Black history now required reading in N.J. schools
Ceremonies celebrate bill mandating African-American studies
Thursday, August 29, 2002
BY REGINALD ROBERTS Star-Ledger Staff
After a day of ceremonies, Gov. James E. McGreevey signed into law yesterday a bill that requires that African-American history be incorporated into the core curriculum of New Jersey's public schools.
The legislation establishes a 19-member panel known as the Amistad Commission, whose members will include New Jersey's secretary of state, education commissioner and the chairman of the executive board of the President's Council. The commission will approve textbooks that accurately portray the role of African-Americans in U.S. history.
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My Response: Dear Editor,
With Black History now a mandated part of History, I would like to suggest two topics the teachers might delve into.
One is the story of how Alex haley plagiarised his famous book, ROOTS.
In 1978 in a TN court, Alex Haley, in an out-of-court settlement ended a plagiarism suit. Harold Courlander sued Haley for plagiarism, citing 81 passages of "Roots" lifted from his book. Haley settled out of court for $750,000, and Haley died a pauper. Haley also apologized to the offended writer, Harold Courlander, who contended Haley had passages from Courlander's 1967 novel The African, published nine years before Haley's book Roots. Haley blamed friends who did his research for him and who sent him the passages when he was writing his book. The tip off was, according to Courlander, a "field call" which appeared in Roots, which was also in The African, "Yooo-hooo-ah-hoo, don't you hear me calling you?" Haley's reputation in literary circles plummeted, never to rise again, regardless of his close association with Lamar Alexander.
Next, is slavery, the bit of "history" meant to lay a guilt trip on the white people. The concept of someone owning a slave for life began with a poor indentured servant named John Casor, whose indenture to Anthony Johnson had expired, but Johnson insisted Casor was his for his natural life.
Casor brought the matter to court, and in 1665, a Northumberland court in the Virginia Colony held in favor of Johnson, which started the demand for slaves who were systematically rounded up for sale by their fellow Africans. Both litigants were black Africans. This very interesting bit of history can be found in your local library in the FEB/MAR 1993 edition of AMERICAN HERITAGE Magazine, Vol. 441.
The article, SELLING POOR STEVEN, also deals with the U.S. Census of 1830 which showed that 3,775 Free Negro's owned 12,760 slaves. Some women owned their husbands (You've come a long way, baby?), and vice versa. 25% of the free Negro's in New Orleans were slave owners. Free Negro parents sold their children into slavery for profit.
The book FREE NEGRO OWNERS OF SLAVES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1830, by Carter G. Woodson, a Negro historian, is an excellent source of information on this subject. Free Negro's owned slaves in most of the States, including NJ.
Among them were Sizar Green, Bergen Co., Silas Stout, Richard Van Horn, Hernry Messalier, Thomas Sip, and John Dunn of Essex; Thomas Morris, and Robert Bowan of Burlington Co.; Hercules and Isaac Holmes, and Nean Wooley, of Monmouth Co.; Jacob Cutler and Cato Linn of Morriss Co., and James Hulics, Perry Huchins, and Phyllis Duncan of Hunterdon Co..
The names of the slave owners, and their slaves are printed, listed by state. There is among them a George Washington of the Georgetown section of Washington DC. This book is available at our public libraries, but by request only. It takes a few weeks to get it.
Why are these facts not brought to light by our educators?
Ed Toner
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