2005-02-01
AMERICAN HISTORY
Although he was one of the first to die for the young nation known as the United States the African born former slave Crispus Atticus never got depicted in Paul Revere's 
famous engraving of the Boston Massacre of 1774 | Atticus was among the twelve martyrs of the revolution, and his grave is the site of a historic monument today | Interred in the Granary Burying Grounds in Boston, Atticus' headstone is shared with the names of five other people, and set back somewhat from the more prominent stone of John Adams |
Given the ambivalent response that American Leadership has, over time, given to race and the history of different races in the nation this ought to be no surprise | Disappointing, to say the least, but changing this attitude won't go away by ignoring it | So it seems fitting, perhaps, to open the month of February [African-American History Month] with a brief tribute to one of the nation's first martyrs |
Although he was one of the first to die for the young nation known as the United States the African born former slave Crispus Atticus never got depicted in Paul Revere's famous engraving of the Boston Massacre of 1774 | Atticus was among the twelve martyrs of the revolution, and his grave is the site of a historic monument today | Interred in the Granary Burying Grounds in Boston, Atticus' headstone is shared with the names of five other people, and set back somewhat from the more prominent stone of John Adams |
Given the ambivalent response that American Leadership has, over time, given to race and the history of different races in the nation this ought to be no surprise | Disappointing, to say the least, but changing this attitude won't go away by ignoring it | So it seems fitting, perhaps, to open the month of February [African-American History Month] with a brief tribute to one of the nation's first martyrs |
African American History, that is, the history of North America, would not be complete without at least some mention of the Canadian Experience | Black Loyalists is a helpful starting point |
¶ 22:41
