House Concurrent Resolution 137

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION TO BE KNOWN AS THE MISSISSIPPI FORKS-OF-THE-ROAD EQUAL HUMAN CIVIL RIGHTS COMMEMORATIONS RESOLUTION OF 2003, TO PERMANENTLY CORRECT THE HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PREJUDICIAL EXPENDITURES OF PUBLIC FUNDS IN THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI THAT HIGHLIGHT, PRESERVE, PRESENT AND INTERPRET EUROPEAN AND EUROPEAN AMERICAN HISTORICAL ANTEBELLUM PRESENCE, HUMANITY, HISTORY, HERITAGE, CULTURE, LEGACIES, ART, LIFE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CONTRIBUTIONS BY GOVERNMENTS, QUASI-GOVERNMENTS, SCHOOLS, CHURCHES AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN WAYS, STRUCTURES, FORMS AND MANNERS THAT CREATE AN APPEARANCE TO THE PUBLIC THAT EUROPEANS AND EUROPEAN AMERICANS WERE THE ONLY PERSONS WHO HISTORICALLY CONTRIBUTED THOSE DEVELOPMENTS IN MISSISSIPPI AND THE "OLD NATCHEZ DISTRICT."

WHEREAS, the historical antebellum presence, humanity, history, heritage, culture, legacies, art, life and community development contributions of enslaved Africans and African Americans sold at Mississippi's Forks-of-the-Roads and other enslavement markets, and those of non-enslaved Africans and African Americans in Mississippi, are omitted, deleted, denied and are not adequately and sufficiently highlighted, preserved, presented and interpreted in Southwest Mississippi by governments, quasi-governments, schools, churches, and the private sector, while at the same time European and European American historical antebellum presence, humanity, history, heritage, culture, legacies, art, life and community development contributions are publicly and more than adequately and sufficiently highlighted, preserved, presented and interpreted by governments, quasi-governments, schools, churches and the private sector in ways, structures, forms and manners that create an appearance to the public that Europeans and European Americans were the only persons who historically have made developments in Mississippi and the "Old Natchez District"; and

WHEREAS, the omission, deletion and denial of the historical antebellum presence, humanity, history, heritage, culture, legacies, art, life and community development contributions of enslaved Africans, African Americans and those of non-enslaved Africans and African Americans in Mississippi, seriously and injuriously restricts the ability of the people of Mississippi, the United States and those from abroad, particularly Africans and African Americans, to understand themselves and their past; and

WHEREAS, the omission, deletion and denial of the historical antebellum presence, humanity, history, heritage, culture, legacies, art, life and community development contributions of enslaved Africans and African Americans, and those of non-enslaved Africans and African Americans in Mississippi, seriously and injuriously restrict the ability of the people of Mississippi, the United States and those from abroad, particularly Africans and African Americans to view Mississippi as part of a "New South" that has come of age by facing up to its past denial of human and civil rights; and

WHEREAS, antebellum Africans' and African Americans' historical presence, humanity, history, heritage, culture, legacies, art, life and community development contributions expressly include the varied experiences of Africans in enslavement and their various means and ways of seeking freedom, not limited to running away, escaping through the Underground Railroad, revolts, maroonage, Civil War self-emancipation, and the continued struggle of their descendants for full civil and human rights benefits guaranteed by the United States Constitution and United Nations Human Rights Charter; and

WHEREAS, from the 1700s until the Civil War, literally thousands of Africans and African Americans were "sold down the river," forced to walk overland on the Overground Railroad in captivity from Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, South and North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, and shipped from the Caribbean and Africa along the Mississippi River to Mississippi's Forks-of-the-Roads Enslavement Market at Natchez and other enslavement markets, where they were sold into racial chattel enslavement intended for life; and

WHEREAS, those enslaved humans in captivity who were sold at Mississippi's Forks-of-the Roads Enslavement Market at Natchez and other enslavement markets, and other non-enslaved Africans and African Americans in Mississippi, were the foreparents and ancestors of most Africans in America and to a large extent account for the subsequent African American "Great Migration" up north and out west; and

