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International Day for the Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

On March 25, 2007, the Bicentennial date of the British Parliament's 1807 enactment of the Abolition of the so-called  "slave trade" (but not of slavery itself), the UN General Assembly declared this date to be the International Day for the Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.  (The US Congress, for different motives, would also outlaw the importation of Africans in that same year, to take effect in 1808.)   The observance of the March 25 International Day of Remembrance would become a major annual event at UN Headquarters in New York following that declaration. On a cold, damp March 25, 2015, the UN unveiled the Permanent Memorial to the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, entitled "The Ark of Return," designed by Haitian-descendant African American architect Rodney Leon, which launched in earnest the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024, a continuation of the "Durban Process" that began in 2001 with the World Conference Against Racism in South Africa, from which the US and Israeli delegations together "walked out," 12 days before the 9/11 attacks).  This year marks the midpoint of that Decade. For the general public and the conscious community, these declarations have always presented a choice: either to dismiss them (as some do) as mere bureaucratic rhetoric and meaningless symbolic gestures that change nothing; or to make these occasions meaningful and significant on our own, so they might actually serve to bring about tangible changes in awareness and action.  At the very least, these can be catalysts for productive discussion and better knowledge of history. The Abolition of the "slave trade," for example, while hailed as a moral victory, also had many negative ramifications, particularly for enslaved women in the US, who were subsequently subjected to even further indignities as they began to be marketed as "breeders," to provide the labor supply that could no longer be had from Africa,.  Globally, particularly for the African World, making the human trafficking illegal also made it more profitable and more deadly as the business now moved from "respectable" ship owners and captains into the hands of thugs, pirates, and smugglers (still financed by "respectable" interests),with no scruples about attacking one another, almost always at the expense of untold numbers of captives' lives-that-mattered  aboard the vessels receiving cannon fire.   In Key West, Florida, the southernmost city in the continental US (therefore historically closest to the main trafficking routes), this International Day, and the one on August 23, have been annually observed for well over a decade, because of the numerous connections that the island has had to Middle Passage history, most notably the presence of a cemetery where 295 Africans rescued from captured illegal slave ships but who died during their detention before they could be returned to Africa were buried in 1860.  It is one of few such final resting places in the world, for captives who survived the crossing to be landed in a foreign place, but became free, only to die of the sufferings they had endured. This year was going to be no exception to Key West's tradition of Annual Observances but the coronavirus changed all of that.  Even the UN itself is closed on today.  Although we, too, were forced to cancel the public gathering in KW, we decided to observe it anyway by sharing the basic content of some of what would have been shared, so that this day will not go by unnoticed or unobserved at all. Attached are the pages of an "e-book," which is a modified version of the program booklet that would have been distributed.. We would like to think that Key West's loss of a public observance is the world's gain as we are able to share this with a much wider audience. Please feel free to share with your lists and add your own insights and ideas. Peace, Guidance, and Safety to all  as we pause on this occasion to honor Ancestors, Living, and Generations to Come in global solidarity on this International Day of Remembrance. Dinizulu Gene Tinnie, Co-Director, The Dos Amigos/Fair Rosamond Middle Passage Ship Replica ProjectSouthern office: 80 NW 51st Street, Miami, FL 33127-2114, U.S.A.T: 305-904-7620 E: dinizulu7@gmail.com

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Black History Commemorations

Compiled by Dinzulu Gene Tinnie

Juneteenth (the commemoration of the June 19, 1865, announcement to the last of the enslaved population in the U.S., in east Texas, that slavery as a legal institution was finally ended) is an annual reminder that "Until all of us are free, none of us are free"; slavery was not over until the very last enslaved person was free.  

New: Juneteenth Pow Wow. This nationwide event is scheduled for Sunday, June 14, 2020, in cities around America. The Pow Wows will consist of some of these components: The Grand Entry, a Master of Ceremonies (MC), with Songs, Dancers, Drums, Prayer, Council - Perfecting Unity Agrees to be together in freedom, Giveaways and more. These Pow Wows are to acknowledge the Juneteenth in Oklahoma June 14, 1866, when treaties were signed with native American nations ending the civil war and launching the Juneteenth era for those once enslaved. That era culminated `in the establishment of almost 100 black towns in Oklahoma..."

Middle Passage Ancestral Remembrance ceremonies held in cities around the U.S. and beyond during the month of June.    More of these annual events are being scheduled for June 13-14 in 2020.

400th anniversary of the 1619 arrival of first captive Africans to be brought into British-invaded North America, thus the beginning of slavery in the U.S., (the commemoration continues until August, 2020), and also coincides with the International Decade for People of African Descent, 2015-2024, declared by the United Nations General Assembly.

2020 will be the 400th anniversary year of the arrival of the Mayflower, which will be an important opportunity to bring the Native American narrative to the forefront, which will include the inseparability of the African and Indigenous histories in this hemisphere.  This history of Black towns established in Oklahoma (the territory to which Indigenous peoples were forcibly relocated on the Trail of Tears, and which was subsequently stolen back from them) is most timely and welcome.

Seminole Alliance of Native and African Americans in Florida, which had become "Freedom Land," for those escaping from slavery and settler encroachment, into independent settlements and along Underground railroad escape routes to the Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean.  That heritage will be explored and celebrated at the 182nd Anniversary Annual Spiritual Remembrance of the Battles of the Loxahatchee in Palm Beach County on Sunday, January 19, 2020

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REMEMBERING AMERICAN HISTORY ON VETERANS DAY

Written by Dinizulu Gene Tinnie

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, 101 years ago, with great ceremony, what had so vainly promised to be “The War to End All Wars,” now known as World War I, came to an end with the elaborate signing of an Armistice, an official laying down of arms, at the lavish Palace of Versailles outside of Paris, France.

The merciful ending of that protracted four-year conflict, the first industrialized war, which produced horrors never before imagined, was enabled by the entry by the United States, which tipped the balance in favor of allies Britain, France, and Italy against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, greatly reshaping the political world map, especially in the Middle East, and establishing the United States as a true world power.

Because of this, Armistice Day would be observed for decades afterwards in the U.S. and became a national holiday in 1938.

