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POLITICS AS USUALRumor Sparks Fresh Research About Lady Liberty
Special Correspondent: David Emery
RUMORS have prompted new research into the origins of the Statue of Liberty,
American's 151-foot-tall monument to freedom erected in New York Harbor
in 1886. The traditional view, as taught to American schoolchildren for
the past hundred years, holds that Lady Liberty was created to commemorate the friendship forged between the United States and France during the Revolutionary War. By 1903, when the statue was inscribed with Emma Lazarus's
poetic words, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free," it had come to symbolize America's status as a
safe haven for refugees and immigrants from every corner of the world.
The
online rumors, which have circulated in various forms for the past
decade and served as the direct inspiration for National Park Service
anthropologist Rebecca Joseph's decision to revisit the Statue of Liberty's past, tell quite a different story.
"It
is hard to believe that after my many years of schooling secondary and
post, the following facts about the Statue of Liberty was never taught.
Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people including myself have
visited the Statue of Liberty over the years but yet I'm unable to find
one person who knows the true history behind the Statue- amazing. Yes,
amazing that so much important Black history (such as this) is hidden
from us (Black and White). What makes this even worse is the fact that
the current twist on history perpetuates and promotes white supremacy at
the expense of Black Pride," expressed Joseph.
During
my visit to France I saw the original Statue of Liberty. However there
was a difference, the statue in France is Black. The Statue of Liberty
was originally a Black woman, but, as memory serves, it was because the
model was Black. And in a book called The Journey of The Songhai People, according to Dr. Jim Haskins, a member of the National Education Advisory Committee of the Liberty-Ellis Island Committee,
professor of English at the University of Florida, and prolific Black
author, points out that what stimulated the original idea for that 151
foot statue in the harbor.
He
says that what stimulated the idea for the creation of the statue
initially was the part that Black soldiers played in the ending of Black
African bondage in the United States. It was created in the mind of the
French historian Edourd de Laboulaye, chairman of the French Anti-Slavery Society, who, together with sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, proposed to the French government that the people of France present to the people of the United States through the American Abolitionist Society, the gift of a Statue of Liberty in recognition of the fact that Black soldiers won the Civil War in the United States.
It
was widely known then that it was Black soldiers who played the pivotal
role in winning the war, and this gift would be a tribute to their
prowess. Suzanne Nakasian, director of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Foundations' National Ethnic Campaign said that the Black Americans' direct connection to Lady Liberty is unknown to the majority of Americans, BLACK or WHITE.
When
the statue was presented to the U.S. Minister to France in 1884, it is
said that he remonstrated that the dominant view of the broken hackles
would be offensive to a U.S. South, because since the statue was a
reminder of Blacks winning their freedom. It was a reminder to a beaten
South of the ones who caused their defeat, their despised former
captives.
In
early 1998, the Statue of Liberty National Monument staff began
receiving inquiries about rumors that the Statue of Liberty was
originally meant to be a monument to the end of slavery in America at
the end of the Civil War. In response, the Monument's Superintendent
launched an intensive, two-year investigation of the rumors and the
truth about the statue's early history.
Following
the conclusions and recommendations for further research, the Statue of
Liberty was conceived at a dinner party in 1865 at the home of
Laboulaye following the death of President Lincoln.
Edouard and Auguste were well-known French abolitionists who proposed
the monument to recognize the critical roles played by black soldiers in
the Civil War. The original model for the Statue of Liberty was a black
woman, but the design was changed to appease white Americans who would
not accept an African-American Liberty.
Although
African Americans played no active role in the statue's conception or
design, they contributed to the main fund-raising drive for the statue’s
pedestal, participated in public celebrations during its dedication in
New York City, and conducted their own celebrations at that time as
well. African American newspapers throughout the country covered those
events extensively. Yet for black Americans the Statue of Liberty has
also long symbolized America's failure to protect their civil rights.
Did You Know?
Statue of Liberty's feet and broken chains Freedom is not standing
still. A symbolic feature that people cannot see is the broken chain
wrapped around the Statue's feet. Protruding from the bottom of her
robe, the broken chains symbolize her free forward movement,
enlightening the world with her torch free from oppression and
servitude.
You
may go and see the original model of the Statue of Liberty, with the
broken chains at her feet and in her left hand at the Museum of the City
of NY on Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street. You can also check with the N.Y. Times magazine, part II, May 18, 1986. Read the article by Laboulaye.
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