The Campanis Incident

It was April 15, 1987 when both local South Pasadena newspapers published in "Letters to the Editor" an outspoken statement in reaction to a recent interview of Al Campanis, former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. The interview was conducted by the very popular and well respected news commentator, Ted Koppel, during his April 6, 1987 Nightline show. The interview was to look at the career of Jackie Robinson and give Robinson props for his achievements.

The question from Koppel to Campanis that was the basis of the outroar was, "Why are there no Black managers, no Black General Mangers, no Black owners? . . ." Campanis' response sparked controversy and outcry. Two pivotal quotes from that interview were: ". . . [they are] "highly intelligent, but they may not have the desire to be in the front office." He said, "I know that they have wanted to manage and some of them have managed, but they're outstanding athletes, very God-gifted, and they're very wonderful people, . . .", and “They may not have some of the necessities.”

There needed to be a public response to the Campanis interview. That need resulted in my writing and submitting a Letter to the Editor of both the South Pasadena newspapers, The South Pasadena Review and The South Pasadena Journal. Both papers published the letter verbatim (not edited in any way) in their April 15, 1987 editions. The only difference between the two publications was the heading for the letter and the paragraph breaks. The Review headed it as "Campanis Fiasco: Why Minorities Must Excel" while The Journal headed the letter as "Campanis comments unfortunate".

The letter is re-published here and reads:

[To The] Editor:

The comments of Al Campanis on Monday night were indeed unfortunate for the Dodger company.

Alas, his comments rang true in the hearts and minds of many Americans. Nigrahs, Negroes, people of color, colored, blacks are all names that have been given to those whose skin pigmentation has more tan than others of the human race. Which is exactly what we are, people and members of the collective hman race.

Our wants, desires, ambitions, motivations are identical to those of any other person of similar circumstances whose pigmentation is different from ours.

Economic security, quality education for our children, attractive and comfortable housing, opportunity for advancement, concern for our community and its growth, career (and I must emphasize "career") challenge are all elements which constitute the ladders of our hierarchy of needs as Maslow has defined such.

But our needs exceed these. They extend also into, as they did in 1950, 1966, 1979 and even 1987 (and will be in 1995 and beyond) the need to be accepted on our own merits as people. People who are capable of reasoning out complex problems of society, medicine, law, decorating, music and the arts, as well as sports.

The time for our being subservient in fact and in the minds of others and ourselves has passed. Although the race riots and freedom marches of the 1960s did much for progress in acceptance of blacks, it was and is minimal at best.

The fervor and fever have waned dismally. Acceptance has been slow to take root. Many of those roots have withered and died. The older, deeper roots of the past, of ignorance and fear and mistrust, of the bar against opportunity for proving oneself, of nonadmittance and exclusion, are still alive and growing deeper.

The duty of each and every black and each and every minority member is to strive to prove that our color, the clip of our speech, or the slant of our eyes is not fundamental to our performance or lack of performance.

Nor are these external elements part of our motivation to improve and be a vital part of our environment. Rather, they are a complement and compliment to those very things.

Actually, they are the reasons why in the past we have worked so hard. They are the reasons why in the future we will work even harder to do a superlative job of whatever we dedicate ourselves to.

Very truly yours,
YVONNE LA ROSE

Justifications of Slavery

A few days ago there was a FB post from someone relating to the historic instances of slavery that stretch not only through time but also cultures and civilizations. The person making the post even justified the institution of slavery based on its discussion in the Bible.

I don't remember what day I read that post. I didn't log a reaction nor comment on it so it's not possible to easily find it again. I don't remember who made the post. I just remember the words and some of the arguments and the dismay it caused me.

My internal arguments with the reasoning grew, line by line. So while the recollection is still burning a hole in my consciousness, let me share a few of my reactions and counter arguments here. I hope they will be enlightening.

Yes, slavery has existed throughout time. It was a way of treating those who were part of the vanquished civilization. Being put into slavery was a means of belittling the survivors of the battles and reminding them (and their progeny) that they were not the superiors. It was, thus, necessary to serve the conquerors and be lowered in the social strata. They had to obey all orders or face brutality or death - or both. Many lost their status in humanity; they were treated as non-human, like herd animals as well as sources of gratification.

When slavery came to the Americas, the kidnapped souls were not even considered citizens of their place of transplant. They were merely merchandise.

The states of the new country (United States) began to enact laws that tended to disenfranchise those who were part of the African Diaspora, as well as the Native Americans. They began to be treated in similar fashion. The laws determined how one was allowed to dress and allowable movement [in both North and South Carolina], what one's lineage was (as a determinant of racial classification and status [see Virginia 1662]). The laws set forth whether neighborhood schools were accessible to the entire population or whether education was even allowed. Some laws forbade doing business with those of the diaspora. And then there were the fugitive laws.

