ABOLITION SUNDAY - AUGUST 23

ABOLITION DAY- SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2009

INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE SLAVE TRADE AND ITS ABOLITION

Why was August 23rd chosen as the date of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition? Because it commemorates the uprising of enslaved Africans in Bois Caiman, in the north of the then French colony of Santo Domingo, on the nights of August 22-23, 1791. This uprising played a critical role in the abolition of slavery.

Key West, Florida 1860 African Memorial Site Progress

As a part of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its abolition, and the involvement of the U.S. Coast Guard stationed here in Key West, FL in 1860 that intercepted over 1400 captured Africans in the Atlantic Ocean near Cuba and brought them to safety in Key West, Ms. Norma Jean Sawyer, Member of the Volunteer Committee for the 1860 African Memorial Site Project, Prof. Gene Tinnie, Lead Concept Artist for the Project, and Johnson Odibi, Nigerian born artist and contributor to the concept design for the project will gather members of the Diaspora Arts Coalition of Miami, FL, drummers from the local community, and residents of Monroe County to give a stirring educational presentation of the significance of this historic site to International history and the plans to introduce the site and its story to UNESCO for consideration as a potential World Heritage Site.

From the Diaspora Arts Coalition of Miami, FL, storyteller Madafo will give us a broad overview of Africans that were forced into slavery and its effect on Africans in the Diaspora. Madafo is also an acclaimed writer, public radio show host, as well as a featured Storyteller at festivals throughout the USA, Africa, and Europe.

Lead Artist Gene Tinnie, will share the story of how the Adinkra symbols on each of the columns at the site were chosen, while others from the community are invited to read the meaning of each of the symbol.

Artist Johnson Odibi will described aspects of other art work at the site and its significance to the story of the Africans that are buried at the site, while Ms. Sawyer will speak to the involvement of the citizens of Key West in 1860 and today that came together to protect and care for the Africans in life and now, in preserving the story of their untimely demise during the horrendous Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.

We humbly invite the public to come be a part of this International Day of Remembrance as we reach out to the children in our community. Please bring your children, grandchildren, history class, and Sunday school classes to learn of this important history, to appreciate the part that the people of Key West played in this International event, and to learn how they can continue its preservation for future generations. The program will begin promptly at 6:00 p.m. at the site on Higgs Beach.

For more Information contact Norma Jean Sawyer at 305-294-0884 or email inquiring to njsawyer@bahamaconchclt.org.

Waterfront Defense

We let this blog go quiet for a while, in fact, for quite a while, last October 25 to be exact.

In view of the current brouhaha about the erroneous overpayment and allegations of fraud, duplicity and other potentially unethical or criminal behavior, it's time to set the record straight. We began doing that with a press conference on Thursday, May 7th, that is now showing up in the Key West Citizen and the Keynoter

Readers are invited to read the articles and the comments attached to them, and to then return here to ask any questions they may have. Thoughtful and polite comments will be accepted anonymously, but we encourage readers, especially Bahama Village readers, to give their names and to become involved in the defense of the waterfront, including the Bahama Conch Village. Questions raised by readers will be answered as expeditiously as possible and in this forum.

Any one who wants to meet with a board member, for any reason, can call the BCCLT office, (305) 294-0884, and ask for an appointment or a call back

Robert Kelly
BCCLT Board Member

Radio Interview

Guy DeBoer of Manley-DeBoer Lumber Co. broadcasts a weekly radio program called On The Waterfront each Saturday morning at 10:00 AM on WIIS, Island Radio 107.1 FM. As the blog name implies, deBoer's focus is the waterside of Key West.

This past August (21st) deBoer's guests for the entire one-hour program were Norma Jean Sawyer-Atanda, BCCLT's Executive Director, and her deputy, Wheeler Winstead. I hadn't heard the interview before now, but discovered that deBoer has a web site where his weekly programs are archived and can be played or downloaded. I thought that the interview with Norma-Jean and Wheeler was very effective in describing the mission, the history, and the current state of affairs at the BCCLT.

The interview can be found here; Scroll down to August 21 and click on the link there.

BCCLT ANNUAL MEETING

The Bahama Conch Community Land Trust is hosting a special, one-time showing of a film, The Journey, on Wednesday, October 29 at the Tropic Cinema on Eaton Street. The film is being screened as a benefit and fundraiser for a new BCCLT initiative called the Tennessee Aquatic Program. It documents the year-long journey of a group of African-American young people from Tennessee who undertake to discover and learn to value themselves and their heritage, and to learn valuable life and workplace skills along the way. The money raised here in Key West is to be used to bring that same opportunity to local youth.

The film will be shown at 6:00 PM on the 29th. Tickets are $10 for students and teens, and $25 for adults and are limited to the seating capacity of the Tropic’s theater. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Tropic Cinema web site, or at the box office.

