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Remembering Courageous People Showing Us The Way

In these days of growing challenges to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs, it’s timely to look back in our history to mine lessons that could guide us to a more inclusive future. When I reflect on the struggles of minority populations, and specifically the Black community, in American history there is a period that stands out.

Prior to the end of the Civil War, Southern authorities and newspapers worked diligently to deny the reality of self-liberated slaves creating free, multi-generational, and self-sustaining communities in the South. Those locations were known as Maroons, and were part of any country that embraced slavery, e.g., Brazil, Haiti, and many more in the Caribbean and South America. Estimates are over fifty Maroons existed at various times in the American South, located in areas not easily accessible, such as mountainous or swampy terrains.

The largest Maroon in North America survived in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina--the Great Dismal Swamp. Before modern development and encroachment, that swamp covered an area the size of Rhode Island. Recent research estimates that over 2,000 individuals lived freely in one of the worst environments accessible to humans. Indigenous people who populated the Dismal for thousands of years before the first runaways arrived often worked closely with fleeing slaves to share knowledge and skills needed to survive in the swamp. Whether fugitive slaves chose to live alone or settled into larger communities, these amazing people built cooperative systems and a working economy to support themselves.

The basis for their economy centered on harvesting cedar trees and trading with white merchants willing to skirt the law. The most in-demand product was finished timber, such as shingles. Wood products harvested and produced by Maroon residents were typically of higher quality and undersold competing products produced by enslavers. This reality demonstrated how minorities could organize and govern themselves, which threatened the myths that authorities used to justify slavery. In attempts to suppress knowledge among slaves about Maroon successes, Southern governments attempted to deny the existence of Maroon communities. Where feasible, militias mobilized to stamp them out. Because of the vastness of the Dismal, Maroon communities deep in the swamp were beyond the threat of force.

Among the current President’s many recent directives, Executive Order 3431 directs the dismantling of information and exhibits at federal sites that recognize the courage and accomplishments of people who stood up to slavery. Displays and materials honoring the Maroons at the Great Dismal Swamp Refuge have been ordered for removal and will no longer tell the courageous stories of people who refused bondage to create a better future for their children.

Similar to the use of force against and suppressing information about Maroon communities in years past, today I see parallel efforts from the current administration by attempting to deny the value of programs that assist minorities harmed by long-standing barriers that are a product of the darkest chapter in American history. Just like those supporting slavery before the Civil War, this administration is determined to move against efforts that lead to a more integrated and healthier society for all citizens.

What can those who chose life with mosquito swarms and twenty-one kinds of snakes, versus any day back on the plantation, tell us today? We need to resist misinformation that claims DEI initiatives no longer have value and, in our local communities, fill the void created by the administration’s extreme actions. Initiatives with businesses, local governments, and educational institutions must continue to educate how a diverse society creates a stronger, more creative society. Just as the Maroon residents and their communities sacrificed for a better world for their children, the voices from years past cry out to us to resist, stay creative, and never give in to messages of darkness.