| THE STATUE OF LIBERTY WEARS SHACKLES?!!
WHAT ELSE DON’T WE KNOW? (CONTINUED) |
| In an Associated Press interview, Richard Newman, a research officer at Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research is quoted as saying, “It is widely believed in academic circles that Laboulaye meant for the statue to honor the slaves, as well as mark the recent Union victory in the Civil War and the life of Abraham Lincoln.” The Statue of Liberty wasn’t actually completed until 1886, but there’s a 21 inch replica of the statue that was completed in 1870 on display at the Museum of the City of New York. That replica, or, original, is not white, it’s terra cotta (brownish-orange), and it is said to have been designed in the likeness of a Black woman. In addition, the replica has a broken shackle around her left hand. The 151 foot statue in New York Harbor has a more . . . discrete shackle around her foot.
The words at the base of the Statue of Liberty from the poem, “The New Colossus”, by Emma Lazarus wasn’t added to the statue until 19903, during a time when there was a huge surge in European immigration, and that’s when the fiction began. During an interview with the Associated Press, Rebecca M. Joseph, a Boston-based Park service anthropologist is quoted as saying, “There is wide agreement that Liberty's now-familiar association with immigration was not planned by the statue's creators.” Researching this subject, literally, brought a tear to my eye. Because as a kid, I couldn’t help but be awed by the majesty of Lady Liberty—and that was in spite of the fact that I thought she was created for everybody but me. But now to find that she was created specifically for me, and even that was stolen, is almost too much to bear. And finally, just think of how many young Black lives could have been salvaged just by the simple knowledge that something so grand and majestic was created just for them. Just that knowledge alone could have given them a sense pride, dignity, belonging, and importance that could have very well sustained them throughout their lives. This fraud against our people is unconscionable—and the irony is, they used this symbol to welcome people into this country that seemingly came here just to spit in our face. It kind of makes you wonder—what else don’t we know? Eric L. Wattree, Sr. |