When people say “Slavery was hundreds of years ago. Why are we still talking about it?”

They are technically correct.

But I am 56 years old, and my Great-Grandmother was born a slave.

Let me tell you about Lucinda Christmas Fitts Lynch - and how slavery DID NOT end in 1863.

In 1863 the Civil War “ended” and Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves via the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution.

There was no social media at the time & so slaves in Texas did not know they were free until over 2 years later. Some say, the messenger to Texas was murdered. Some say Lincoln gave some states the ability to have one last cotton harvest. Those who know the truth are long dead.

What I know is this.
During that 2 year period when people were “free” they died thinking they were another man’s property.
They were raped.
They were beaten.
They were denied even the most basic freedoms which we take for granted - because some people were so incredibly selfish

They denied a person their right to self-determination for one more yield of cotton, indigo, sugar cane or tobacco.

My ancestor was born to Emily and William Fitts (the name of their owner). The called their mistress “O’le Miss.” And she sent my Great-Great grandfather William into the battlefield to bring back her Confederate Army son to their home because he had been wounded in the war.

He brought back her son alive.
My Great-Great grandmother Emily nursed him back to health - such health that he raped her - and she bore him a son named Shepard.

When the Civil War ended, my Great-Grandmother Lucinda ChristmasFitts met my Great - Grandfather Mark Lynch and they had my Grandfather Fitzhugh Lynch of whom my father is named. Fitzhugh Lynch.

And he married my Mom.

And they had my sisters and me.

That is how close slavery is.

And it continued - in redlining, Jim Crow Laws and the School to Prison Pipeline.

It continues to this day in Police Brutality and Pay Inequity.

So if you want to understand - why BLACK LIVES MATTER!
This is why.

If you’re fighting for Confederate statues & Antebellum (which LITERALLY means Before the Civil War) History & “All” Lives - but you don’t care about kids in cages or the elderly who could die from Covid because you couldn’t be bothered to wear a simple mask.
You’re the problem.

If you feel inspired to help other people after reading this thread - please consider The House of Mercy in #Roc
They are a terrific organization.

http://houseofmercyrochester.org/ 

Thank you.