Setting it Straight: Race and Racism, Minority Groups
Reaching back in time to discover and shine a light on events and peoples whose roles in shaping history may be unknown, misunderstood, or misrepresented.
June 28th, 2013
Written by Russell Roberts in Setting It Straight with 0 Comments
We all think we know how Abraham Lincoln felt about slavery. After all, he’s the one who freed the slaves, so he must have hated it.
That’s true, and once Lincoln decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery was a goner. But that’s not the whole story.
Personally, Lincoln always hated slavery. This likely came from his father, Thomas Lincoln, who had moved his family out of Kentucky...
June 27th, 2013
Written by Russell Roberts in Setting It Straight with 0 Comments
History is full of irony, but perhaps nothing is more ironic than this simple fact: African-Americans would have fared better in the short term had the American colonies lost the Revolutionary War – the same war that many blacks served in with distinction to win freedom for whites.
These pages, previously listed African-Americans in the American Revolution but later ignored them despite their...
June 27th, 2013
Written by Russell Roberts in Setting It Straight with 0 Comments
Recently we discussed one of American history’s ironies: If the American colonies had not won their independence, the slaves would have been better off.
Unfortunately, if the Louisiana Purchase, universally hailed as a great event for America, actually hurt African-Americans by perpetuating slavery.
Impossible, you say? Read on…
In 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte, ruler of France, sent an army to...
June 20th, 2013
Written by Jenny Deam in Setting It Straight with 0 Comments
On Feb. 8, 1942, two months and a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 13-year-old Herbert Inouye, his mother, brother, and three others shoved everything they could into a car, truck, and a pick-up and left their homes in Los Angeles. The county sheriff had quietly warned them that they needed to get out of California as quickly as possible. There was racism news from the media and rumors of...
June 12th, 2013
Written by Russell Roberts in Setting It Straight with 0 Comments
In 1789, there appeared a remarkable book entitled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African. The book details the harrowing and heart-breaking account of how a young African boy, kidnapped from his home, and forced into slavery became one of several racial discrimination cases of the era. Fortunately, the story has a happy-ending. Equiano purchased...
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