National Museum of African American History & Culture
2017-07-08

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Pop Quiz:

On what date did the number of slaves in the world reach its maximum?
The answer is near the end of this page.

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Le Code Noir is an 1685 decree by France's King Louis XIV that set standards for "acceptable" slavery. Some recaptured slaves used the Code as a basis to claim that the unacceptable conditions of their slavery justified their escape.

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Petition of Absalom Jones and others, Philadelphia, 1799:

If the Bill of Rights, or the declaration of Congress are of any validity, we beseech that as we are men we may be admitted to partake of the Liberties and unalienable Rights therein held forth — firmly believing that the extending of Justice and equity to all Classes, would be a means of drawing down the blessings of Heaven upon this Land, for the Peace and Prosperity of which, and the real happiness of every member of the Community, we fervently pray.

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“God’s time is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.”
Harriet Tubman to Ednah Dow Cheney, New York City, circa 1859

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Frederick Douglass:


For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be denounced.
From "The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro," July 4, 1852, Rochester, New York

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Rosa Parks

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See photos of the 16th St. Baptist Church here.

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This is the bucket in which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., soaked his feet after the march from Selma to Montomery, Alabama, in 1965.

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PT-13D used by the Tuskegee Airmen.

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Answer to the Pop Quiz:

Today. There are more slaves in the world today than at any prior date in human history.

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See photos of my next visit to NMAAHC, 2024-01-26.

Want more photos of peace marches? Check these out:
HK on J March in North Carolina, 2017-02-11
Women's March, 2017-01-21
#DisruptJ20 Rally and March, 2017-01-20
March Against Police Violence, 2016-07-09
The 2003-01-18 peace rally in Washington
my speech to the 2003-02-15 rally in Coshocton, Ohio
Sunland Park, New Mexico, rally for peace and immigrant rights.
Peace March in Washington, 2005-09-24.
Peace march in Washington, 2007-01-27
Anti-War Rally in Washington, 2010-03-20

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