Immediately following the film showing, BCCLT will hold its annual meeting at Top of La Concha. The annual meeting is open and the public is invited to attend. For those wanting to eat there will be a full buffet available at a cost of $35 per plate.

On Friday, October 31, BCCLT caps off its annual meeting week by conducting escorted tours of BCCLT properties and the Truman Waterfront location of Bahama Conch Village. On that day there will also be an outdoor luncheon served at the rear of BCCLT’s new offices located at 305 Julia Street.

We hope to see many Bahama Villagers and other Key Westers there as can make it to either or both events.
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The Deputy Director's "Citizen Column" #3

From today's Sunday Key West Citizen...

The voices of this community’s past could be a compass to our future

The streets and buildings of Bahama Village speak to me. I was told by a friend that the spirits around the cemetery are more active after midnight, and that I should go there then and the ancestors will speak to me. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that I hear the voices of the streets and buildings speaking out and their voices are louder in certain places.

My recent work with the historic institutions of Bahama Village has made me aware of the buried and interesting — but ever-present — past that surrounds Bahama Village. And if I’m attentive with my eyes and ears, I can hear and see the voices and visions of the past speaking out, sometimes shouting.

When I walk past Cornish Memorial AME Zion, I hear the voice of Sandy Cornish, a former slave who mutilated himself to reduce his value to his slave owner, shouting “don’t give up, stand up for your people, God has not forsaken us.” And they, former slaves, built with their own hands in 1864, one year after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a church at the corner of Angela and Whitehead streets. They built the rafters and other parts of the church’s interior using wood from the slave ships that brought African slaves here.

Maybe that’s why the church was the location of choice for Douglass High School (which was displaced when the Navy took the land that it sat on), a health clinic, AA and NA meetings, Cub Scout, Girls Scout and Boys Scout groups. Maybe that’s what Mrs. Ruby Bain was hearing that pushed her to keep those snotty-nosed Boys Scouts together. And Girls Scouts.

That makes sense, too. That’s why we have so many leaders from that era, because they were taught to memorize and practice the Scouts’ oath and laws. You know, like duty to God and country; helping others; staying physically and mentally strong, morally straight, trustworthy, loyal, helpful, reverent, etc. Hats off to Mrs. Bain! May her tribe increase.

Maybe that’s why the church is packed and everyone so enthralled when Roosevelt Sands Jr. recites the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.

Maybe that’s what drew the Rev. James Thornton to come to such a remote location to a then-struggling church — even though he has earned master’s degrees in clinical psychology, mathematics and sacred theology.

Maybe that is what pushed Mr. Charles Major Sr., the oldest living member of Cornish and president of the NAACP, to push through on the integration of the Navy yard bathrooms and Monroe County schools.

Walking down past Petronia Street, I turn the corner onto Emma and I heard another voice saying: “No one is free until we all are free.” I look up and I am standing in front of the William Weech Post No. 168, the American Legion hall built in 1952. Maybe that’s what Mr. Weech thought when he went to serve his country during World War I; even though, as a black American, he did not have the same rights as his fellow soldiers. He knew that we are all one with a linked destiny.

This voice of a linked destiny drew the founding fathers together. Samuel Donzel Leggett, Charles Major Sr., John B. Knowles Sr. and Alfred Allen, elder statesmen of our community, labored together with others to get the building completed. Mr. Allen was a carpenter and supervisor of the job. Mr. Knowles was a carpenter and mason. Others heard and responded to that voice, like architect C.B. Harvey, who provided free services for the building. He was mayor at that time.

With 10,000 Navy personnel, and few places for blacks to go outside of the churches, the VFW was the place to go, with over 100 members. Their walls echo with sounds and voices of the past. The great black performers such as James Brown and BB King all played there because blacks could not go to anyplace else in Key West at that time.

I believe that voice of a linked destiny drove the members to donate to local churches, offer the hall to families who fell victim to fires and to sponsor Scouting troops.

That’s it. Now I know the source of the voices I hear when I approach the areas of Southard, Angela, Emma, and Thomas streets, now a part of Truman Annex. I hear the voices of the children who used to attend Douglass Junior and High School there prior to their demolition. That area used to be a part of La Africana, the predecessor to Bahama Village and the first place settled by liberated African slaves, Bahamian settlers, and Cuban exiles.

Let’s listen and learn from the voices and our history. Let’s get our kids back to Scouting. Let’s stand up and not give up. Let’s remember that we are not free until all are free, and God has not forgotten us.

Wheeler Winstead is a community development specialist and deputy director of the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust. His column appears here every other Sunday. Contact him at wwinstead@bahamaconchclt.org