldiers in publication.

When the army was being formed in 1775, blacks were barred from service for fear that they might be understandably inclined to use their weapons against their former masters. Free blacks of Boston, who had already been in the Army, protested. The order was partially reversed with respect to them. However, recruiters, hard-pressed to fill quotas, continued to ignore the order and accepted runaway slaves, free blacks and others.

In the face of successful British attempts to entice slaves to run away to their side (in exchange for promises of freedom), the States began to reverse these exclusionary policies. By 1778, blacks were being officially welcomed, and efforts were initiated, particularly in the South (but without much success), to raise all-black regiments.

Black soldiers hailed from all of the States, however, a majority were from the North, as were the bulk of the fighting men. For the most part, they served in integrated units, although Rhode Island and a few other States fielded notable all-black units. Black soldiers performed a variety of military tasks on an equal basis and suffered all of the war's horrors and hardships.

Zechery Prince was freed posthumously. Gad Asher was blinded. Thomas Lively lost his right eye at Monmounth. Richard Primes was wounded in the head at Camden. Cuff Slade's feet were frozen. Robert Greene was wounded in the face. Ephraim Hearn was a prisoner for 9 months. Hundreds of blacks were at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778. Prince Whipple, who was born in Africa, helped row Washington's boat across the Delware on Chiristmas Eve 1776; Oliver Cromwell was at the ensuing battles.

In addition to them, the Patriots Memorial will honor men like Edward Hector, a hero of the Battle of Brandywine; Austin Dabney, a hero of the Battle of Kettle Creek; and Lambert Lathan, who was executed by the British for his heroics at the Battle of Groton Heights. It will honor James Lafayette, a spy, who secured from Gen. Cornwallis crucial information that led to the victory at Yorktown. Besides well-known names like Salem Poor and Peter Salem, it will honor hundreds of anonymous black soldiers, who are identified on muster roles simply by the word `Negro' or by assumed names without racial designation.

The Patriots Memorial will not be a war memorial and not just a symbol for men. Besides Richard Allen, who paid the last installment on his freedom in 1783, the memorial would honor women and men who provided civilian assistance and those like Elizabeth Freeman, whose freedom suit ended slavery in Massachusetts. It will honor a group of Connecticut slaves, who in 1779 petitioned for freedom, saying that they did not want their children `training up * * * for a like state of bondage.' More than 100,000 nameless runaway slaves will be honored.

While the spirit of the Revolution proved to be the death knell for slavery in the North, the promise of universal freedom was dashed with the adoption of the Constitution. But black patriots carried on the fight. In the Spring of 1787, while the framers debated the
Constitution, other Founding Fathers were laying the foundation of another America--black America.

Richard Allen and Absalom Jones organized Philadelphia's Free African Society. This led to the founding of the African Methodist and Episcopal Church. Prince Hall, a war veteran, received a charter for the first black Masonic lodge in America and petitioned for equal school facilities in Boston.

Paul Cuffe and James Forten became wealthy black entrepreneurs who established schools and petitioned for equal treatment of blacks. Cuffe had been a blockade runner and Forten a sailor who had been imprisoned. These patriots built institutions that continued the American Revolution long after the Revolutionary War ended, and their legacy is the rock upon which the modern civil rights movement sits.

This powerful story will echo in the Capital's sweeping vistas through the interrelationship of the Patriots Memorial with other landmarks that are nearby and within view of the site. The view to the Lincoln Memorial will tell how thousands of blacks had successfully sought freedom decades before the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and how 180,000 of us served in the Civil War. It will link the freedom struggles of the Revolution to the contemporary civil rights movement and show us how that movement was born of more than 180 years of unheralded toil. It will evoke the memory of the dream Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., revealed there in 1963, which he said was `deeply rooted in the American dream.'

The view to the Washington Monument will tell how Washington recruited black soldiers and how they served bravely. The view from the nearby Memorial to the Signers of the Declaration of Independence will remind us of how blacks kept the spirit of that document alive long after America had turned its back on it. Its connection to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will tell how blacks have served in all of America's wars, from the Revolution to Vietnam. The view from DAR Constitution Hall, where black contralto Marian Anderson was barred from performing in 1939, will link forever the deeds of black patriots with their long-honored and deserving white compatriots.

The axial view to the White House, the Capitol and the Supreme Court will be a reminder of how our leaders squandered opportunities at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries to end slavery and assure the triumph of equality. It will keep us vigilant as we approach the 21st century. The memorial will tell black and white Americans that the greatest barrier to the fulfillment of the Pledge of Allegiance, `one Nation, under God, indivisible,' is our collective state of mind, which can change only with knowledge and understanding. Clearly, this memorial for Revolutionary era blacks will be a memorial for the future and for us all. If we resolve to make it so, it could even usher in a new age of national unity and pride in our lifetimes.

But the Patriots Memorial cannot be built without a concerted nation-wide campaign. No government funds may be used. Every American has a stake in seeing the memorial built, especially blacks. The estimated $4 million must be raised by no later than October, 1991, or the grant of land on the Mall will lapse. A series of idea/design forums will be conducted in early 1989. The goal is to construct the memorial before the end of 1991.