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FREEDMAN'S
BANK RECORDS
by Chris Haley
The audience awaited a major
African American genealogical announcement regarding the Freedman's Bank
records. The charcoal brown cd/cassette player clicked on and those assembled
in the packed National Press Club on Monday, February 26, were surrounded
by the rolling music of thrashing waves and the ceaseless pounding of cool
rain. The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints arranged the press
conference to publicize the completion of an 11 year project to digitize
and make available on CD over 480,000 documents. The Freedman's Bank deposit
records of former slaves and Black military veterans contain information
"documenting three generations
of slavery which gives their descendants, an estimated eight to 10 million
African Americans, precious clues to their past." The Church of Jesus Christ
engaged the assistance of approximately 550 inmates of the Utah State Prison,
South Point Correctional Facility, who volunteered their time to extract,
link, and automate the records from microfilm.
Among those in attendance
at the press conference were Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, Nevada Senator Harry
Reid, Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, DC
Delegate Eleanor Holmes
Norton, various media representatives and invited guests. The announcement
was linked via satellite to the Latter Day Saint's facility in Salt Lake
City.
It was the Reverend Wintley
Phipps who brought the stereo for his vocal accompaniment. He rose to the
podium and stated that because Blacks weren't usually given access to the
best keyboards "any |
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Negro
spiritual can be played by just hitting the black keys." Over the weary
sea sounds, he soared forth a powerful rendition of the European spiritual,
Amazing
Grace. "This is the sound [African Americans] would have heard while
being transported on slave ships to America."
Congresswoman Lee was presented
with an impressive wooden framed memorial plaque in honor of the occasion
and her status as a leading African American member of Congress. She spoke
of the need "to be spiritually grounded" and heralded this event as "a
genealogical day that we walk for freedom…." Native Washingtonian, Delegate
Norton, was also tremendously moved at the content of the Freedman's Bank
CD. Beaming, she disclosed to the audience, " I am a fourth
generation Washingtonian….
I looked into the CD and found my great great grandfather, Richard Holmes!"
She was especially impressed that the records included details as specific
as "…He was very dark." Holmes recalled that there are many Richards in
her family tree and they are, indeed, dark. "There was a time when even
our own people had to come to terms with that, but I think we're doing
better now."
Represented by his son at
the Salt Lake City conference, Alex Haley's contribution to genealogical
history was mentioned by various speakers. Representing the Kunta Kinte-Alex
Haley Foundation and the Maryland State Archives, I congratulated the Church
of Latter Day Saints on their accomplishment and expressed a wish to share
a spiritual hug from the direct descendant of Kunta Kinte to the direct
descendant of Richard Holmes. All smiled and applauded as this bond was
made.
(continued
on Page 2)
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