Why we must confront the painful parts of US history | Hasan Kwame Jeffries

TED

Visit to James Madison's Montpelier Estate

Speaker received invitation to historic home of James Madison (4th US President, Constitution father, Bill of Rights architect)
Montpelier estate: several thousand acres rolling hills, farmland, forest with Blue Ridge Mountain views
Estate was slave labor camp - Madison enslaved 100+ people over lifetime, never freed single person (not even upon death)
Mansion centerpiece: Madison's library (2nd floor room where Bill of Rights conceived/conceptualized)

Director of education Christian Coats led tour to mansion cellars
Cellars: where enslaved African Americans managing house spent most time
New exhibition on slavery in America being installed
Coats instructed speaker to slide hand along brick cellar walls
Discovery: tiny handprints/impressions in brick faces
- All bricks at Madison estate made by enslaved children
- Realization: Bill of Rights library rests on foundation of bricks made by enslaved children

Hard history: difficult to imagine inhumanity of enslaving children for comfort/convenience
Hard to discuss slavery violence: beatings, whippings, kidnappings, forced family separations
Hard to teach white supremacy ideology that justified slavery
Common avoidance strategies:
- Making up false narratives (states rights as primary Civil War cause)
- Rationalizing ("wasn't he a good master?" - no such thing as good master, only worse/worser)
- Pretending past didn't happen (slavery existed in every American colony, including New York for 50 years post-Revolution)

Quote from Reggie Gibson (literary performer/educator): Americans hate history, love nostalgia
Nostalgia: stories about past making us comfortable about present
George Santayana quote: "Those who cannot remember past condemned to repeat it"
Problem: inherent assumption we stopped doing things creating inequality
Reality: we haven't stopped

Wealth generation: accumulating resources in one generation, transferring to subsequent generations
Current statistics:
- Median white household wealth: $147,000
- Median black household wealth: $4,000
Gap explained through hard history

Great great grandfather: born enslaved Jasper County, Georgia 1850s
- Never allowed to accumulate anything
- Emancipated with nothing, never compensated for bricks made
Great grandfather: born Jasper County, Georgia 1870s
- Managed to accumulate fair bit of land
- 1910s: Jim Crow took land and his life
Grandfather Leonard Jeffrey Sr.: born Georgia, grew up Newark, NJ
- Worked as custodian most of life
- Job discrimination, segregated education, redlining prevented middle class entry
- Passed away early 1990s leaving only life insurance policy barely covering funeral expenses
Parents (both social workers): purchased Crown Heights, Brooklyn home 1980
- Purchase price: $55,000 at 29% interest
- Crown Heights: all-black neighborhood, rough area (gunshots by mid-1980s)
- Gentrification occurred ~20 years ago
- Went to sleep in all-black neighborhood, woke up in all-white neighborhood
- Home value skyrocketed: now worth 30x original price ($55,000 x 30 = $1,650,000)
- Will be first meaningful wealth transfer in family history (150+ years post-slavery)

Nation stands on shoulders of political giants like James Madison
Hard history reminder: also stands on shoulders of enslaved African-American children
Little black boys/girls with bare hands made bricks serving as nation's foundation
Creating fair/just society requires remembering hard history and remembering them

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