However, that “Great War,” and the one-sided treaty which ended it, not only did not “end all wars,” but laid the foundation that gave rise to the even more widespread and devastating Second World War, most notable for killing far more civilians (in the tens of millions) than actual military personnel in battle.

After Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the victorious Allied Forces in that war who had knew this devastation well, became president of the U.S., he authorized the change from Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954 to honor all American veterans, living as well as fallen, of all conflicts (including Korea) for their bravery, service, and sacrifice, for which the nation can be truly grateful.

Indeed, today more than ever, the day is also an occasion to recognize the present challenges that face veterans year-round, as well as their remarkable  triumphs in overcoming these trials, often in spite of daunting odds and public indifference, including an alarmingly high rate of suicides and unprecedented physical and psychic difficulties produced by modern-day weapons and technology.

Our veterans are special family members of all of us.

Another Remembrance in the Fight for Freedom

While Veteran’s Day traces has its origins to a conflict that took place 5,000 miles away from American soil, this date has another compelling historical reason to be remembered: for a singular, profoundly emblematic moment in an even deeper and longer conflict that still persists today right here in America.

November 11 is the date in 1831, when Nat Turner, at age 31, was hanged, and his body subsequently skinned (with pieces handed out as souvenirs), beheaded and otherwise mutilated in Jerusalem, Virginia, as punishment for leading a two-day revolt against slavery in which approximately sixty European-descendant men, women, and children were killed.

The barbaric destruction of his corpse was meant both to frighten the enslaved population and to obliterate any memory of him, which attests to the charismatic and mystical power that he held, as an educated, literate reader and interpreter of the Bible and of natural signs and omens, who was born in the same year (1800) as future radical Abolitionist John Brown and in the same month as the hanging of Gabriel (known as Gabriel Prosser) for the rebellion he conspired to lead near Richmond, Virginia.

In all some 45 persons would be executed for their alleged roles in Turner’s uprising, but, far more ominously White mobs and militias would randomly murder approximately 120 African Americans in the region in retaliation for an incident in which most of them played no part.

The hysteria generated by Turner’s revolt also led to great number of radical new laws and restrictions governing the lives of enslaved persons.

The Judgment of History

However we might view the rightness or wrongness of Nat Turner’s actions today, especially on the day we contemplate the many sacrifices made by veterans in the defense of American freedom, the revolt he led can only be fully understood within in its full historical context, by comparison, for example, to the number of lives destroyed by centuries of legalized slavery, giving rise to the memorable truth uttered by Frederick Douglass:

“Slaveholders have no rights more than any other thief or pirate.  They have forfeited even the right to live, and if the slave should put every one of them to the sword tomorrow, who dare pronounce the penalty disproportionate to the crime?”

Even so, we know that the violence that violence produces is never a solution, but always has a cause, which, if understood, addressed and eliminated, can bring needless violence to an end.  If not, we may learn from the words of Dwight Eisenhower, a career military man and hero of World War II: “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

November 11 is a time to honor all who have died and all who live for the cause of true freedom, from ignorance, fear, hate, greed, and divisiveness.

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Remembering Emancipation

“This Day” - May 20, 1865

The Historic Knott House Museum - Tallahassee, Florida

Clifton P. Lewis, May 20, 2019

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“…And upon this Act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice – warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity – I invoke the considered judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of almighty God.”

As he closed the Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln asked for our “considerate judgment.”

And yet, 150 years later - the late Dr. John Hope Franklin wrote that “the Emancipation Proclamation is seldom remembered and widely misunderstood.”

Today, we are here to remember – and to seek a better understanding.

The Proclamation’s evolution is deeply ingrained within the cauldron of the American Civil War. Any understanding the essence of Lincoln’s Proclamation requires an understanding of its relationship to that awful war.

My aim here today is to unpack events relating to that bloody war - and paint a broad-brush story highlighting Lincoln’s shift toward emancipation, his decision to issue the Proclamation, and - most importantly – the significance of this day.

During the time when Lincoln was elected in November 1860 - and nearly six months later when he was sworn into office in March of 1861- seven slave states had already left the Union and formed a new Confederation.

Why did they leave? Well, in the Confederate’s Articles of Secession, they wrote… “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery… the greatest material interest in the world.” The reason was clear.

President Lincoln explained that his Inaugural Address was devoted “entirely to saving the Union – without war.” And to save it, he was even willing to straddle the fence and tolerate slavery where it already existed

Lincoln closed that 1st Address with a plea for reconsideration, he said: … we are not enemies but friends… and he called upon the mystic chords of memory and… upon their better angels.

But, the Confederates would not reconsider

And so… those mystic chords snapped - a fateful shot was fired - and secession became war.

Soon, a total of 11 of the 15 slave states left the Union. The imperative to keep the other 4 Boarder states within the Union greatly influenced the strategy of the war and Lincoln’s path to issuing the Proclamation.

The fierce, no-holds-barred, incendiary fighting - caused Lincoln to realize that even if the fighting stopped, there could be no lasting peace – not as long as the Nation remained a part-slave / part-free polarized hybrid.

And so, Lincoln’s tolerance of slavery began to tilt toward emancipation. Recalling his earlier statement that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” - he insisted that “the house will become all one thing - or all the other.

Lincoln’s decision to pursue the bloody war based on freedom - seemed to reflect the words of Julia Ward Howe, which says: “…as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.”

And later, in his Gettysburg Address - Lincoln confirmed his shift toward emancipation when he said that he was “highly resolved that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom.”

Lincoln came to realize that the only way to end the bloody war - and save the Union – was by ending slavery. Lincoln’s transformation was not based solely on moral principles; no, the horror of the war pushed Lincoln to his new position.

As an example of his transformation, Lincoln signed legislation in April 1862 – which freed over 3,000 slaves in the District of Columbia. Interestingly, the slaveholders in Washington received compensation of approximately one million dollars for those freed slaves.

That was 7 months before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and Washington, D.C. was the only jurisdiction where monetary compensation was actually paid for emancipation.

“Gradual and Compensated Emancipation” was the means by which Lincoln wanted Congress to end slavery. But, Congress would not pass the legislation

Consequently, Lincoln turned to his executive power; he informed his cabinet in July 1862 that he planned to issue an order emancipating the slaves.