Voting rights were determined by not only those laws but also based on whether one owned land. Voting, you see, was a privilege that was not even available to women until the Amendments of 1964 and 1965.

Perhaps the Facebook commenter's words were part of a response to the current outcry about police brutality. That also has its roots in our history from the slave patrols of 1790 South Carolina. It became a standard. It became the seed for police brutality and excessive force. It seems to have also been the seed for the formation of the Ku Klux Klan's activities.

So to those who attempt to justify slavery, please become aware that slavery - no matter when it occurred or to what culture it affected - was a matter of being subjugated in addition to justification for being treated in an inhumane manner. It became a lifestyle because open objection or refusal to obey was treated with punishment - or death. You see, slaves were quite fungible. Just as we, today, think nothing of what is now called "white privilege" and is taught to young, tender ages as social custom (and merely the way social standards are recognized) is not about privilege but about creating and maintaining an atmosphere of "us" and "them" as well as justification for exclusion.

As to slavery being mentioned in the Bible, even Christ spoke of inhumane treatment and counseled slave owners to be civil with their servants. Also in the Bible we are told slaves had options to buy their freedom or earn it after a period of years. They were not necessarily slaves from the moment of conception until death.

You May Want to Visit:

• Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present
• In Honor of Black History Month 2018
• The Consulant's Desk
• Yvonne LaRose on HR.com

American Negroes and Slavery

Many live very comfortably with the impression that the American Negro race was introduced to the country via slavery and that is the race heritage. It is commonly believed that none of that race ever knew living in this country as a free person was ever a status until the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. As patronizing and comfortable as that concept is for developing excuses to treat those identified as American Negro (also called African American, colored, and Black) as the pitiful children of Cain, it is not true.

Introduction of Free Men

Research related to producing a month-long Black History Month observance led to exploring the timelines available on BlackPast.org. They begin tracing the history of migrants from Africa back to 1492. Yes, Columbus' journey to the New World. His ship carried not people stolen from their homes for the purpose of creating a workforce of slaves. Instead, these Africans were part of his crew. Furthermore, they did not land in what we call America. They landed in Hispanola or the Dominican Republic. The purpose of Columbus' journey was to open a new industry of plantation slavery.

The next point in time wherein Africans enter the continent is in 1513 when thirty men accompany Balboa on his quest to the Pacific and land in Panama.

We learn of the first free Africans to arrive in the United States in 1540. The expedition of de Soto lost one of its African members when he decided not to return with de Soto. Instead, he remained in the Mississippi River Valley and made his home with the Indians who lived there. The expeditions of Coronado and Alarcon into the New Mexico territory of 1540 also had free Africans among the team of explorers.

And then there's Saint Augustine, Florida where in 1565 a company of African farmers and artisans helped found the city during de Avila's exploration of the territory.

The name Isabel de Olvera may not be one of the better-known in history but her steps in protecting her status as a free woman before making the journey to the New Mexico territory in the de Resa expedition of 1598 is worth noting. Perhaps this was the first time documents relating to one's identity and status was used in the continent. She petitioned for a certified declaration to prove that she was a free women, meaning she was not a slave nor was she bound by the restrictions of marriage.

There is some controversy about Mathieu da Costa, a free Black explorer and interpreter who guided the French through parts of Canada, Lake Champlain, and Nova Scotia during the period of 1603 to 1607.

Jan Rodriquez was a free sailor who was assigned to live and trade with the Native Americans who occupied Manhattan Island in 1613. His employer was a Dutch fur trading company.

William Tucker set a precedent in 1624 by being the first free "African American" child born in the English colonies and be baptized.

Matthias de Sousa was the only Black person to serve in the Maryland legislature in 1641. Before his tenure in the legislature, it is noted that he voted many times. This is a halcyon accomplishment because suffrage for Blacks became encumbered and then banned as time progressed. He arrived in Maryland as an indentured servant to a Jesuit priest. Once he'd worked off his debt, he turned to fur trading.

Black Slave Owners

What may have been the motive behind Anthony Johnson's setting a precedent in 1651 for free Black men to import enslaved Africans is not clear. Perhaps it was being given a tract of land in exchange for the number of slaves who were owned. What is notable is that four years later one of his slaves escaped and Johnson sued for and won the slave's return. The court had previously considered the slave an indentured servant and felt it had no jurisdiction in the matter.

The Developing Industry

The above chronology intentionally omits the instances when intentional importation of kidnapped Africans to the Americas. The reason is to minimize the confusion about what was happening in the new land. The other reason for the distinction is to highlight the two instances of immigration people and their status. To be sure, importation of slaves began in 1625 in the colony of New York. They became what is now considered the first municipal workers.

