American History is filled with unbelievable, shocking, and tragic events. These events helped to shape our world. We learn about them in grade school where these extraordinary events can help to break the monotony of history class. Surprisingly, though, these events form a modern example of continued segregation in American culture. Whether a tragedy is studied in school or erased from the history books often depends on the ethnicity of the majority of the people who suffered.
Unfortunately, black history heroes are often reduced to bullet points in history books. That’s bad enough, but then-whole decades of black history will also be reduced to simple bullet points.
Time of Terror
For example, here’s a quote from a high school history book about the violent era that followed the Civil War.
“Shortly after the war ended secret groups formed in the South that tried to keep Africans from having their rights as free persons. Most of those who joined these groups were upset about their War losses and angry about the new rights of former slaves. One such group was the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. Dressed in white robes and hoods, its members delivered nighttime messages of hate. Clan members broke into homes and attacked and killed Africans. They burned African schools and churches. They punished anyone who helped former slaves. It was a time of terror for many people.”
I read that and I’m like really, …. Really. That’s all?
“It was a time of terror for many people.”
That’s a bullet point. That’s NOT a history lesson.
So, let me get this right, with the Revolutionary War, we get detailed sections about Colonial Life, the Stamp Act, the Boston Tea Party, Taxes and boycotts on British goods. We even get a myth about George Washington and a cherry tree. However, the whole section on the violence that followed the Civil War is summed up in only two paragraphs!?!?! That’s not even a good job of making bullet points. There is not even a specific mention of the,
- New Orleans Massacre
- The Opelousas Massacre
- The Colfax Massacre
- The Elaine Massacre
- The Chicago Riot
- The East Saint Louis Massacre
- Rosewood Massacre
- The Memphis Massacre
- The Charleston Massacre
- The Tulsa Massacre
- The Hamburg Massacre
- The Slocum Massacre
- The Springfield Massacre
- The Ellenton Massacre
- The Camilla Massacre
- The Atlanta Massacre
- The Saint Bernard Parish Massacre
- The Wilmington Massacre
There are more, but that’s a simple bullet point list.
Selective Remembrance of History
Most people have heard of very few of the attacks I just listed, but most people have heard of the Boston Massacre. The majority of the people who suffered are of a different demographic.
March 5, 1770, American protestors had a conflict with British soldiers. Those soldiers were acting in the police role of law enforcement. They were there to protect and serve British Government Officials and enforce the law.
The Americans, however, did not comply with the commands of law enforcement and so the British opened fire. They killed five men. Of the dead, was a Freedman and street protester by the name of Crispus Attucks. Americans, at that time, were outraged that law enforcement would shoot and kill Americans in the streets. Two soldiers were convicted of manslaughter. Across the nation, patriots gathered and demanded freedom from the tyranny of an oppressive government. The incident was nicknamed the Boston Massacre and was publicized in every newspaper. March 5, was declared “Massacre Day” as a day of mourning. It was an official holiday for 13 years. In 1783, Massacre Day was joined with the Fourth of July to honor the Declaration of Independence, which had been declared a few years earlier on the fourth of July, 1776.
Cant’ Have it Both Ways
Now consider, 100 years later, July 4, 1876, Patriotic Black Americans in the South Carolina National Guard practiced their marching drills on the Nation’s first centennial birthday in the city of Hamburg, South Carolina. Two white men disrupted the parade by riding down the street in the opposite direction. They were angered that Black Americans would celebrate Independence Day. Today, people, like “Colin” Kaepernick, are ridiculed for refusing to stand for the flag during patriotic displays, but few people realize that at one time, Blacks were attacked for making patriotic displays. For the lawless people of Hamburg, South Carolina, Independence Day was to be a day of patriotic freedom for white people only. Despite the fact that Crispus Attucks, a Black man, was killed in the first violence of the American Revolution, they did not want Blacks to enjoy the freedoms won in the American Revolution.