Lincoln said that his decision was firm - because “he had a talk with his Maker – and God decided the question in favor of the slaves.”

One cabinet member warned that freeing the slaves and allowing them to join the Union Army – at a time when the momentum of the war was not in favor of the Union - might be seen by foreigners as an act of desperation – as if “the Union was reaching out to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia reaching out to the Union.

Accepting the wisdom of that advice, Lincoln agreed to delay the order until the momentum of the war was more favorable to the Union.

The momentum shift that he had been waiting for occurred on September 17, 1862, that was when the North and the South engaged in a vicious battle near Sharpsburg, Maryland - at a creek called Antietam.

The Battle of Antietam resulted in over 23,000 casualties, and was the bloodiest one-day battle of the entire war; it produced the momentum shift Lincoln had been waiting for

Five days after Antietam - on September 22, 1862 – as promised, Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

Stripped of all legalism… plain and simple, Lincoln’s proclamation amounted to an ultimatum to the Confederates… stop fighting and rejoin the Union within 100 days - or he would free the slaves in all areas that remained in rebellion.

Lincoln wrote that his Proclamation was “issued upon military necessity.” And, because it applied to states that were in rebellion, he was compelled to exclude the 4 border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware - because those 4 slave states remained in the Union.

Just a few weeks before the January 1st deadline – Lincoln sent a lengthy message to Congress – wherein he asked - one more time - to pass legislation. The President again explained his “Gradual and Compensated Emancipation” proposal.

The tone of that December 1862 message was far different from his previous message of appeasement – this new message left no doubt about his determination

Lincoln said in part, “…The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate for the stormy present. The occasion is piled HIGH with difficulties, and we must RISE with the occasion. As our case is new - so we must THINK anew, we must ACT anew; WE must DIS-ENTHRALL ourselves, and then we can save our country.

Lincoln continued – “We know how to save the Union, and the world knows that we do know how to save it; …by giving freedom to the SLAVES, we preserve freedom to the FREE. Honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve, we shall NOBLY save - or MEANLY lose the last best hope of earth…”

In spite of that plea, Congress still refused to pass legislation ending slavery.

The night before the January 1st deadline – Frederick Douglas and others – gathered in Boston on New Year’s Eve “to watch - for the dawn of a new day.”

Today, many churches commemorate that 1862 New Year’s Eve event – in a church service known as Watch Night.

This suggests that Watch Night may be the oldest continuing celebration of emancipation.

The next day following that Watch meeting, January 1, 1863, word arrived that Lincoln had signed the Proclamation; there was great joy and jubilation!

Lincoln said that his Proclamation was “the principal Act of my Administration, and the main event of the 19th Century.”

Frederick Douglass called the proclamation “a momentous decree” - a Maryland slave holder said that “news of Mr. Lincoln’s proclamation, struck the nation like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky”, an elderly preacher sang “sound the loud trumpets over Egypt’s Red Sea, Jehovah has triumphed His people are free”, another person warned “may God forget my people - if they forget this day.”

Such was the jubilant reaction to the Proclamation.

Of course, we know that the proclamation did not free all slaves on January 1st – but in spite of its nuances – it was indeed Lincoln’s Proclamation - that unlocked slavery’s door - and in doing so, it tilted the moral arc toward emancipation.

Over the next two and one half years - wherever Union troops were present to provide protection – it is estimated that as many as 3 ½ million - of the 4 million slaves – walked out into an uncertain freedom.

And, nearly two hundred thousand eagerly joined the Union Army and Navy.

In places such as Florida and Texas - where there were no Union troops to provide protection – slavery remained intact for another two years.

The astounding casualty rate estimated to have been some 700,000, finally caused General Lee to surrender to General Grant - that was on April 9, 1865, and, the war was essentially over.

It is ironic that a war that was started to preserve slavery – ended up destroying it.

Five days following General Lee’s surrender - tragedy struck; Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. “Father Abraham” – as Frederick Douglass called him - died on Friday, April 14th; on the Christian calendar – that was Good Friday.

In response to Lincoln’s murder the grief-stricken, and re-energized Union troops – including the United States Colored Troops – set out to ensure that the slaves were freed, and they did so under the authority of Lincoln’s 2-year old Emancipation Proclamation.

Now, we come to this day…

One month following Lincoln’s murder, Union General Edward McCook and his troops – including the USCT - arrived at Tallahassee, Florida to accept the surrender - and on May 20th General McCook read the Proclamation – as was so beautifully reenacted here today at the Knott House Museum.

But, General McCook did more than just read the Proclamation he - in fact - began to enforce emancipation in Florida.

One month after Florida’s May 20th event, another Union General – by the name of Gordon Granger – began to likewise enforce the Proclamation in Galveston, Texas. Today, that June 19th Texas emancipation event is celebrated as Juneteenth.

May 20th is to Florida what June 19th is to Texas; those were the dates when emancipation began to be enforced in the last two Confederate states of Florida and Texas.

Eight months following Lincoln’s tragic murder, and seven months after Florida’s May 20th emancipation event – any question about the Proclamation’s legitimacy became null and void – because in December 1865 - the 13th Amendment to the Constitution ending slavery was finally ratified.

Ladies and gentlemen, freedom from slavery was not a simple event; no, emancipation was greatly influenced by the Civil War - causing the slaves to be set free on different dates in different places, and under varying circumstances.

And until slavery was abolished, it was not possible for this nation to live out its creed of liberty. Along with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation is that proverbial third leg that makes up freedom’s foundation.

As I close, let us recall that the great Frederick Douglass suggested… that emancipation day should be remembered as if it was a thousand years.”

And, in order to underscore the significance of this day; Mr. Douglass said…

“Slavery, the sum of all villainies, like a vulture, was gnawing at the heart of the Republic;

until this day there stretched away behind us an awful chasm of darkness and despair - of more than two centuries;

until this day the American slave, bound in chains, tossed his fettered arms on high - and groaned for freedom’s gift - in vain;

until this day the colored people of the United States lived in the shadow of death… and had no visible future;

until this day it was doubtful whether liberty and union would triumph, or slavery and barbarism;

until this day victory had largely followed the arms of the Confederate army;

Until this day the mighty conflict between the North and the South appeared to the eye of the civilized world - as destitute of qualities;

This is the significance of this day – Florida Emancipation Day - May 20, 1865

Rev. 5-19-2019

Reprinted with permission from Clifton Lewis

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Decolonizing Refinement Book Club

New Monthly Book Club Explores the Mysteries of Spady Museum’s New Exhibit Both Online and In-Person

Haitian-American artistry to be examined in-depth beginning Saturday, Jan. 19

 In partnership with the Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center, Inc., the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum will host a special conversation series about the book, The Kingdom of this World.

