Dear George:

Thanks for your thoughtful remarks about the Underground Railroad. I have a profound admiration for your research and dedication to history and the Underground Railroad. I read and re-read your words along with the posting and link by Art Thomas concerning the UNGRR Museum in Cincinnati.

Both shape my response and continued concern for an accurate presentation of American history.

I took exception to the Park Service’s free use of the history of Fort Mose and lump it under the umbrella of the Underground Railroad. My concern and the example submitted by military historian Bennie McRae opens a wider door to black history deniers. The news article provided by Art references often refers to the Holocaust Museum.

“Crew says the center will tell history well and accurately, but he acknowledges there is more to be done.

He hopes the center eventually will work overseas to advance the cause of freedom, similar to what the Carter Center in Atlanta does with its humanitarian efforts. And he wants to expand the archive and library so the center will be identified with serious research, like the Holocaust Museum.” Crew goes on to state that the mission of the museum should extend its focus to include the UNGRR to Poland’s Solidarity Movement.

I included the above in my response because of the Park Service’s tragic historical flaw of including anything African-American as part of the Underground Railroad. Blurring the mission of the museum creates a serious problem. Massaging American history invites nay-sayers, which is my foremost concern.

Regarding the denial of documented history:

Ken Stern of the American Jewish Committee and author of the book on Holocaust Denial underlines the importance of documenting history with no embellishments or false claims. His examples of Holocaust deniers mirror the frightening movement in the US to rewrite the history of African Americans and their strategic role in self-emancipation. Like the Holocaust in Europe (whose victims included African Americans) any “misstep” in chronicling Black history is open to suspicion. Deniers rely on the ignorance of their audience to promote their subversive agendas.

I read the statement of the Park Service’s cleverly positioned definition of what constitutes the UNGRR. It poses the question “What is the UNGRR?” and then answers it with an accurate history of more than a century of slave escapes that reach from North America to the Caribbean.

Clearly the experience of my ancestors in Spanish owned Florida who chose to flee with the Spanish to Cuba before 1821 rather than tough it out when the Americans took over has no connection to the UNGRR experience in Ohio and Pennsylvania. One of the major concerns that historians of Florida continue to raise is that it is overshadowed by rigid “add water and stir” definition of the Upper South.

As I wrote in an earlier post, the Park Service is to be commended for its efforts to memorialize the African American experience. However I can only conclude that to inform the public of an untruth about Fort Mose and ignoring its history smacks of condescension. Do they really believe that African Americans can’t or won’t or are incapable of challenging their massaged history?

George thanks again for your remarks and concern.

K Wyer Lane

“History never lies…only the people who interpret it.”