225th Anniversary at Colonial Yorktown Ignores Soldiers of Color

[alani2]

225th Anniversary of The Siege of Yorktown Ignores Soldiers of Color (http://hnn.us/articles/16846.html)

On October 16, 2005 a eighteen month kickoff of the 225th Anniversary of The Siege of Yorktown is scheduled to begin. That event will not inlcude the Natives and free Blacks who fought at The Siege. On September 30, 2000 I participated in an event to honor Natives and Blacks who fought at the Siege of Yorktown. Their names were on a roster which was housed at , The College of William & Mary.

I believed that after the event, their names would be included on the official roster, but that is not what happened. Now the scheduled event will take place, and the only participants of color, will be the Rhode Island Corp, an all black unit from Rhode Island. They fought at Yorktown, but they were not from Virginia. For some reason Virginia has a problem honoring People of Color, who were actually from the state of Virginia.

History News Networks is running an article I wrote about the celebration, and its exclusion of Virginia's People of Color.

I hope the article will stir people to action.

[Deirdre]

I read your article and the comments to your article. My response is:

As an American I AM disappointed at today's response to inclusion. Very disappointed. Don't white people know that they got nowhere by themselves? Had it not been for the pitty Natives showed them during their first winters here, they would have perished. As soon as they regained their strength and multiplied their numbers, they devasted the existing cultures and removed them from their land! Had it not been for Afr. Amer. soldiers adding man power to regiments, northern forces may very well have suffered and succomed to southern might during the civil war. In many cases, men of color participated in war efforts because they were promised things... their freedom, or land rights. These things were seldom, if ever followed through on. How dare any white American make any claim to gaining freedom from Britain and establishing this country single handedly! What then is there to be proud of... not much if you ask me, so they must then resort to distorting history. Yes , it is a terrible shame. But, we who know differently are given a life challenge to tell the truth and spread it. Taxation without representation is not right and All Americans who lost lives should be equally represneted on rosters, rolls, lists, and databases!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!