HAPPY JUNETEENTH 2013!

What is Juneteenth?

June 19th or Juneteenth is the day that we celebrate the de facto end of slavery in the United States of America. Click on the link above to read more about it. Meanwhile, I'll be fixin' my black-eyed peas and rice for my celebration dinner.

And if you wish to learn more about "Africa's Botanical Legacy" in North America, I highly recommend In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World by Judith A. Carney and Richard Nicholas Rosomoff.

HAPPY JUNETEENTH, Y'ALL!

Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid

Clicking on Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid will take you to The Tracing Center's blog post about it. Below is an excerpt:

"First, the raid demonstrated very publicly that black troops were not merely fit as laborers or cannon fodder, but were every bit as capable as their white brethren at executing complex military operations under the most challenging circumstances."

Is anyone surprised that I did not learn about this raid in school? I did learn about Harriet Tubman, the Moses of Her People (as she was called by many), in the 4th grade. Mrs. Green, one of the very first African-American teachers at my elementary school, was the first teacher I had who celebrated Black History Week (now expanded to an entire month) and taught us school children about some of the other stories, the ones not involving straight, white dudes with money and power.