The Abaco and The Bahamas — How the most successful slave revolt in US history actually occurred in the Bahamas
By dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
The story of the most successful slave revolt in US history was a rather convoluted international affair and actually occurred in the Bahamas. In 1840 on the Bahamian island of Abaco a revolt started on the American slave ship the Creole. The series of events that lead up to the revolted started when a black man named Madison Washington who had previous escaped slavery (and had made it to Canada) tried to return to the US to free his wife. Madison was caught in Maryland by slave catchers taken to Virginia, and put on the slave ship, the Creole, with other slaves destined for sale in Louisiana. Madison was onboard a slave ship that contained 135 Africans and 17 white people. The white slavers only carried one gun because of the fear slave would revolts and arm themselves.
I first heard of this story during last years’ Hurricane Dorian that devastated the Bahamas. I considered myself somewhat of an expert on Caribbean history but this was story I was not previously familiar with. I was aware the Bahamas had long cultural ties with African-Americans, and many Floridian slaves had escaped there, but I didn’t know how active the Bahamas had been in opposing US slavery.
First a little of the backstory on the Bahamas, and why the islands became a beacon for enslaved African-Americans to escape to. The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718, when the British clamped down on piracy and formally occupied the archipelago of 200 some islands. After the American Revolutionary War, the British Crown resettled many of the white Southerners who were loyal to Britain, numbering thousands of American Loyalists, to the Bahamas which was largely uninhabited at that time. Many of these white settlers brought their enslaved Africans with them. They then established plantations on British land grants. But harsh weather conditions and tropical diseases made many of the white settlers leave after a couple of decades, without the large number of blacks they had taken there.
Because of this history, African slaves and their descendants constituted the majority of the population from this period to the present. Then in 1807, the British abolished the trans-Atlantic slave trade. During the following decades, the British Royal Navy intercepted any slave trade ships, the navy then resettled emancipated slaves in The Bahamas. Many of those freed Africans who were liberated on the open seas went to the Bahamas as free people, they numbered thousands of Africans liberated from the slave ships.
In 1818, the British Home Office in London had ruled that "any slave brought to the Bahamas from outside the British West Indies (Caribbean) would be manumitted (emancipated)."Up to the point the British Home Office had ruled escaped African slaves were emancipated if they reached the Caribbean, the Bahamas had been a regular stop in the Atlantic slave trade. Furthermore shipwrecked US vessels had often ended up there.
In 1891 when America bought Florida from Spain, it created a legal vacuum. In the ensuing legal chaos thousands of enslaved Africans and Black Seminoles escaped to the Bahamas. Later during the 1820’s Seminole Wars in Florida, hundreds of North American slaves and African Seminoles escaped from Cape Florida to the Bahamas. Eyewitness accounts of the time write of 300 slaves escaping in a mass flight in 1823. They were aided by Bahamians in 27 sloops, with others using canoes for the journey. These escapees mostly settled on northwest Andros Island, where they developed the village of Red Bays.
So many slaves ran to freedom that the US government in 1825 had to build a lighthouse in Cape Florida. As a side note this flight is commemorated in 2004 by a large sign at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Some of their descendants in Red Bays continue African Seminole traditions in basket making and grave marking. Furthermore the British home office ruling led to a total of nearly 300 slaves owned by US nationals being freed from 1830 to 1835 when they docked in British controlled islands.
On August 1, 1834, Britain freed all the slaves in its territories (known as Emancipation Day in the Caribbean). British slave emancipation set off a tidal wave of events that challenged the American slave trade. On December 1830 and later on February 1834, two American slaves ships Comet and Encomium used in the United States domestic coastwise slave trade, were wrecked off the Bahamian island of Abaco. When the lifeboats took the masters, passengers and slaves into Nassau, customs officers seized the slaves and British colonial officials freed them, over the protests of the American crew. There were 165 slaves on the Comet and 48 on the Encomium. The United Kingdom finally paid an indemnity to the United States in those two cases in 1855, under the Treaty of Claims of 1853, which settled several compensation cases between the two countries.