A Mixed History

Arriving in this new land held options for the new inhabitants. You could arrive as a free person, without regard to race, or you could arrive as an indentured servant. Once your debt was worked off, you became a person free of the debt that brought you to the land. Or you could arrive as one who was enslaved.

What's interesting to learn as one pores through the timelines is that those who were already occupying the land, the Native Americans, became enslaved and treated in a manner similar to the Africans who were imported as slaves. To be certain, there were also Whites who were treated as slaves, not indentured servants. But the details of the White slaves is not provided in BlackPast.org's accounts.

There comes a time when the lines of demarcation begin to blur as civil rights deteriorate. Eventually, being Black become synonymous with being a slave and of slave heritage.

What a checkered history we've woven for ourselves. It appears Carter Woodson very definitely saw the need for an education about Negro history so that those of the race could become empowered and those who are not of the race could become better informed and aware.

More Reading

• By Carter Godwin Woodson: The Mis-Education of the Negro
• War Comes to Willy Freeman (Arabus Family Saga (Paperback))

Identifying with Pressures - Dido Belle and Mary Seacole

As I prepare to write my sermon for Sunday and the last presentations for Black History Month in 2010, the research is still necessary and progresses. I've shared the return to this plateau of public speaking with my historical novel writers group. In doing so, I've requested input from those who do American re-enactments and those in other countries in regard to the American race experience, especially in regard to the Negro or Black, from their perspectives as re-enacters or natives of other lands looking to America and reacting to its circumstances.

One group member who is in New Zealand shared three names with me. So far, I've only been able to read about the two women, Dido Belle and Mary Seacole. Although Dido experienced extremely similar situations and acceptance with her family as I experience here at The Alhambra, the assisted living and retirement community where I currently reside, it is the impressions expressed by Mary Seacole that evidence how I am feeling at this point in time.

The history expresses:

Later that year Mary followed her brother Edward to the Isthmus of Panama where her medical skills were soon needed for an outbreak of cholera. She also set up a hotel for travellers selling food and medical provisions mainly to the English and the Americans passing through. It was here that Mary had her first experience of the slaves of America and was deeply affected by their treatment.

In 1854 the Crimean war broke out and Mary realised that her skills could be of great help to the soldiers on the front line. She went once again to England and applied to the war office and several other bodies to be sent to the Crimea. She came well armed with excellent references from the many distinguished officers she had helped and worked with over the years but to no avail. Mary began to feel that her colour was hindering her chances.

'I was so conscious of the unselfishness of the motives which induced me to leave England - so certain of the service I could render among the sick soldiery, and yet I found it so difficult to convince others of these facts. Doubts and suspicions arose in my heart for the first and last time, thank heaven. Was it possible that American prejudices against colour had some root here? Did these ladies shrink from accepting my aid because my blood flowed beneath a somewhat duskier skin than theirs? Tears streamed down my foolish cheeks, as I stood in the fast thinning streets; tears of grief that any should doubt my motives.'

Mary was not so easily deterred. Unable to secure a position from the war office, or any other English establishment, she used her own funds to make her way to the Crimea. There she established her own British Hotel and spent the rest of the war tending to the wounded and the sick and providing decent food and shelter to those most in need.

Her words embolden me.

Political Reform Revisited

The dynamics leading up to repeal of the new Healthcare Reform bill have been interesting to observe. Being one who is fascinated by the lessons we can learn from history, it wasn't difficult to see many parallels between Reconstruction Congress and the destructiveness of the current and last one.

In case something was being misinterpreted and twisted from reality, I decided to review some of my Black History materials and compare them with what can be found on the web in regard to the U.S. Congress from the 1860s, also known as the Reconstruction Congress.

The focus is on the newly-installed Black members of this august body. My recollection is that while all 31 Representatives and two Senators were very well educated and capable men, they faced inordinate obstacles to doing their actual work because their challenges were sometimes not so subtle maneuverings to unseat them due to their race. Not to trust memory to this very important issue, I went to Google which pointed me to Wikipedia. My recollection was correct.

There was only one member of the Congress who was also a non-slave electee who seems to have avoided the vitriol. Otherwise, all suffered some type of distraction from their stated duties that essentially tore them away from their jobs, led to Jim Crow, and made them less effective than we (as the country of electors) would have wanted. How similar this state of affairs seems to be to our current Congress and the last session as bi-partisan politics fueled getting Black representatives' having aspersions cast their way to discredit their character and therefore diminish legislation and representation that they backed.

The saying is, "History repeats itself." Perhaps that is why the Healthcare Reform Bill is being dismantled by both parts of the Congress and I struggle to preserve these thoughts. Does this act of destruction (under the guise of insufficiency) portend the removal of Obama and the restoration of a Reganesque/Bush-like administration? And does this mean it will take yet another 100 years to gain any meaningful inroads for those who are American, whether naturalized or natural, to receive any of the fruits of the American Promise?