Written in 1949 by Alejo Carpentier, The Kingdom of this World explores the intersection of history and art; the Haitian Revolution; racial, political and religious oppression; and the function and abuse of power across cultures and communities. The book conversation series is held in conjunction with The Spady Museum’s current exhibition, which examines similar themes.

“Decolonizing Refinement: The Kingdom of this World” is on display through April 26, 2019, and features the work of Edouard Duval-Carrié, an internationally significant Miami-based, Haitian-born artist. Duval-Carrié creates colorful, socially and politically-oriented narrative art that channels his knowledge and fascination with Haitian history, spiritual beliefs and folklore.

For “Decolonizing Refinement: Kingdom of this World,” Carrie’s art is combined with historical artifacts related to Florida’s agricultural labor history, borrowed from south Florida regional historical collections. Different artifacts from “Decolonizing Refinement” will be on display at the FAU Schmidt Center Gallery and at the Spady Museum – as a two-part, sister exhibition.

The book conversation kick-off event will be held both online and in-person at the Spady Museum, 170 NW 5th Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444, at noon on Saturday, January 19, 2019. The sessions will be interactive and will be streamed live via Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center’s YouTube channel, which features online, live streaming and live commentary capabilities for the public to “tune in” to the book club meeting.

After the live streaming, the video will be available for posting and sharing across social media networks and be featured on Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center’s YouTube channel and the Spady Museum’s Facebook page, where people can comment and share.

The series dates are:

Streaming and In-Person introduction and kick-off: noon, Saturday, January 19, 2019

Private docent-led tour of the Decolonizing Refinement Exhibition at the Spady Museum and at FAU Galleries: 10am, February 2, 2019

Second Streaming Discussion: noon, February 16, 2019.

Final discussion, featuring in-person facilitation, live streaming and lunch: noon, Saturday, March 16, 2019

 To participate online, order your book at PYRAMID BOOKS and stay tuned for the YouTube channel information. To attend in person, register by calling 561-279-8883. Cost: $40 which includes: 1 book, admission to the in-person discussions, 1 reservation to the exhibit tours, lunch.

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The Misguided Focus on 1619 as the Beginning of Slavery in the U.S. Damages Our Understanding of American History

The year the first enslaved Africans were brought to Jamestown is drilled into students’ memories, but overemphasizing this date distorts history

By Michael Guasco

smithsonian.com September 13, 2017

In 1619, “20. and odd Negroes” arrived off the coast of Virginia, where they were “bought for victualle” by labor-hungry English colonists. The story of these captive Africans has set the stage for countless scholars and teachers interested in telling the story of slavery in English North America. Unfortunately, 1619 is not the best place to begin a meaningful inquiry into the history of African peoples in America. Certainly, there is a story to be told that begins in 1619, but it is neither well-suited to help us understand slavery as an institution nor to help us better grasp the complicated place of African peoples in the early modern Atlantic world. For too long, the focus on 1619 has led the general public and scholars alike to ignore more important issues and, worse, to silently accept unquestioned assumptions that continue to impact us in remarkably consequential ways. As a historical signifier, 1619 may be more insidious than instructive.

The overstated significance of 1619—still a common fixture in American history curriculum—begins with the questions most of us reflexively ask when we consider the first documented arrival of a handful of people from Africa in a place that would one day become the United States of America. First, what was the status of the newly arrived African men and women? Were they slaves? Servants? Something else? And, second, as Winthrop Jordan wondered in the preface to his 1968 classic, White Over Black, what did the white inhabitants of Virginia think when these dark-skinned people were rowed ashore and traded for provisions? Were they shocked? Were they frightened? Did they notice these people were black? If so, did they care?

In truth, these questions fail to approach the subject of Africans in America in a historically responsible way. None of these queries conceive of the newly-arrived Africans as actors in their own right. These questions also assume that the arrival of these people was an exceptional historical moment, and they reflect the worries and concerns of the world we inhabit rather than shedding useful light on the unique challenges of life in the early seventeenth century.

There are important historical correctives to the misplaced marker of 1619 that can help us ask better questions about the past. Most obviously, 1619 was not the first time Africans could be found in an English Atlantic colony, and it certainly wasn’t the first time people of African descent made their mark and imposed their will on the land that would someday be part of the United States. As early as May 1616, blacks from the West Indies were already at work in Bermuda providing expert knowledge about the cultivation of tobacco. There is also suggestive evidence that scores of Africans plundered from the Spanish were aboard a fleet under the command of Sir Francis Drake when he arrived at Roanoke Island in 1586. In 1526, enslaved Africans were part of a Spanish expedition to establish an outpost on the North American coast in present-day South Carolina. Those Africans launched a rebellion in November of that year and effectively destroyed the Spanish settlers’ ability to sustain the settlement, which they abandoned a year later. Nearly 100 years before Jamestown, African actors enabled American colonies to survive, and they were equally able to destroy European colonial ventures.

These stories highlight additional problems with exaggerating the importance of 1619. Privileging that date and the Chesapeake region effectively erases the memory of many more African peoples than it memorializes. The “from-this-point-forward” and “in-this-place” narrative arc silences the memory of the more than 500,000 African men, women, and children who had already crossed the Atlantic against their will, aided and abetted Europeans in their endeavors, provided expertise and guidance in a range of enterprises, suffered, died, and – most importantly – endured. That Sir John Hawkins was behind four slave-trading expeditions during the 1560s suggests the degree to which England may have been more invested in African slavery than we typically recall. Tens of thousands of English men and women had meaningful contact with African peoples throughout the Atlantic world before Jamestown. In this light, the events of 1619 were a bit more yawn-inducing than we typically allow.