Then in 1835 British colonial officials again freed 78 North American slaves from the Enterprise, which then sailed to Bermuda in 1835. Finally in 1840, the Hermosa, a US slave ship headed from Richmond going to New Orleans, wrecked in Abaco. The ships captain tried to explain that slavery was legal in the US, so technically these enslaved people were cargo. But the Bahamians instead again forcible emancipated the entire ship full of slaves freeing 38 people. The result of all these salves being forcibly freed from bondage being trickling down to enslaved blacks on American plantations. News started circulating that the Bahamas was a place of refuge. All this lead up 1841 and to what would be the most successful slave rebellion in American history.
All this lead up to the story that I opened up this diary with. In 1840 a Virginian, Madison Washington escaped slavery and successfully used the underground railroad to made it to Canada. Before he had escaped Washington who was “employed” as a cook, had earned the reputation as a rebellious troublesome slave. Washington was described as a man with “extraordinary features” and “leadership qualities”. But because he had escaped alone Madison valiantly tried to return to free his wife. In Southern Maryland Washington was caught by slave catchers and taken to Virginia. Madison was then put on a ship, the Creole, with other slaves from Virginia destined for sale in New Orleans Louisiana. The Creole contained 135 Africans and 17 white people , but the ships crew only carried one gun because of the fear of slave revolts if they slaves armed themselves.
The slaves were kept in the forward hold of the ship. On November 7, 1841, when one the crew carelessly lifted the grate, Madison pounced and he gained the deck. Washington and eighteen other male slaves rebelled; they overwhelmed the crew and killed John R. Hewell, one of the slave traders, with a knife. The crew and passengers had only one gun among them, which they never used. The captain, who was wounded, and two mates had gone up into the rigging to escape the fighting. One of the slaves was badly wounded and later died. Some others of the crew were wounded but all survived.
The rebels first tried to force the Creole’s captain to take them to what is Liberia in West Africa, but the captain refused. Then one of the rebels who had heard about the Hermosa incident and how the Bahamas had freed them forced the captain to sail them to the islands instead.
On November 9, 1841, the Creole reached the port of Nassau Bahamas
, the slave ship was surrounded by a “fleet” of tiny little boats manned by local Bahamians.
The ship was
first boarded by the harbor pilot (a boat designed to helo other ships navigate a difficult harbor) and his navy crew, all local black Bahamians. The captain tells the soldiers that the people on board were his property but, the captain
tells the American slaves that, under Bahamian colonial law, they were free. The harbor pilot’s crew advised them to go ashore at once. The Quarantine Officer also came aboard, as the captain Robert Ensor was badly wounded, the officer took First Mate Zephaniah Gifford to inform the American Consul of the events. At the Consul's request, the governor of the Bahamas ordered a guard to board the Creole to prevent the escape of the men implicated in Hewell's death. The 24 black soldiers were led by a white officer. This action prevented the slaves from dispersing into the city, but black Bahamians wisely not trusting the American kept a vigil of small boats surrounding the Creole.
Fearing the British would apply their ban on slavery to the American slaves, the American consul tried to organize American sailors on the island to take back control of the ship. He intended to have them sail the ship out of British jurisdiction with the slaves still aboard. An American group of sailors approached the ship on November 12, intending to sail it away, but were foiled by a Bahamian who shouted a warning to the officer on the guard aboard the Creole. He threatened to fire into the Americans in their boat, and they withdrew.
After an investigation by magistrates, on Friday, 13 November 1841, the Bahamian Attorney-General went aboard. He told the nineteen rebels that they would be detained. He informed the remainder: "You are free, and at liberty to go onshore, and wherever you please."
A fleet of small boats manned by locals, who had still surrounded the brig at a distance, immediately came forward. The Attorney-General warned the people against boarding the Creole, but said they could provide passage to those slaves who wished to go to shore. Most did so, although three women, a girl, and a boy stayed in hiding on board. They eventually sailed with the ship to New Orleans and back to slavery, but less than a year later, the Creole would sail no more after it wrecked again this time in a hurricane.
The local Bahamian government then arranged for a ship bound for Jamaica, then also under British control, to take passengers to that island for free, announcing it in the local newspaper. Numerous American blacks from the Creole left for Jamaica aboard it.
