It's possible that some forum members would want to see the message (below 
the dashed line) that I've circulated widely concerning Henry Louis Gates's 
new essay about Juneteenth, the June 19th commemoration of the end of 
slavery. His essay perpetuates the vaguely racist myth that emancipation 
came about only because powerful white men belatedly deigned to begin doing 
what America's own founding principles had been commanding for well more 
than four score years--when in fact, as Eric Foner and other historians 
stress, the first actual, active impetus to transform the Civil War into a 
struggle for freedom came entirely and solely from enslaved Black people. 
Acting bravely and on their own initiative, it was they who forced 
emancipation onto the nation's agenda. The persisting sesquicentennial 
obtuseness on this fundamental point facilitates Virginia's leaders' Fort 
Monroe dereliction. Thanks.
Steve Corneliussen
P.S. A national organization, the National Parks Conservation Association, 
has laudably if tardily joined the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot in calling for 
unification of the split national monument at Fort Monroe. Unification would 
save Fort Monroe's sense of place and end the developer-kowtowing 
politicians' dereliction. Please see 
https://secure.npca.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=1087&autologin=true&AddInterest=1084&JServSessionIdr004=ewq939lmr3.app331b 
(Unfortunately, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, picking its 
battles in a political realm dominated by Big Money, continues its eight 
years of living down from its name in the matter of Fort Monroe.)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

At The Root, the Washington Post’s online magazine for Black American 
culture, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has posted the essay “What is 
Juneteenth?” (www.theroot.com/views/what-juneteenth) In my view everyone who 
wants to save the sense of place at Fort Monroe should join the online 
discussion beneath his essay. Below in this message, I’ve posted a copy of 
my own comment. I hope people reply to it, and I hope people click “Like” 
for my comment and for others that might appear. Thanks.
Steven T. Corneliussen
[log in to unmask]
http://www.fortmonroenationalpark.org/

Online comment that I hope others will build on:

I find it astonishing that Henry Louis Gates Jr., of all the leading 
thinkers on this planet, could write this otherwise fine and informative 
essay without paying substantial respect to "How Slavery Really Ended in 
America," as it was termed in the headline on Adam Goodheart's April 2011 
New York Times Sunday magazine article. 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03CivilWar-t.html)

That is, I'm flabbergasted that Professor Gates implicitly perpetuates the 
vaguely racist myth that emancipation came about only because powerful white 
men belatedly deigned to begin doing what America's own founding principles 
had been commanding for well more than four score years. In fact, as Eric 
Foner and other historians stress, the first impetus to transform the Civil 
War into a struggle for freedom came entirely from Black people, who, acting 
bravely and on their own initiative, forced emancipation onto the nation's 
agenda.

The professor lists possible dates for civic memory of the ending of the 
filthy obscenity of slavery, but he never mentions the one cited to start 
Goodheart's opening paragraph, which said: "On May 23, 1861, little more 
than a month into the Civil War, three young black men rowed across the 
James River in Virginia and claimed asylum in a Union-held citadel. Fort 
Monroe, Va., a fishhook-shaped spit of land near the mouth of the Chesapeake 
Bay, had been a military post since the time of the first Jamestown 
settlers. This spot where the slaves took refuge was also, by remarkable 
coincidence, the spot where slavery first took root, one summer day in 1619, 
when a Dutch ship landed with some 20 African captives for the fledgling 
Virginia Colony."

Here's why I'm not just astonished: Thanks in large part to the gross civic 
irresponsibility and nonfeasance of, for example, President Bill Harvey of 
Hampton University--an institution that, ironically, grew directly from the 
events of that May 23 next door at Fort Monroe--the sense of place at the 
national treasure of Fort Monroe is being sacrificed to special interests. 
(It's billion-dollar waterfront; developers salivate at tsunami scale.) That 
means sacrifice of America's principal historic landscape when it comes to 
celebrating Blacks' pressing of history itself, beginning in 1861.

You can't properly or decently remember, commemorate or celebrate Juneteenth 
without paying decent, highlighted respect to this under-recognized 
history--under-recognized because we still, all of us, even in 2013, haven't 
fully understood how much we tend to legitimize and accept as routine the 
national crime of slavery.

This crucial history is _not_ just about powerful white men emancipating 
enslaved Americans. It is also--and in the view of many, it is 
primarily--about African Americans who self-emancipated.

It's all explained--and visually illustrated in a quick glance (see the area 
marked in red)--at the Web site http://www.fortmonroenationalpark.org/ . In 
particular I recommend that interested readers find the link to an op-ed I 
was privileged to co-author with the leader of Virginia's Juneteenth 
movement, Sheri Bailey. Look for the line that says "Read a Virginian-Pilot 
op-ed telling why May 23, 1861--not May 24--started 'the greatest moment in 
American history.'”

Fort Monroe, with its profound Juneteenth resonance, is the only political 
issue with thousand-year implications during the Civil War sesquicentennial. 
We are about to lose the sense of place at this precious historic landscape 
where Black Americans were not the mere victims of enslavement, but instead 
were primary agents of its destruction. Henry Louis Gates, of all the 
thinkers on this planet, should be paying close attention, and should be 
helping those of us who are seeking national focus on Virginia's shameful 
squandering of this treasure of civic memory--this treasure in the history 
of liberty itself.

Want to celebrate Juneteenth? Help Virginians--the ones who don't kowtow to 
Big Money--save Fort Monroe! Thanks.

Steven T. Corneliussen, [log in to unmask] 

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