WHEREAS, those enslaved humans in captivity sold at Mississippi's Forks-of-the-Roads Enslavement Markets at Natchez and other enslavement markets, and other non-enslaved Africans and African Americans in Mississippi, provided the work and the skill that built the "king cotton" economy and infrastructures, which generated the life styles of wealth, governments, schools, churches and "southern" culture of Mississippi and the emerging wealth and culture of the United States and industrial Europe, as we historically know these places today; and

WHEREAS, without the skills and abilities of thousands of enslaved Africans and African Americans, and other non-enslaved Africans and African Americans in Mississippi, Mississippi would not have been developed into the existence as we know it today, in at least the following areas: scientific, economical, agricultural, social, organizational, artistic, metallurgical, cosmological, spiritual, medicinal, culinary, hunting and gathering, fishing, construction, engineering, irrigation, stone masonry, material crafting, weaving, family rearing and development, animal husbandry, mining, smithery, music, dance, song, survival tenacity and adaptability; and

WHEREAS, governments, quasi-governments, schools, churches and the private sector in Southwest Mississippi, particularly in Natchez, have developed an extensive tourism industry that showcases the extant antebellum homes, plantation estates, monuments, cemeteries, street names, ceremonies, bluff stabilization and other edifices that have been preserved, are being preserved or planned to be preserved and are presented and interpreted in ways, structures, forms and manners that glorify the "Gone with the Wind" era of enslavement economics and culture, Civil War lost cause and "white culture," while at the same time they have failed and refused to adequately and satisfactorily preserve, present and develop the interpretation of the story of enslavery, thus continuing their pattern of racial history, tourism injustice and discrimination, by the continued omission, deletion and denial of the historical antebellum presence, humanity, history, heritage, culture, legacies, art, life and community development contributions of enslaved Africans and African Americans, and those of non-enslaved Africans and African Americans in Mississippi; and

WHEREAS, the racial history, tourism injustice, discrimination and human and civil rights denial seriously and injuriously restricts the ability of the people of Mississippi, the United States and those from abroad, particularly Africans and African Americans, to view Mississippi as part of a "New South" that has come of age by facing up to its infamous human and civil rights past; and

WHEREAS, observant tourists, visitors and concerned persons and organizations point out such obvious omissions, deletions and denials of the historical antebellum presence, humanity, history, heritage, culture, legacies, art, life and community developmental contributions of enslaved Africans and African Americans, and those of non-enslaved Africans and African-Americans in Mississippi, that account for Mississippi's unfinished civil rights agenda and racial preservation history discrimination, tourism injustice and human rights denial, taint the progressive image of Mississippi by seriously and injuriously restricting the ability of the people of Mississippi, the United States and those from abroad, particularly Africans and African Americans, to view Mississippi as part of a "New South" that has come of age by facing up to its infamous human and civil rights pasts; and

WHEREAS, there are no African or African American national historical landmarks designated by the United States Department of Interior National Park Service among the 70 such National Historical Landmarks in Mississippi, including seven in Natchez; and

WHEREAS, Mississippi's Forks-of-the-Roads Enslavement Market Sites in Natchez is the only historical site in the state that explains the comprehensive and collective contributions of Africans and African Americans to the historical developments of not only Mississippi and the "Old Natchez District," but also the historical developments of Central Louisiana, East Texas, Alabama and Arkansas and the continuing presence and migratory contributions of Africans and African Americans; and

WHEREAS, Mississippi's Forks-of-the-Roads Enslavement Market Sites Crossroads Juncture is an above ground artifact in Natchez that explains the historical gateway connections between the Upper Old South's and Mid-West's exporting enslavement states and land migratory routes of Europeans and European Americans to the Old Southwest, especially the connections to the Natchez Trace; and