When the US state department heard about the revolt, and received a copy of the newspaper’s decree they were OUTRAGED. But after the Bahamian government informed them they arrested the conspirators, the United States government dropped its claims for all the slaves to be returned to its custody. But the US Secretary of State still demanded a trial. The British agreed. But the Bahamian Attorney General ruled that since the Bahamas didn’t have an extradition treaty with the US the trial would have to be in the Bahamas.
As trial date approached it became an international incident. Several Southern politicians in the US tried to organize an attack to recapture the slaves, but Bahamian who still had their own boats organized looking out parties and prevented armed American ships from approaching the Islands.
The British authorities determined that the rebel slaves had not committed any breach of British or maritime law. As under British law they were free men, they were considered to have the right to use force in self defense to escape the detention of illegal slavery. The Bahamians Crown officials, the Admiralty Court in Nassau held a special session in April to consider to charging the 17 Creole rebels instead for piracy. At the trial the court ruled, in essence, “a man can not be charged for pirating his own body”. The Bahamian officials then freed Madison Washington and the 17 slaves. who chose to stay on the islands with the remainder of the crew.
The Creole case has been described as the "most successful slave revolt in U.S. history". The abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet praised Madison Washington in his 1843 "Address to the Slaves of the United States," calling Madison Washington a "bright star of freedom" who "took his station in the constellation of true heroism." Frederick Douglass wrote a novella The Heroic Slave (1853) whose lead character was inspired by and named, Madison Washington. As Douglass wrote a fictional account, his work is now considered the first known piece of African-American fictional literature.
.
These incidents, in which a total of 447 slaves belonging to US nationals were freed from 1830 to 1842, increased tension between the United States and the United Kingdom. The two countries had been co-operating in patrols to suppress the international slave trade. However, worried about the stability and value of its large domestic slave trade, the United States argued that the United Kingdom should not treat US domestic ships that under duress came to UK colonial ports as part of the international trade. The United States worried that the success of the Creole slaves in gaining freedom would encourage more slave revolts on merchant ships. Tensions between the US and UK continued to rise until the American Civil War, which then lead to the Emancipation Proclamation ending legal slavery in the United States.
~~~~~~
Sources;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The typical Supreme Court docket is comprised of about one-third criminal justice cases, but as law professors Tonja Jacobi and Ross Berlin argue in a recent article in the UC Davis Law Review, the court routinely avoids challenges to key issues like discriminatory police stop-and-frisks and racially disproportionate sentencing. For example, despite evidence that police disproportionately detain racial minorities (one lower court found that 91 percent of the New York Police Department’s stops were of nonwhites, even though they make up 57 percent of the city’s population), the court continues to allow police to justify such stops on vague, race-neutral facts like a “high-crime neighborhood.”
Discriminatory police conduct is also often shielded by the doctrine of qualified immunity, which requires plaintiffs to show that government officials violated “clearly established” law to receive damages for harm — a standard that is rarely met. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, to cite just one of many egregious examples, has applied the doctrine to shield an officer from liability who slammed a woman to the ground, breaking her collarbone, even though she was walking away from him at the time. “The qualified immunity doctrine is absurd,” says Mark Kende, director of the Drake Constitutional Law Center and a civil rights attorney who has handled police shooting cases. “[I]t has no constitutional basis — it is a simple police/government doctrine that nullifies people’s rights.”
Still, there is a possibility that the Supreme Court could reform or end the doctrine. Many conservatives, including Justice Clarence Thomas, have criticized qualified immunity, says Daniel Urman, a law and policy expert at Northeastern University, and if you add in the four more liberal justices on the Court, then there is a majority opposed to it (several members of Congress, including Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have also introduced bills designed to end qualified immunity for police officers).
Another way that the Supreme Court could address racially discriminatory conduct is by lowering the standard needed to prove discriminatory laws and government action. This would require taking aim at the landmark precedent of Washington v. Davis (1976), which held that laws that have a racially discriminatory effect are valid provided they were not adopted to advance a racially discriminatory purpose. A standard that, again, is challenging to meet. “This is unnecessarily difficult,” says Kende. “It’s hard to read the minds or intent of actors, and they don’t usually openly admit bad motive.” A better standard, argues Kende, would be requiring a plaintiff to show that governmental actions have a clear disparate impact on minority groups, creating a presumption that such conduct was discriminatory — one the government could rebut.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Florida’s restrictions on ex-felon voting will likely remain in place at least for August’s primary, after the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to remove a hold on a trial judge’s ruling that those restrictions are unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court’s action in the case, where the voting rights of hundreds of thousands ex-felons could be at stake in the swing state, is the latest example of the conservative majority siding with restrictive laws.