The Forensic Reconstruction of George Washington, Part 1

Here's another post by guest blogger, Suzanne Adair

How is it possible to forensically create an accurate, life-sized figure of someone long dead without having access to the deceased's bones? The traveling museum exhibit, "Discover the Real George Washington: New Views from Mount Vernon," features three life-sized figures of George Washington at the ages of 19, 45, and 57. To create these figures for the exhibit without exhuming Washington, the folks at Mount Vernon sought the expertise of Dr. Jeffrey H. Schwartz, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Pittsburgh. Schwartz collaborated with at least ten other experts.

Schwartz used a laser technique to scan the three-dimensional life mask, bust, and statue created by Jean-Antoine Houdon when Washington was in his early fifties. The associated computer program captured points and extrapolated them, allowed the team to morph the shape of Washington's face and body according to known physiological data about him at various ages. Schwartz also had access to the following for Washington:

• His dentures
• His surviving, unaltered clothing
• Portraits from actual sittings (v. sightings)
• Text sources such as letters and diaries that described Washington

Several issues affected Schwartz's interpretation of Washington. Tooth loss and use of dentures affect the shape of the jaw and mouth. Tooth loss for the first president started when he was in his twenties. By the time he took his oath of office at age 57, he had only one of his natural teeth left in his mouth and used an uncomfortable set of dentures. This set of Washington's dentures is on display in the exhibit.

Also, Washington had contracted smallpox in Barbados when he was nineteen. No records have been found to indicate the amount of facial scarring that he endured from the disease. However, Schwartz believes that a scar visible on Washington's left cheek in some portraits was from smallpox and not the result of a tooth abscess, as sometimes theorized.
 
According to Schwartz, children of the 18th century were corseted from an early age, boys through about their fifth year. This permanently affected the spine's shape and the body's carriage. Shoulders of adult men were brought back and down. The curve of the lower back was accentuated, as was the belly. In this portrait of Washington, you can see those features.
What were the results when Schwartz and his team pulled all of this together? Check back here on Wednesday for a look at George Washington when he was 19, 45, and 57.

Georgian Secrets: Ladies' Undergarments During the American War of Independence

Suzanne Adair blogs at http://www.suzanneadair.typepad.com

She's Clio's guest today cross post blogging about:

Georgian Secrets: Ladies' Undergarments During the American War of Independence

Readers occasionally ask me what ladies of the late 18th century wore for underwear beneath those lovely gowns and petticoats. Did they wear panties? What made their hips so huge and their torsos look like tubes?

On Sunday 19 September, Louise Benner, the Curator of Costumes and Textiles at the North Carolina Museum of History presented the program "From Head to Toe: Clothing in 18th-Century North Carolina." A portion of her program included showing the audience the underclothing beneath the gorgeous polonaise gown that a volunteer named Gina was wearing.

For upper class and many middle-class women, undergarments consisted of the following:

* Shift. Ms. Benner's hand is on the sleeve of Gina's shift. The shift, later called a "chemise," was made of cotton, linen, wool, or silk, had three-quarter length sleeves, and reached to the middle of the woman's calf. Shifts doubled as sleepwear.
* Stays. In the picture, the stays are the greenish garment across Gina's midsection. Stays were heavily boned, usually with whalebone, to keep the torso erect and thus heavily restricted movement in the upper body. Stays also gave women's torsos that "tube" look.
* Panniers. Also known as side hoops, these were tied around the waist. Panniers made the hips look extra-broad beneath the petticoat and lower portion of the gown. If the gown and petticoat were made of heavy material, panniers would be constructed of metal to support the weight of the fabric.
* Pockets. Gina's right hand rests on a pocket, accessible through slits in her gown and petticoat. Women might wear pockets on both hips and/or embroider their pockets. Embroidered pockets could be worn atop the petticoat instead of beneath it.
* Stockings. Made of natural fiber like the shift, stockings were tied with ribbons just above the knee.

A woman such as a laundress who performed physical labor also wore a shift and pockets, but instead of stays and a gown, she wore a short jacket (also called a short gown) with some boning, usually pinned closed across the front. The jacket reached to just below her waist and covered the top portion of her petticoat.

Panties arrived on the underwear scene decades later.

Ms. Benner's presentation was part of a collection of lectures and free programs that supports the traveling exhibition, "Discover the Real George Washington: New Views From Mount Vernon." The North Carolina Museum of History is the only venue in the southeast to host this exhibit, which runs through 21 January 2011. Colonial North Carolina Family Day on 25 September, in which I will participate, is one of the supporting programs.