The Guard’s Captain, a former slave and Union army veteran named Doc Adams halted the parade to allow the white men through. Those white men contacted a prominent former Confederate General for a lawyer and filed charges that the public road was obstructed. The former Confederate General demanded that all weapons be seized from the South Carolina National Guard. When they refused, a mob of more than 100 gathered. The mob grew to 800 armed men with 30 horsemen and attacked opening for on less than 40 National Guard soldiers. The soldiers returned fire from the hall that they used for an Armory, killing a White man in the mob.
American Terrorists
Additional weapons and a cannon were brought in from Augusta and was used to blow a hole in the walls of the armory. Captain Adams helped his men to escape by crawling underneath houses. Unfortunately, his men were split up. Lieutenant Attaway and several others did not escape but hid inside several buildings. They were discovered by the mob and executed in what the mob called a Dead Ring. The mob stole items off of the dead men looted their houses and destroyed what they didn’t steal. Black civilians were dragged out of their homes and murdered. At least six black men were killed.
The attack was intended to disrupt the black community to scatter its leadership ahead of the election. The civilians killed were political leaders. White supremacists seized control of the government. While the Boston Massacre saw two convictions, the Hamburg Massacre saw 87 whites charged criminally, but not a single person ever came to trial. Instead of being brought to trial, the criminals were honored by the new government.
The new State government eventually erected a 21 foot tall stone obelisk to honor the one white man killed in the Hamburg assault. That statue remains in Calhoun Park of North Augusta. It clearly promotes white supremacy with the inscription, “In life, he exemplified the highest ideal of Anglo-Saxon civilization. By his death, he assured the children of his beloved land the supremacy of that ideal.” By the way, Calhoun Park is named after John C. Calhoun, a strong believer in enslavement who heavily influenced South Carolina to secede from the Union.
July 28, 2014, an article called Take a Trip to Calhoun Park, posted by the North Augusta Star,
says, “The obelisk monument is in honor of McKie Merriwether, the only resident of the old town of Hamburg who was killed in the Hamburg riot of 1876.”
The ONLY Resident killed!?!?! Unbelievable!!!
Never Forget
In 2016, a historical marker was erected that finally mentions the six black men killed, BUT it also lists the white supremacist terrorist in a place of honor alongside the victims of the mob that died that day.
Never Forget the Patriots who died that day. Their names are Lieutenant Allen Attaway, Marshall Jim Cook, Albert Myniart, Nelder Parker, Moses Parks, David Phillips, and Hampton Stephens, a civilian who was taken out of his own home and murdered. Myniart and Stephens were murdered because they were political activists.
Never Forget that Southern Confederates were not patriots. They loved oppression more than America. They fought against the United States, murdering National Guard members for an Independence Day parade. They wanted Black Americans to believe that we have no reason to celebrate the Fourth of July.
Never forget that Crispus Attucks, a Freedman, believed that the American Revolution included freedoms for him. He believed that America was his nation too and he died for that belief in the Boston Massacre. Black people have fought and died in every war ever since. We built America and have never fought against her.
Also, never forget that the Hamburg Massacre was more bloody, more brazen, and more focused on subjugation than the Boston Massacre. It was committed by Southern Conservative Americans on Black Americans to prevent Black patriotism, subdue Black voting, and take away gun rights, even from the National Guard.
Never forget that your history books are segregated. History may be presented that includes a Black man, like Crispus Attucks in the Boston Massacre, but history will also be excluded from that which centers on Black men, like those that died in the Hamburg Massacre. You’ve got to research your own history because unfortunately our history books often skip important events and themes.
With 911 we say Never Forget. Texans say Remember the Alamo. At Pearl Harbor, a sign reads WE WILL never forget. As Americans, it’s important not to forget the events that shaped our world, but let’s not segregate history. WE WILL NEVER FORGET the experiences in the days and lives of the Freedmen.
WHAT IS FREEDMEN’S UNIVERSITY PODCAST?
We explore Black Christian History through the life, views, and experiences of the Freedmen.
