OUR POLARIZED NATION
RACIAL WARS: THE CORROSIVE LEGACY OF RACISM
"Along the banks of the James River, Virginia, during an oppressively hot spell in the middle of summer 1619, two events occurred within a few weeks of each other that would profoundly shape the course of history. Convened with little fanfare or formality, the first gathering of a representative governing body anywhere in the Americas, the General Assembly, met from July 30 to August 4 in the choir of the newly built church at Jamestown."
A few weeks later, a battered English privateer, the White Lion, entered the Chesapeake Bay after a fierce battle with a Portuguese slave ship bound for Veracruz. Taking 20 or so slaves as bounty from their victory, the Captain of the White Lion sold them to Virginia planters for much needed food and water. "No one in Virginia in 1619 or in the years following could have possibly grasped the' importance of what had occurred . . . 1619 marks the inception of the most important political development in American history, the rise of democracy, and the emergence of what would in time become one of the nation's greatest challenges, the corrosive legacy of racial stereotypes that continues to afflict our society today."
So writes James Horn, eminent historian and President of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation in:1619 Jamestown and The Forging of American Democracy.
That corrosive legacy has surfaced many times throughout the course of our history since 1619. Ending racism and hate is long overdue.