Let's Never Forget

Today in Black History, you should know:

1799
1st President of the U.S., George Washington, dies. At the time of his death he had acquired over 300 slaves to work and maintain his estate at Mount Vernon. In his will, all of his slaves are to be freed upon his wife's death. Whether this truly happened...it's highly unlikely.
As President, Washington brought nine household slaves to the Executive Mansion in Philadelphia. By Pennsylvania law, slaves who resided in the state became legally free after six months. Washington rotated his household slaves between Mount Vernon and Philadelphia so that they did not earn their freedom, a scheme he attempted to keep hidden from his slaves and the public and one which was, in fact, against the law.(cited Wikipedia entry: George Washington)

1829
John Mercer Langston, Esq. was also founder of Howard University Law Department, and is born today as a slave.
He was the first black man in the United States to be elected to public office when in 1855 he was elected as a town clerk in Ohio. Langston was born in Louisa County, Virginia, the son of Ralph Quarles, a white plantation owner, and Lucy Langston, a slave of mixed African and Native American background. Read up on him, ya'll.
1970
Rev. Dr. Miles Mark Fisher, a clergyman, educator, author, humanitarian, and pastor of White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, NC, dies. He received the American Historical Association prize in 1953 for his book "Negro Slave Songs in the United States". He was born in 1899 in Atlanta, GA, and attended Morehouse College.


Because of their blood, sweat and tears...we are here.

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