Friday, Jan 25, 2008
By MAURICE A. BARBOZA
TIMES-DISPATCH GUEST COLUMNIST

ALEXANDRIA On Sunday, Virginia will inch closer to appreciating what slaves and free persons did to found the nation. The Sons of the American Revolution will dedicate a plaque at the Old Elam Cemetery in Ruthville to African Americans who served Charles City County in the Revolutionary War. Congress will have more proof that a memorial advocated by their descendants is worthy of a site on the National Mall.

More than 500 black Virginians served on the American side in the Revolutionary War. Slaves served in exchange for promises of freedom. Free blacks sought equality under a new constitution. The SAR believes the national total is as high as 20,000, instead of the 5,000 usually cited by historians.

The history is relevant to race and democracy in the 21st century. Every citizen owes those black patriots an enormous debt for mobilizing the principles of the Declaration of Independence in the pursuit of happiness. Most white immigrants achieved the American dream in two generations, while blacks nine generations later still contend with alienation and disrespect.

AS AN ANCIENT county, and among the first to descend into slavery, Charles City is using its multiracial heritage to unite residents. Judith Ledbetter of the county's History Center is lobbying to create a genealogy program to educate students and determine how many could be descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers. Research among fourth-graders suggests that over 50 percent could be children of the American Revolution -- extraordinary since blacks are 55 percent of the population. Profiles of descendants and a roster of soldiers are posted at the county's Web site (www.charlescity.org ) to aid others in the discovery.

Any black person could be a member of one of America's first families. The bloodlines of millions, including young residents Yolanda, Daysha, Carlton, and Alesha, can be traced to the nation's beginning. Harvard educator Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot is descended from patriot Dixon Brown and soldier James Harris of Charles City County. Profiled on the PBS series, "African-American Lives," her genes are interconnected with residents and others across the U.S.

Twenty-eight years ago, I was warmly welcomed as a member of the SAR. In 1984, the Daughters of the American Revolution admitted my aunt, Lena Santos Ferguson, only after a four-year public feud. Her race was an issue, but so was the "horror" that we share ancestors with white members. The universal longing for liberty binds every African-American to the black patriots as spiritual "descendants." One day Americans of every race will call them ancestors, and each of us brothers and sisters, based upon principles as adhesive as genes.

Ferguson's historic settlement forced the DAR to bar discrimination and undertake the first inventory of black soldiers. A second edition of African-American and American Indian Patriots of the Revolutionary War will augment the fractional 2,000 names already identified seven years ago. Boosted by a national memorial and family activism, their descendants could stretch the SAR and DAR from 60 or so black members to thousands.

MARIA COLES discovered her ancestor in Ferguson's research among the names of North Carolina's black patriots. Dr. Marion Lane's ancestor's name, Sgt. Isaac Brown, is engraved on the local memorial. Both members of the DAR, they and county students and leaders are among scores of black descendants who are honoring their ancestors. Descendants are preserving family homesteads, producing documentaries, writing children's books, lecturing, and bearing witness.

Lane, along with students Yolanda Wade and Daysha Christian, testified in June 2006 before Congress for the National Liberty Memorial Act (www.libertyfunddc.org ) The Virginia Association of Counties and Charles City County urged the governor, the General Assembly, and counties to lend support. Twenty counties have done so, including neighbors Chesterfield, Goochland, Caroline, Amelia, and Brunswick.

America was hewn from the coalescing of a disproportionate level of African-American blood, anguish, and denied promises. Yet some perceive history and hereditary societies as for whites only. Every membership, memorial, commendation, and discovery releases another truth from captivity. In a land where the scent of bondage and renunciation lingers, they corroborate contributions to nationhood that draw us closer to universal respect and a more perfect union.

Maurice A. Barboza is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the founder of National Mall Liberty Fund D.C., an organization seeking to build a memorial on the National Mall in Washington to African-American patriots of the Revolutionary War.