Hiram Rhoades Revels

The month of February is Black History Month in The United States. Truly it is an important month because I know of no other "Special" month of the year, and there are eleven more. Makes you wonder what next month "is." But it only affirms the specialness we bestow on Black History Month. I wish to introduce you to a person of history, and a person of tolerance, and a person with a mission. Hiram Rhoades Revels was his name. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1822. His father was a free man, probably a member of the Luppee Indians, a certified Tribe which has a mixture of Black/White/Indian. The Luppee's may be the Indians associated with the famous Jamestown "Lost Colony" story. For the longest time the Luppee Indians were bunched in with the Croatan Tribe. His mother was an African slave who soon after Hiram's birth was emancipated. Hiram is the first African-American to serve in the U.S. Senate (1870).

At the age of 16 he went to Lincolnton, North Carolina to apprentice under his brother Elias as a barber. In 1841, his brother died and Hiram took over the barber shop. In 1844 he continued his education by leaving the barber trade and attending Quaker School in Liberty, Indiana. He also attended school at Knox College in Ohio. Revels became a ordained minister in the African Methodist Church and traveled ministering to African American congregations in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas. He finally settled in Baltimore where he was a principal for an African American school and pastor at a local church.

In 1861 the civil war began. Maryland, a border state had divided loyalties, but Revels embraced the side of the Union cause. Revels helped in organizing two regiments of African American troops from Maryland. Hiram went to St. Louis to organize a school for African Americans in 1863 and helped form another regiment of African American men in Missouri. He then began his active service as a Union chaplain with a Mississippi regiment of free blacks. He participated in the siege of Vicksburg, and eventually became provost marshal of Vicksburg.

At wars end he settled in Natchez, Mississippi where he joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1868 he became an alderman from Natchez. Somehow Hiram Revels balanced his political and pastoral duties without racial conflict, winning the respect of both whites and blacks. In 1870 he was elected the first African American member of the U.S. Senate.

More often than not, history creates scenarios that would be hard to fabricate otherwise.

Hiram Rhoades Revels was sworn in February 25, 1870 to fill the seat vacated almost 10 years earlier by Jefferson Davis, the President of the failed Confederacy. The irony is just outstanding.

Hiram Revels spent his charmed life trying to improve the educational and spiritual needs of the African American communities he came in contact with. Attending a church conference in Aberdeen, Mississippi on January 16, 1901, Hiram Revels died. But his courage and conviction lives, if not only in the annals of American history.

Thanksgiving....Pilgrims?

On a recent Thanksgiving, I kept my mouth shut because that was my main objective. I love my family, but they miss much of my logic at times. Today is PRESIDENT'S DAY. A holiday recognized only by Federal entities.

BEING this PRESIDENT'S DAY:

I thought of George Washington. DUH!

Coincidentally, I thought of another holiday, Thanksgiving.

Quick! What was the first Presidential Proclamation? Times up. Here it is: ```Oct. 14, 1789```

"WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houfes of Congress have, by their joint committee, requefted me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to eftablifh a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and affign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanksfor His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleafed to confer upon us.
And also, that we may then unite in moft humbly offering our prayers and fupplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and befeech Him to pardon our national and other tranfgreffions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private ftations, to perform our feveral and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a bleffing to all the people by conftantly being a Government of wife, juft, and conftitutional laws, difcreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all fovereigns and nations (especially fuch as have shewn kindnefs unto us); and to blefs them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increafe of fcience among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind fuch a degree of temporal profperity as he alone knows to be beft.
GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand feven hundred and eighty-nine. "

(signed) G. Washington

(spelling is his, not mine. Though ikt could be mine.)

So the next time you sit down for a Thanksgiving dinner, remember the first Proclamation. Remember George Washington, who said those words which initiated the holiday. A holiday known for uniting, not dividing. Thanksgiving is a holiday of PLENTY and PRAYER.

How many people know that?

Football, Turkey, and Pilgrims were never mentioned.