Though the Florida case is not technically linked to the pandemic, in several other recent disputes where voter access in the outbreak was in play, the Supreme Court has consistently sided with keeping in place the more restrictive voter regimes.
“This Court’s inaction continues a trend of condoning disfranchisement,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her dissent to the Florida matter, as she referenced the so-called “Purcell” principle instructing courts to avoid injecting chaos in the lead-up to the elections.
“Ironically, this Court has wielded Purcell as a reason to forbid courts to make voting safer during a pandemic, overriding two federal courts because any safety-related changes supposedly came too close to election day,” she wrote. “Now, faced with an appellate court stay that disrupts a legal status quo and risks immense disfranchisement—a situation that Purcell sought to avoid—the Court balks.”
The case involves a law Florida Republicans passed in 2019, after the state’s voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment giving certain ex-felons the right to vote. The 2019 law requires that those ex-felons pay back all remaining court fees before they regain the franchise. The law’s challengers say that the mandate amounts to an unconstitutional poll tax.
Florida suffered several setbacks in court defending the restriction, culminating in a May ruling by trial judge in Tallahassee striking down parts of the law on the merits. That ruling came several months after the judge had partially blocked the law in a preliminary manner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because it is ubiquitous across the country, racial profiling crops up in the background of countless criminal cases. But it was the main focus of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit’s decision in U.S. v. Curry on Thursday. The facts are disturbing: Four officers responded to gunshots heard in the vicinity of Creighton Court, a public housing community in Richmond, Virginia. They drove to a field where they thought the shots originated and saw a group of Black men. An officer confronted one of these men, Bill Curry, who pointed toward the area where he believed the shots had come from. The officer abruptly forced Curry to put his up hands, then demanded that he lift his shirt. When Curry refused, the officer restrained and searched him. A struggle ensued, and the officer testified that an illegal revolver fell from Curry’s clothes.
Curry moved to suppress this evidence, alleging that the officer’s search violated his Fourth Amendment rights. To justify even a brief warrantless search, law enforcement must generally have reasonable suspicion that the suspect engaged in criminal activity. And the officers had no reasonable suspicion to search Curry, who was merely a Black man standing calmly in a public space. The police can get around this requirement by citing “exigent circumstances,” including the need to “protect individuals who are threatened with imminent harm.” But even then, officers at least need “specific information about the crime and suspect.” Here, the officers “had no reason to believe that the men walking in the field had anything to do with the gunshots they heard.” Thus, by a 9–6 vote, the court held that the search was unconstitutional.
This conclusion sent Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a white Ronald Reagan appointee, into a conniption fit. “We face again in this day of sad and unhappy truths the divide between what are already two Americas,” Wilkinson huffed in dissent. “In one America, where citizens possess the means to hire private security or move to safer neighborhoods, the impact of judicial barriers to effective law enforcement may be minimal. In another America, though, people have no choice but to endure the unintended consequences of our missteps, as crime moves to fill the vacuum left by the progressive disablement of the law’s protections.”
Wilkinson complained that, by limiting cops’ ability to search civilians without suspicion, “courts risk inducing police officers to simply abandon inner cities as part of their mission.” The police, tired of being “wrongly scapegoated,” will flee “high-crime areas,” leaving “the least fortunate among us” to “fend increasingly for themselves.” That abandonment, in turn, will drive out “many minority-owned” businesses and “lead to the emboldening of gangs and drug rings.” Courts will doom “youngsters” to be “recruited as runners for the enticement of easy money,” then “claimed by an addiction that can lead to a lifelong chemical dependency.”