Telling the story of 1619 as an “English” story also ignores the entirely transnational nature of the early modern Atlantic world and the way competing European powers collectively facilitated racial slavery even as they disagreed about and fought over almost everything else. From the early 1500s forward, the Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, Dutch and others fought to control the resources of the emerging transatlantic world and worked together to facilitate the dislocation of the indigenous peoples of Africa and the Americas. As historian John Thornton has shown us, the African men and women who appeared almost as if by chance in Virginia in 1619 were there because of a chain of events involving Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and England. Virginia was part of the story, but it was a blip on the radar screen.

These concerns about making too much of 1619 are likely familiar to some readers. But they may not even be the biggest problem with overemphasizing this one very specific moment in time. The worst aspect of overemphasizing 1619 may be the way it has shaped the black experience of living in America since that time. As we near the 400th anniversary of 1619 and new works appear that are timed to remember the “firstness” of the arrival of a few African men and women in Virginia, it is important to remember that historical framing shapes historical meaning. How we choose to characterize the past has important consequences for how we think about today and what we can imagine for tomorrow.

In that light, the most poisonous consequence of raising the curtain with 1619 is that it casually normalizes white Christian Europeans as historical constants and makes African actors little more than dependent variables in the effort to understand what it means to be American. Elevating 1619 has the unintended consequence of cementing in our minds that those very same Europeans who lived quite precipitously and very much on death’s doorstep on the wisp of America were, in fact, already home. But, of course, they were not. Europeans were the outsiders. Selective memory has conditioned us to employ terms like settlers and colonists when we would be better served by thinking of the English as invaders or occupiers. In 1619, Virginia was still Tsenacommacah, Europeans were the non-native species, and the English were the illegal aliens. Uncertainty was still very much the order of the day.

When we make the mistake of fixing this place in time as inherently or inevitably English, we prepare the ground for the assumption that the United States already existed in embryonic fashion. When we allow that idea to go unchallenged, we silently condone the notion that this place is, and always has been, white, Christian, and European.

Where does that leave Africans and people of African descent? Unfortunately, the same insidious logic of 1619 that reinforces the illusion of white permanence necessitates that blacks can only be, ipso facto, abnormal, impermanent, and only tolerable to the degree that they adapt themselves to someone else’s fictional universe. Remembering 1619 may be a way of accessing the memory and dignifying the early presence of black people in the place that would become the United States, but it also imprints in our minds, our national narratives, and our history books that blacks are not from these parts. When we elevate the events of 1619, we establish the conditions for people of African descent to remain, forever, strangers in a strange land.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We shouldn’t ignore that something worth remembering happened in 1619. There are certainly stories worth telling and lives worth remembering, but history is also an exercise in crafting narratives that give voice to the past in order to engage with the present. The year 1619 might seem long ago for people more attuned to the politics of life in the 21st century. But if we can do a better job of situating the foundational story of black history and the history of slavery in North America in its proper context, then perhaps we can articulate an American history that doesn’t essentialize notions of “us” and “them” (in the broadest possible and various understandings of those words). That would be a pretty good first step, and it would make it much easier to sink our teeth into the rich and varied issues that continue to roil the world today.

This story was originally published on Black Perspectives, an online platform for public scholarship on global black thought, history and culture.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/misguided-focus-1619-beginning-slavery-us-damages-our-understanding-american-history-180964873/

Related Content

Did Francis Drake Bring Enslaved Africans to North America Decades Before Jamestown?

Dr. Michael Guasco serves on the Historian Advisory Council for the Virginia 2019 Commemoration.

Source: https://www.americanevolution2019.com/about/volunteer.../dr-michael-guasco/

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Movie Lineup - Subject to Change

Dec 2nd Black Power Mix Tape

Jan 6th Selma

Feb 3rd 3 1/2 Minutes 10 Bullets

Mar 3 Lady Sings the Blues

Apr 7th Anita

May 5th The Hidden History of Haiti 

Jun 2nd Street Fight

Jul 7th Finding Fela

Aug 4th 20 Feet From Stardom

Sept 1st Moonlight

Oct 6th Beloved

Nov 3rd Get On Up

Dec 1st Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Jan 5th Thunder Soul

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Mrs. H. Ruth Pompey describing the boundaries of “colored town” in Delray Beach. 2011

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South Florida Organizing Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)

What is the call of the times? What are our roles as historians and culture-keepers in the current crisis in our nation? What lessons from the past can inform the ongoing debate over police abuse, mass incarceration, and the lack of accountability within the American criminal justice system?

These were some of the questions posed at the last meeting of the South Florida Organizing Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). In recent months, the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the failure to convict officers in the death of Freddie Gray, along with the shootings of police officers in Dallas, Texas, have inflamed racial tensions in  communities across the nation. Students of the past and of the systemic nature of racism can easily recognize the links between the current debates over police brutality and lack of accountability to the realities of black life under slavery and Jim Crow centuries ago. Likewise, the response to the Black Lives Matter movement and other activists echo the clamorings of activists from previous centuries like Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the famous investigative journalist and antilynching activist; W. E. B. DuBois, the scholar-activist, and Harry T. Moore, Florida's foremost civil rights activist, who each decried violations of black bodies and black civil rights during their times.

This time, the reaction to the violence has centered around the need to control black wealth. It has resulted in a massive shift of resources in the African American community to black banks like Citizens United and OneUnited, located in South Florida. This recent activity hearkens back to a time when blacks in America had no choice but to be economically independent. There are valuable historical examples of successful black entrepreneurs that demonstrate the power of consolidated black wealth, such as real estate investor Dana Albert Dorsey of Overtown and Abraham Lincoln Lewis, founder of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company of Jacksonville. It seems that our fight for economic self-determination has come full circle.

The political rhetoric of the day also hearkens back to dark times in U.S. and world history, when charismatic leaders (have) inspired masses to exclusionary and destructive behaviors. The racialized and divisive campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has emboldened white supremacists of every stripe. As the presidential election approaches, there is a desire to seek political solutions for critical issues facing the black community.

What does history tell us about the success and failures of such attempts in the past?

