founder's
activities:

apparances and
activities (partial)

news articles (partial), 1984 to April 1992)

legislation:

honoring the history
Pub. L. 98-245

creating a memorial
Pub. L 99-558

designation of a site
Pub. L. 100-265

My own great great grandfather, John Curtis Gay, a white man from Maine, gave his life for the cause of freedom during the Civil War when he was gunned down at Cold Harbor, Virginia. But for the photograph he took days before, and which was passed down to me, there would be no ... Memorial.

Maurice Barboza
December 2, 2004

 

Seminar on Historical Tourism, Partners for Livable Places, Boston, Massachusetts, September 1988

"For the past decade, I have been on a journey into history, into my family background and into myself. Sometimes it seems as if I have been running in place, yet I know that I have been moved deeply by it all. What started out as a simple search for my roots turned into a test of myself and of those roots. I want to share with you some of my experiences -- the ups and downs, the obstacles along the way."

"A Memorial to Black Patriots," Commentary and Opinion, The Washington Post, March 31, 1985, Maurice A. Barboza

Between 1775 and 1783, more than 5,000 black slaves and free persons fought in the revolution. Serving side-by-side with whites in all of the major battles from Lexington and Concord to Yorktown, blacks were wounded, disabled and captured, just as were white patriots.

There were many heroes. Most black patriots, regardless of when they enlisted, were in the war for the duration. That was generally the agreement they reached with their masters in exchange for personal freedom. And thousands of slaves ran away or filed petitions with courts and legislatures demanding their freedom. This activity weakened the institution of slavery and made a mockery of it.

Speech, Prince Hall Conference of Grand Masters, Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 4, 1988

The Patriots Memorial is not a war memorial and not just a symbol for men. It would honor women who provided civilian assistance and those like Elizabeth Freeman, whose freedom suit brought slavery to an end in Massachusetts. It would honor a group of Connecticut slaves, led by Belinda, who in 1779 petitioned for freedom saying that she did not want her children "training up... for a like state of bondage."

Hearing before The National Capital Memorial Commission, November 1985

"There are many factors that this Committee will examine in reaching a conclusion on whether to honor these persons by the establishment of the Patriots Memorial. We have been told that besides whether or not a person or class of persons deserves to be memorialized, there are questions of land availability and redundancy. Moreover, a memorial should have both retrospective and prospective significance."

Speech, the 59th annual Conference of Mayors, San Diego, California, June 9, 1991

"I am here to tell you about a historic memorial to be built on the Mall in Washington, D.C. to the 5,000 forgotten black patriots of the American Revolution. Millions of African Americans are their spiritual descendants -- your neighbors and constituents. We believe strongly that the goodwill that this project can tap would be invaluable to you in creating an affirmative atmosphere in which to solve tangible urban problems."

"After all, It Was Their Vision of America That Prevailed," 19th Street Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., December 2, 2004

My own great great grandfather, John Curtis Gay, a white man from Maine, gave his life for the cause of freedom during the Civil War when he was gunned down at Cold Harbor, Virginia. But for the photograph he took days before, and which was passed down to me, there would be no Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial. That was the clue that piqued my curiosity and that brought me up the steps to this sacred place this evening.

Address of Maurice A. Barboza, Virginia Sons of the American Revolution, Army-Navy Country Club of Arlington, Virginia, May 7, 2004

Diverse families are not unusual for black Americans -- neither are the ties of friendship between black and white families. Maybe one of your ancestors was the master of one of mine, or theirs. But, one of your ancestors might also have been a conductor on the Underground Railroad or a lawyer or politician who helped a slave file a freedom petition or law suit.

Just as it is wrong to prejudge a black person, it is wrong to prejudge a white person and the spirits on their family tree. Any project to honor the historical contributions of blacks also will illuminate those white patriots who aided, or simply, respected their struggle.

The History Gap, African American Patriots Day, Baltimore, Maryland, April 25, 1991

"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 Fear of History" (1985, unpublished)

"We were too young and inexperienced to see the strength and character etched in the faces of the slaves pictured in our books or to comprehend how extraordinarily resilient and resourceful a person -- indeed an entire race -- had to be in order to survive a life unfit for animals."

Reclaiming our Stake in the American Revolution, Port of Harlem Magazine, August 2005 (excerpt only)

"For 220 years, society had denied and obscured information about the Black Revolutionary patriots to dissuade us from claiming America and her bounties as our birthright. However, the patriots bequeathed us this legacy with their countless deeds of heroism and sacrifice, and it remains ours."

"The Statue of Liberty: Whose Symbol is it Anyway?" (1986, unpublished)

"Thousands of "tired, poor, and huddled" blacks migrated to Cleveland, Philadelphia, New Bedford, New York and other 'meccas of freedom,' including the Seminole Indian lands in Florida, beginning in the post Revolutionary era. Slavery and racism --the antitheses of democracy -- made them refugees in their homeland, searching the darkness for a flame and the purest form of liberty, the right to own ones self."

"Time to Honor Our Black Patriots," The Washington Post, October 27, 2004, Maurice A. Barboza

"In the mid-1980s, Thurmond, the former segregationist, co-sponsored the legislation authorizing the Black Patriots Memorial. President Bush, whose party inherited the mantle of Thurmond and Lincoln, could heal racial wounds by resurrecting a defining history and showing that Americans are united as one nation based on principles that endure."

"Black Patriots and the U.S. Constitution Bicentennial," (May 11, 1987, unpublished)

"No blacks may have been present at the Constitution's conception, but they would stake out future amendments by charting the void left by the Constitution on the moral high ground."

"Meanwhile, America could learn more about its colorful past" (pdf), The New York Times, August 4, 2004, Maurice A. Barboza and Gary B. Nash

"Yielding to pressure, in 2001, the DAR published "African-American and American Indian Patriots of the Revolutionary War." The number of names grew to 2,400 from 1,656, including an additional 744 previously assumed to be "white." But there are still many more African-American soldiers to be identified, and the DAR still holds to a narrow definition of an African-American."

"Black Daughters of the American Revolution, (May 1984, unpublished)

"For the first time in the DAR's history, the press peeked inside the Society to find out whether it was giving black applicants a hard time. The idea did not occur to reporters over the years who rewrote references to Marian Anderson being denied the opportunity to sing at Constitution Hall whenever the DAR was in the news. That is because they were unaware of the fact that there are more black women qualified to become DAR members than there are gifted black sopranos whose appearances at the Hall in the years since 1939 have been calculated to lull the public into forgetting the organization's past."

strike Black Revolutionary War Patriots Foundation and insert instead, National Mall Liberty Fund D.C.