Chief Judge Roger Gregory, who is Black, felt obliged to respond to this warped jeremiad. (Gregory has bipartisan credentials: Bill Clinton placed him on the 4th Circuit as a recess appointee, and then George W. Bush renominated him.) “When I read the first line of Judge Wilkinson’s dissent,” the chief judge wrote, “I was heartened by the thought: well, at least he acknowledges that there are ‘two Americas.’ But this glint of enlightenment was to serve as a ‘soap box’ for his charge against the majority’s decision.” Gregory continued:
It is understandable that such a pseudo-sociological platform was necessary as his assertions are bereft of any jurisprudential reasoning. More to the point, his recognition of a divided America is merely a preamble to the fallacy-laden exegesis of “predictive policing” that follows. Through his opinion, my colleague contributes to the volumes of work gifted by others who felt obliged to bear their burden to save minority or disadvantaged communities from themselves.
In a society where some are considered dangerous even when they are in their living rooms eating ice cream, asleep in their beds, playing in the park, standing in the pulpit of their church, birdwatching, exercising in public, or walking home from a trip to the store to purchase a bag of Skittles, it is still within their own communities—even those deemed “dispossessed” or “disadvantaged”—that they feel the most secure. Permitting unconstitutional governmental intrusions into these communities in the name of protecting them presents a false dichotomy. My colleague insists on a Hobson’s choice for these communities: decide between their constitutional rights against unwarranted searches and seizures or forgo governmental protection that is readily afforded to other communities.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the film industry struggles to get back to business in the midst of COVID-19’s social distancing rules, famed documentarian Stanley Nelson (“Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool,” “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution”) wanted to set the scene first with his recent Los Angeles Times editorial titled “Why we need Black filmmakers to tell the story of 2020.”
“For over 30 years, I’ve been making documentary films on the African American experience, particularly misrepresented or forgotten histories, including about Marcus Garvey, the murder of Emmett Till, the Freedom Riders, Freedom Summer and the Black Panther Party,” Nelson wrote. “Spending time with the folks who lived this history made me keenly aware that those who have the power to tell the story create the meaning of that story.”
But now, he continued, “the story shouting out at us today is one of national reckoning. The brutal killing of George Floyd may have ignited the protests. But it was the COVID-19 pandemic that re-arranged the firewood.”
Much like the editors whom Nelson cites of the nation’s first Black-owned newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, said in 1827 about not allowing others to tell their stories, the filmmaker is demanding the same for cinema. “No American institution has perpetuated our racial hierarchy, racist attitudes, and myths that twist the truth of our history more than film and television,” Nelson wrote, noting the canceling of “Cops” and the contextual disclaimer for “Gone with the Wind.” But that’s not enough, Nelson argues. What’s needed is systemic change.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
America is at a breaking point. How can journalists properly cover it? Citizens have flooded the streets in cities large, and small, in protest of racism, police violence and other forms of systemic oppression. But media institutions have been shaped by, and contributed to, those same systems.
The same rage that drives Black folks into the streets is carried around by Black journalists, who have lived through decades of retrograde newsroom policy and are beginning to hold the media’s gatekeepers to account for it.
That frustration was the crux of a sweeping discussion between Wesley Lowery, a journalist at CBS News, and me. This edition of Conversations, a limited live series for Slate, felt slightly more personal than others. For a young Black journalist who has been told to be wary of “pigeonholing” myself while writing about racism, having this conversation with Lowery felt cathartic in a way. Above you can watch our chat—produced by Britt Pullie and Faith Smith—and below is a transcript of the discussion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyone who navigates America’s socioeconomic data is accustomed to charts that break out the country’s general population into its component racial and ethnic groups.
More often than not, the disparities illustrated are startling.
For instance, although in 2016 America’s national infant mortality rate was 5.9 per 1,000 live births, the rate for non-Hispanic Black people was 11.4 — which is more than double the rate for non-Hispanic White people (4.9), and more than triple that of Asian Americans (3.6).
Occasionally these racial and ethnic inequalities are juxtaposed against regional variations to demonstrate, for example, that the infant mortality rate of Asian Americans matched that of New Hampshire (3.6); that Hispanics shared a rate with Wyoming (5.0); and that the rate for non-Hispanic Black people was somewhere between Alabama (9.3) and Guam (12.84).
Less often visualized is how these disparities stack up internationally. In many cases, the domestic divisions within the U.S. are so great as to render America’s various racial and ethnic groups as distinctly as separate countries.