Master-teacher Dr. John Henrik Clarke famously said that "history is the compass that people use to locate themselves on the map of human geography.  A people’s history tells a people where they have been, where they are, and what they are. More importantly, a proper understanding of history tells a people what they still must be and where they still must go."

I would like to encourage ASALH South Florida members, both as a group and individually, to think about ways in which we can get involved to bring about​​ a positive end to this current crisis. Look out for organizations and meetings that are working towards a positive dialogue in the community and bring that information back to our members so that we can support by attending and, if the opportunity is available, by co-sponsoring such events. We can use our social media pages to help promote the availability of meetings among our membership and other supporters.

Additionally, let's think of activities and programs, as well as group conversations, that ASALH South Florida can host to help further understanding through a historical lens. Please forward your ideas to any member of the ASALH executive committee by email or via social media. We will do our best to share those with the group. For the next several months we will also set aside time during our monthly meetings to discuss this topic. So, feel  free to join us for those conversations in person.

One such conversation will take place this Friday, September 9th, when we host our first public event in observation of ASALH's Founder's Day. The planned panel discussion,

"Black History Matters," will bring together some of the most preeminent cultural preservationists in the region for a discussion of the successes and the work that remains on the front of black historical preservation. ​

Friday, September 9, 2016 - 12-30 p.m. – 2-00 p.m.

​I also extend an invitation to you to become a member of national organization and the South Florida branch of ASALH. Your membership dues help both organization to continue our mission of promoting and preserving black history.

National (general/$80, associate/$65, student/$45, senior/$55): https://netforum.avectra.com/eweb/shopping/shopping.aspx?site=asalh&webcode=shopping&cart=0&shopsearchCat=Membership  

Local ($15): http://wijsf.com/asalhsouthflorida.htm

Thank you in advance for your support.

A luta continua,

Tameka Bradley Hobbs, Ph.D., President Association for the Study of African American Life and History, South Florida Organizing Branch  ASALH South Florida, Inc.1009 NW 4th St Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33311 

email:asalhsouthflorida@gmail.com

FB:ASALHSouthFloridaTwitter:  @ASALH_SoFlo

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INTERNATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE TO BE OBSERVED AT KEY WEST AFRICAN CEMETERY

One of Key West’s proudest and most significant historical developments will be commemorated on Sunday, August 21, at 6:00 p.m., at the Key West African Cemetery located at 1074-1094 Atlantic Blvd, Key West, FL 33040, near Higgs Memorial Beach, between the White Street Pier and the West Martello Fort, in observance of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, declared by the United Nations General Assembly. The event continues a tradition established in recent years to honor the memory of the 295 African refugees who were buried at the site in the spring of 1860, and the heroism and generosity of the Key West community who came to their aid when they and their fellow captives, totaling 1,432 in number, were rescued by the United States Navy from three American slave ships bound illegally for Cuba, and were brought into the southernmost city, whose population at the time was only around 3,000. Under the leadership of U.S. Marshal Fernando Moreno, housing was hastily constructed for the survivors of the horrific ocean crossings, and members of the community donated food, clothing, blankets, and other necessities to the unexpected visitors as they arrived at separate times from the three captures. The Africans themselves also quickly formed a kind of impromptu community in their new surroundings, where observers noted the due deference was shown to individuals known to have ben of higher social rank, according to traditional practices and children were collectively cared for. The presence of the Africans in Key West during their twelve weeks of detention there as they awaited being returned to Africa (not their original homelands but the American colony of Liberia), by order of President Buchanan, gained nationwide attention, drawing journalists and curiosity-seekers from around the country to Key West, where the Africans had become well enough known to the community to be given such nicknames as “the Princess,” resulting in their story being featured in such national publications as Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly, and further fueling, as the word reached Congress, the increasingly acrimonious discourse as the nation hurtled inexorably toward the outbreak of full Civil War less than a year later. Meanwhile, in the course of their twelve-week detention in Key West, in spite of all the care and attention that could be provided from both within and outside of the improvised African community, death would inevitably claim its portion of individuals, mostly children and youth, on an almost daily basis, who failed to recover from the illnesses and abominable conditions that they had endured while aboard the ships, and, in the final count fully 295 perished, for whom coffins were ordered by Marshal Moreno, and they would be carried in long processions from the so-called “slave depot,” to the burial place, from which the mourners returned in perfect silence. It is the memory of those lives, and the millions more that mattered, as well as the inspiring heroism, fortitude, generosity, compassion, and sheer indomitability of the human spirit that are honored by the International Day, which is actually August 23, anniversary of the start of the ultimately successful Haitian Revolution in 1794, a date chosen by the UN to emphasize the fact that Africans themselves were the primary agents in bringing about the eventual global Abolition of the human trafficking known as the “slave trade,” although it remains a story with universal human appeal and importance. The International Day of Remembrance serves to ensure that the full, accurate, and often inspiring story of the Middle Passage, and the tens of millions of lives it affected in such devastating ways is never lost or forgotten by future generations. Key West has been a leader among American cities in holding annual observances of the day, which include traditional opening ceremonies and prayers, performances, historical information, and open “Village Talk.” This event is made possible by the generous cooperation of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, Monroe County, the City of Key West, and the Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc. Admission is free and open to the public; for further information, call 305-904-7620.

Written by  Dinizulu Gene Tinnie

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Linda Burnham on Baton Rouge/Falcon Heights/Dallas

A good read and information we need to know as leaders in our community as we attempt to engage in conversations on how to Stop The Violence.  Pass it on if you think it is relevant to what is now occurring and what has occurred in the past.

Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights, DallasJuly 11, 2016 A thick strand in the history of U.S. policing is rooted back in the slave patrols of the 19th century. Patty rollers were authorized to stop, question, search, harass and summarily punish any Black person they encountered. The five- and six-pointed badges many of them wore to symbolize their authority were predecessors to those of today’s sheriffs and patrolmen. They regularly entered the plantation living quarters of enslaved people, leaving terror and grief in their wake. Together with the hunters of runaways, these patrols had a crystal clear mandate: to constrain the enslaved population to its role as the embodiment and producer of massive wealth for whites and to forestall the possibility that labor subordinated to the lash might rebel at the cost of white lives.  How far have we come, really? Having extricated ourselves from a system of bottomless and blatant cruelty we have evolved a system that depends on the patty rollers of today to constrain and contain a population that, while no longer enslaved, is ruthlessly exploited, criminally neglected and justifiably aggrieved. Ruthlessly exploited by the low-wage industries that depend on ample supplies of cheap labor, by the bottom feeders of capital – pay-day loan companies and slumlords come to mind –­ by the incarceration-for-profit industry, by the municipalities that meet their budgets by preying on poor people, generating revenue by way of broken taillights, lapsed vehicle registrations and failures to signal. Criminally neglected by policy makers – 152 years’ worth and counting – at every level of government. And so our education policy appears to be: starve the public system until it collapses and to hell with the children whose parents have no alternative. Housing policy stubbornly stacked against the development and maintenance of low-income housing. Jobs policy that, against an ideological backdrop that touts personal fulfillment and prosperity through honest effort, reduces grown men to selling loosies and cd’s on street corners to provide for their families. Justifiably aggrieved because we still must assert, against the relentless accumulation of evidence to the contrary, that Black lives matter. And all this on top of the foundational failure to financially repair or compensate the formerly enslaved or their descendants. So today’s patty rollers are expected to contain any overflow of bitterness and anger on the part of the exploited, neglected and aggrieved, maintaining order in a fundamentally – and racially – disordered system. Their mandate is as clear as that of their forefathers: to constrain a population whose designated role is to absorb absurdly high rates of unemployment and make itself available for low-wage, low-status work without complaint, much less rebellion. Those who fear a spiraling descent into disorder, know this: we are merely witnessing the periodic, explosive surfacing of entrenched disorders we have refused to face or fix. Our narratives and debates about good cops and rogue cops, better training and community policing are important but entirely insufficient. No doubt the patty rollers of the 1850s could have been trained to reign in their brutality. Given the gloriously diverse dispositions of our human family, patrollers likely ranged from the breathtakingly cruel to the queasily reluctant enforcers of patent injustice. All that is, at bottom, beside the point. Whether cruel or kind, restrained or rogue, their job was to police – and by policing, maintain – a barbaric system. Today’s police can be better trained to recognize implicit bias, to dial back on aggression and deescalate tense encounters. All to the good, as far as it goes. But none of it changes their core mandate in poor Black communities: to control and contain, by any means necessary, a population that has every reason to be restive and rebellious.

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“Was he colored?” That’s what my grandmother would say whenever she heard news about a criminal act. She knew that if the alleged perpetrator were “colored” his criminality would be read not simply as the act of an individual, but as an expression of an ingrained racial tendency. Somehow being Black meant that the actions of every random thief, rapist or murderer who was also Black redounded to you and your people. I imagine most Black families had a version of “Was he colored?” And I wouldn’t be surprised if Muslim American families have an equivalent expression today. Untying the knot of individual culpability and the consequences of racial belonging is nowhere near as straightforward as it might seem. I was on a dance floor on Thursday night, desperately trying to shake off the news from Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights. My phone was in my back pocket and, like an idiot, when it buzzed with an incoming text, I left the dance floor and stepped outside to the news from Dallas. Though the action was still unfolding, I immediately surmised that the shooter was “colored,” and that he had been trained by the U.S. military.  It has fallen to President Obama, time and again, to make sense out of the incomprehensible and bind the wounds of a nation apparently bent on self-destruction. In the aftermath of Dallas, Obama quickly condemned the despicable violence of a demented, troubled individual. The president’s intent was clear and laudable. He sought to defuse tensions by definitively asserting that the shooter’s action was not associated with a political movement or a particular organization, that his murderous deeds should in no way be linked to African Americans in general. He struggled to shift the focus from “Was he colored?” to “Clearly he was crazy, right?” But before boxing Micah Johnson up and setting him aside as deranged and demented it’s worth asking a few questions. Honestly, good people, did anybody in their right mind – that is, not troubled or demented – think that the police could continue to pick off Black people at will and on camera without producing a Micah Johnson? And is troubled and demented shorthand for “traumatized by repeated exposure to the graphic depiction of the murder of people who look just like me?” Or for “agonized by the fact that the officers of the law who placed a handcuffed man in the back of a van and snapped his spine in an intentionally “rough ride” were neither held criminally accountable nor labeled troubled and demented?” Or for “depressed beyond imagining and haunted by the ghosts of the men and women whose lives were snatched by the side of the road, down back alleyways, and in precinct stations from one end of the country to the other before the era of cell phone video?” Or for “pierced through the heart by the voice of four-year-old Dae’Anna, comforting her mama?” Because if demented and troubled is shorthand for any of that, then Micah Johnson may have been a lone gunman, but he is far from alone.  That whoosh you heard on Friday morning was the sound of people rushing to condemn the Dallas shootings, or to extract condemnations from others. There is, of course, no moral justification for gunning down police officers. And, retaliatory violence aimed at the armed representatives of the state, beyond being a suicidal provocation, also shuts down all avenues for advancing the cause of racial justice.  But there is a lot of room for reflection between the cheap polarities of condemn or condone. So here we are, once again, with calls from all quarters for dialogue across the racial divide. But if the long years before the emergence of the various movements for Black lives have taught us anything, it is this: our purported partners in dialogue simply turn their backs and leave the table as soon as the pressure is off. This moment calls for the vigorous defense of our right to continued protest and the intensification and elaboration of multiple movements for Black lives – for the sake of our ancestors and the generations to come. And for the sake of this country that is our home. 

Linda Burnham Linda Burnham is the Research Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She is the co-author of Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work. Burnham was a leader in the Third World Women’s Alliance, a national organization that was an early advocate for the rights of women of color. In 1990 she co-founded Women of Color Resource Center. She was its Executive Director for 18 years. Burnham led large delegations of women of color to the 1985 UN World Conference on Women in Nairobi, the 1995 UN World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, and the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.

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Personal story about slavery, well written.

How close we are to slavery: America’s horrible legacy still deeply runs through the nation’s veins http://flip.it/rpqr8

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Why was the Spady Museum established? Does everyone know the story?

