Thanks to Rev. Jerome Fordham, the new President of the Philadelphia Chapter, National Action Network (NAN), I learned about a very important Bill that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives a month ago. I feel like I should have known about this particular piece of legislation long before now because of course it was a fight to get the legislation passed. It’s a piece of legislation that acknowledges the fact that slavery happened in America.
When Rev. Fordham first reached out to me, I thought to myself, “What do you mean we need to acknowledge that Slavery happened in America?” Sometimes, I guess I’m just too smart for my britches, as my mother used to say. For some reason, I was under the impression that everyone in their right mind knew that slavery existed in America. I further thought that the event Michael Coard, Esq. hosts annually at the Liberty Bell, in part, was an education to folk who didn’t know that the first President of the United States had slaves. George Washington had some of his slaves in the first White House, which was located at 6th and Arch Streets.
The passing of the legislation that Congressman Al Green, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and others pushed for, was bigger even, in my mind, than what the organization ATAC (Avenging the Ancestors Coalition) has been doing for over 20 years now in Philadelphia, every July 4th Holiday weekend; taking nothing away from ATAC because I do appreciate what they do every year at the Liberty Bell pavilion. However, what the lawmakers have done by getting this legislation through the House, is to take Attorney Michael Coard’s observance ten steps further by making it a law that August 20th, forever going forward, will be acknowledged as Slavery Remembrance Day.
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