Charted below [read article for all 6 charts] are six data sets that track the human journey from cradle to grave. They illustrate the very real, inherently interconnected, and profoundly consequential impact of race and ethnicity on the American dream.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After 30 years under Omar al-Bashir, the country has abolished several discriminatory policies and banned FGM – in what activists have called ‘great first steps’ towards liberalization. The Guardian: 'Thank you, our glorious revolution': activists react as Sudan ditches Islamist laws
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sudan’s transitional government has been praised for its latest reforms, which decriminalise apostasy, ban female genital mutilation (FGM) and end the requirement for women to get travel permits.
The legislation makes major strides in pushing back against discrimination faced by women and minorities during the 30-year rule of Omar al-Bashir that came to an end in 2019, according to equality advocates.
The anti-torture charity Redress and the Sudan-based African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies said the measures “move Sudan a step closer towards eliminating structural violence against women and minorities”.
“We encourage the new government to continue making domestic law and policy reforms until systematic torture is eradicated from the country and justice and reparations are fully realised for victims,” said Charlie Loudon, Redress’s international legal adviser.
Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari announced last week that apostasy, which had been used against religious minorities and was punishable by death, would no longer be an offence. In addition, he said, non-Muslims will be allowed to drink alcohol in private.
Abdulbari called the reforms “a big stride towards establishing one of the foundations for the victorious December revolution’s slogans, which is freedom”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you can’t cope with the ants, don’t mess with the anthill.” So goes a slogan chanted by the activists occupying land belonging to a sugarcane processing plant in the north-eastern Brazilian town of Santa Helena – one branch of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) that has been battling for land access for smallholder farmers in the country since 1984. The cause is unimpeachable, and even more pressing with Jair Bolsonaro’s current backing for ruthless agribusiness whose giant footprint excludes almost everyone else.
So it’s surprising that the effect of this advocatory and visually sharp documentary – director Camila Freitas’s feature-length debut – is somewhat deadening. Filmed over four years, it forgoes commentary, simply accompanying the peasant-activists as they daydream about how to allocate the terrain, debate their principles, and try to win hearts and minds in town. Structured around long dialogue scenes shot through with testimony of injustice and struggle, it finally exudes a strange passivity despite all the idealism being traded. No charismatic individual strong enough to carry the film emerges; the rounds of protest against the status quo, away from the fields, seem Sisyphean.
Perhaps the conservative forces ranged against them are too great to expect such a breakthrough. But Freitas’s instinct is essentially passive, too, refusing to dramatise undercurrents and factions in the movement that might benefit from more historical explanation.
.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unrest in the streets has made its way to Wall Street. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was photographed kneeling in solidarity with protestors; Morgan Stanley promoted two Black women to high-profile roles; and Citi, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs published inspiring anti-racist messages and pledges. Many financial firms announced donations to the NAACP or similar organizations.
These are all commendable efforts, but they won’t address the root causes of structural racism in finance. In fact, in the absence of deeper solutions, well-meaning diversity webinars and other token efforts amount to very little. What really matters is how much capital is allocated to Black investors to deploy themselves in Black entrepreneurial communities. (Full disclosure: my fund, WOCstar, focuses on investing in women of color.)
A few companies are getting it right. Netflix is moving $100 million to Black-owned banks. Google will be directing $100 million to Black-led funds and companies, and SoftBank is bringing onboard Stacy Brown-Philpot, former CEO of Taskrabbit, to help run its new $100 million fund dedicated to investing in firms led by people of color. The Regenerous Institute is working with WOCstar Fund and others like us, as well as business leaders and investors intent on driving capital to overlooked communities.
Individuals, corporate diversity funds, pension funds, college endowments, foundations, Giving Pledge members, family investment offices and VC funds can all put money into in investment funds led by people of color. Black fund managers and Black-led funds — like the $250 million fund by Base 10 — exist. They have track records, a pipeline of deals, and experience. They know where some of the next great companies and founders are and how to help them expand. We’ve got a growing list on our website.
Society benefits from Black innovations every day. Black women led developments in caller ID, CCTV security video, call waiting, and fiber optic cables, central heating, and laser surgery for cataracts. Entrepreneurs of color are busy in healthcare, education, clean energy, supply chain logistics, agriculture, media, retail, fintech and more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WELCOME TO THE FRIDAY’S PORCH
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.