When Vera Farrington retired from Boca Raton High School in 1992, she took two years off and then starting volunteering her time at the Delray Beach Historical Society. Her job was to assist people who were researching specific things. She would guide them in locating what they were looking for. As she looked in and out of the Historical Society’s collections, she couldn’t find any historical information about the black families in Delray Beach. She knew these black families were in Delray Beach during these time periods – she was one of them! So she expressed her concerns to her friends, Elmore Watkins, Dwight Bradshaw, C. Spencer Pompey, Sandy Simon, David Randolph, Douglas Williams, etc. They confirmed what she thought she knew about the black people in Delray Beach and shared even more information with her. They began to share on a regular basis, including their documents, artifacts, ephemera. Vera collected this information and TOOK IT TO THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY TO BE FILED. She was encouraged by the Historical Society board members to keep what she had collected and create a new project around the newly found information. They supported her in the effort to create a new 501(c)3 and a new historical location housing a new historical collection.

I am constantly asked, mostly by people younger than me (oh my, that demographic is growing!), “Why do we need two? A white one and a black one?” In answer to their question, I help them think it through. When ‘it’ (usually an organization) was established, the South was rigidly segregated.  Those organizers (who, for the most part, are long gone now) at that time did not see the need or have the desire to include black people in their efforts. Examples are, the Delray Beach Historical Society, the Delray Beach Library, The Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce, schools everywhere, and so on. These organizations did not start including black people in their daily operations until black people asked for (sometimes demanded) change. In some cases black people didn’t ask, they just created their own. Hence, the Black Chamber of Commerce, the black library (located in Mt. Olive Baptist Church at the time), black high schools everywhere; even the black swimming pool at Pompey Park (formerly Teen Town Center) was the result of black people being banned from swimming in the City’s public pool at A1A and Atlantic Avenue.

We all accept that those of us reading these words right now were NOT around when those decisions were being made, with a very few exceptions. And I shouldn’t have to say this but I will, you must not feel angry at the people who run these organizations now or, if you are part of one of them, guilty about the way your organization operated in the past. (You shouldn’t feel happy either but that’s a different kind of psychosis.) We cannot be held accountable for the poor decisions of people in our past– only the decisions we make today. What you do and say today is what defines you.

Today I am pleased to continue the work my Mother and her friends began – saving the important documents, artifacts and ephemera of black people here in Delray Beach and surrounding communities from oblivion. I care about those materials and those people because the decisions those black people made have a direct impact on me (and you). If anyone else had cared about that material, it WOULD HAVE BEEN COLLECTED AND SAVED ALREADY.

That’s how the Spady Museum was established and why we are still here. There is still work to be done. Transitive property applies. #AmericanHistoryMatters. #BlackHistorisAmericanHistory, #BlackHistoryMatters. 

Here’s Mom telling her story in her own words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHbtrj0hMhQ&list=PLS973ffvJqF7jDS7fzpPPmvjraTOiaNUb

Peace and Love, Charlene

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Narrative on Race and Adoption

Thinking About Black History Month and Transracial Adoption http://flip.it/XUgFY

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“Fall” Into Great Delray Beach Programs at the Spady Museum

The Spady Museum welcomes you to its fall programs, as the seasons change, but the temperatures stay the same in South Florida!

GET YOUR SUMMERTIME GROOVE ON AT FUNK-SWAY in DELRAY Date: October 17, 2015 Time: 7:30-10pm Location: Spady Museum, 170 NW 5th Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444 Cost: $10 CASH ONLY In collaboration with Smooth Bounce Entertainment, FUNK-SWAY is a mini-music fest, featuring DJ Samore and a live band that delivers dynamic R&B, jazz and Latin sounds that get audiences dancing. Food will be provided by Heart & Soul Kitchen for an additional cost.

DELRAY SPEAKS! Date: October 28, 2015 Time: 7pm - 8pm Location: Spady Museum, 170 NW 5th Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444 Cost: $5 Delray Speaks is a community forum intended to encourage open dialogue about relevant topics affecting residents and visitors of South Florida. Topics are selected at random by forum participants and organizers. All opinions expressed are acknowledged and respected and belong solely to their owners and do not necessarily reflect those of the Spady Museum. These forums are open to the public and everyone is welcome.

RIDE & REMEMBER TROLLEY TOUR Date: November 14, 2015 Time: 10pm - Noon Location: Spady Museum, 170 NW 5th Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444 Cost: $20 When you board the “Ride & Remember” Trolley Tour, the history of Delray Beach comes alive! Illustrated with colorful stories of the personalities and happenings that influenced the growth of the city, the tour does more than relay facts – it draws the riders back in time. Climb aboard The Spady Cultural Heritage Museum’s popular, monthly “Ride & Remember” Trolley Tour and enjoy the interactive, personalized stories of Delray Beach’s interesting origins and development. Funded by: State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, Palm Beach County, Tourist Development Council, and Cultural Council of Palm Beach County.

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We’re Going to be in the Movies!

This month, the Spady Museum’s “Ride & Remember” Trolley Tour will be part of an exciting video shoot, as we document what makes the program so charming and popular.

Funded in part by a grant by VisitFlorida, the video shoot, which is being overseen by VUP Media of Delray Beach, will become a promotional film that will be used to showcase the historical stops and city attractions that make Delray Beach so special.

“So many people comment that this is one of the most enjoyable and memorable tours they’ve taken. So when we were able to capitalize on marketing it to a larger audience, we immediately thought of video,” said Museum Director Charlene Jones. “We hope that we are able to capture the essence of the energy, humor and information that is shared on each tour, and how different each monthly experience truly is.”

Along with the character-rich neighborhoods of the City, the video will also showcase stops at Delray Beach Center for the Arts and the Sandoway House, which are always part of the “Ride & Remember” Trolley Tour. Look for the new video on our website soon!

Upcoming “Ride & Remember” Trolley Tour dates Saturday, December 12, 2015 Saturday, January 9, 2016 Saturday, February 13, 2016 Saturday, March 12, 2016 Saturday, April 9, 2016 Saturday, May 14, 2016 Saturday, June 11, 2016 Saturday, July 9, 2016 Saturday, August 13, 2016 Saturday, September 10, 2016

Details: 10 a.m. - Noon Cost: $25 Funded by State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, Palm Beach County, Tourist Development Council, and Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. www.spadymuseum.com; 561-279-8883