Recently when I was in Louisville, I walked down to the Ohio River to see In Our Elders’ Footprints and On the Banks of Freedom, installations which commemorate the enslaved people of the state. As always with slavery, they were given names by the white people who “owned” them—but only first names and most of these were never recorded.
The installations are under a thundering overpass in downtown Louisville on a small patch of grass close to the Ohio, over which so many were shipped to the deadly sugar and cotton plantations in the deep south—and over which some escaped to freedom.
Footsteps embedded in the concrete path commemorate those journeys. Local people volunteered the soles of their feet which were inked black and printed on the path.
Some of the footsteps bear first names, when strenuous research revealed them; many are nameless. Commemorative plaques instruct those of us ignorant of what this history means.
It means a great deal and will continue to mean a great deal as long as this world lasts, raising the terrible questions about men’s cruelty to their fellow men and women—and many of the slaveholders considered themselves good Christians.
It’s hard in these tender times for a white woman to speak or write about these issues. But I’m struck today by the fact that President Biden’s steadfast supporters are the members of the black caucus in Congress.
They know something we white people have yet to learn—if ever—about the wisdom of age and the value of substance placed in the balance opposite deadly glamor and show.
[For more on The (Un)Known Project, visit their website. On Thursday, July 25th, The (Un)Known Project is hosting a workshop in collaboration with the Louisville Free Public Library, titled Uncovering the Unknown: Unearthing the Enslaved Through Genealogy from 6:30 – 8 pm ET at the Main Branch of the Library. For more information and to register, visit the Library’s website.]
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