WHEREAS, Mississippi's Forks-of-the-Roads Enslavement Market Sites in Natchez was the Deep South selling headquarters established by Franklin & Armfield Long Distance Enslavement Trafficking Company, which was once the largest kingpin domestic enslavement dealers in the United States, whose eastern buying headquarters was 1315 Duke Street in Alexandria, Virginia, which is now a national historical landmark and the corporate office of the National Urban League of Northern Virginians; and

WHEREAS, Mississippi's Forks-of-the-Roads Enslavement Market Sites in Natchez exists on the positive side of freedom, justice, civil and human rights and explains the Run Away Freedom Summer of 1863's self-emancipation of thousands upon thousands of enslaved Africans and African Americans in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas and the "Old Natchez District," who ran away from enslavement captivity to emancipation proclamation freedom behind Union Army lines, and then many able bodied men, women and children, including Mississippi's famous author Richard Wright's grandfather, were stationed as Union Army freedomfighters soldiers and "Contraband" workers at the Forks-of-the-Roads and other locations in Mississippi; and

WHEREAS, the Southwest Mississippi-Central Louisiana Underground Railroad Association and a host of supporters have been and are aggressively seeking to have Mississippi's Forks-of-the-Roads Enslavement Market Sites and adjacent lands in Natchez be purchased by any means and brought under public domain, thereby immediately mitigating over 300 years of omissions, deletions and denials of the historical antebellum presence, humanity, history, heritage, culture, legacies, art, life and community development contributions of enslaved Africans and African Americans, and those of non-enslaved Africans and African Americans in Mississippi, which seriously and injuriously restrict the ability of the people of Mississippi, the United States and those from abroad, particularly Africans and African Americans, to view Mississippi as part of a "New South" that has come of age by facing up to its denial of human and civil rights past by now adequately and sufficiently highlighting, preserving, presenting and interpreting in Southwest Mississippi, those African and African American contributions through governments, quasi-governments, schools, churches and private sectors by using present and future federal funds given to Mississippi and Mississippi public and local level funds raised through bond issues allowed under state statues; and

WHEREAS, the Forks-of-the-Roads juncture streets of St. Catherine Street, Liberty Roads and D'Everaux Street West (formerly Washington Road) are formally and officially included in the National Park Service Southeast Region National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program (authorized by the United States Congress in 1988), website: www.cr.nps.gov/ugrr, and that juncture was designated as a "Millennium Trail," called Natchez Trace's Forks-of-the-Roads Hub Millennium Trail by former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's White House Millennium Council in 2000, and the Forks-of-the-Roads Enslavement Market Sites was nominated for a historical landmark designation by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Director at Natchez and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History awarded $200,000.00 from funds provided by the Mississippi State Legislature to the City of Natchez to purchase the historical antebellum enslavement market sites at the Forks; and

WHEREAS, Governor Ronnie Musgrove proclaimed the month of April 2002 as "Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi" and the main clause in the proclamation reads: "It is important for all Americans to reflect upon our nation's past, to gain insight from our mistakes and successes, and to come to a full understanding that the lessons learned yesterday and today will carry us through tomorrow if we carefully and earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage and our opportunities which lie before us.":

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE SENATE CONCURRING THEREIN, That the Mississippi Legislature recognizes and declares the need to permanently correct the historical and contemporary prejudicial expenditures of public funds in the State of Mississippi that highlight, preserve, present and interpret European and European American historical antebellum presence, humanity, history, heritage, culture, legacies, art, life and community development contributions by governments, quasi-governments, schools, churches and the private sector in ways, structures, forms and manners that create an appearance to the public that Europeans and European Americans were the only persons who historically contributed to those developments in Mississippi and the "Old Natchez District"; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution may be cited as the "Mississippi Forks-of-the-Roads Equal Human Civil Rights Commemorations Resolution of 2003."

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to the Southwest Mississippi-Central Louisiana Underground Railroad Association, the Fort McPherson/Forks of Road Chapter of Sons and Daughters of U.S. Colored Troops, the friends and supporters of balance history and tourism justice in Mississippi and Mississippians for Mississippi coming of age as part of the "New South."