REFLECTIONS ON FREEDOM

The week before this year’s July 4th celebration is a stark reminder that the journey to “Liberty and Justice for All” continues. The relentless assault by the Supreme Court is a clarion call for those of us whose previously granted rights have been rescinded as well as those who have fought along side us. For those who rejoice in the dismantling of years of judicial precedent, this chapter in American history won’t last.?The Civil War, the suffrage and women’s rights movement, the Civil Rights movement, and the fight for LGBTQ rights are proof that the American people will not suffer injustice forever.

As the media and pundits of all political persuasions waited for the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case Students for For Fair Admission vs. Harvard University, I reflected on another case that threatened to upend the then fledgling affirmative action programs in higher education.

I was a first year law student at Georgetown University Law Center when the Bakke vs UC Davis case was argued before the Supreme Court. A group of black students, including me, marched from the White House to the Supreme Court building; all of us hoping that the programs that allowed us to attend the best high schools, colleges and law schools would remain intact. (Unlike Justice Thomas I am not ashamed of being a beneficiary of affirmative action programs. I learned at an early age that my white male counterparts have enjoyed the benefits of affirmative action since the nation was founded.). Although the Bakke decision ruled out quotas in the higher education admissions process, it upheld “affirmative action" programs to?accept more minority applicants in certain circumstances.?Since that ruling, Universities and colleges have used that “carve out” to enhance opportunities for thousands and thousands of black and brown students across this nation.

Whatever measures for increasing diversity remain after the Fair Admissions case, I choose to believe that universities and other institutions will leverage those measures to ensure that they attract the best of America’s talented students and provide a?well-rounded and comprehensive education for all students.

While I am deeply sickened by the perfidy of the majority of the Supreme Court, especially the three newest justices who swore under oath to abide by existing precedent, I am neither surprised nor overly worried. I have many reasons to be encouraged.

Despite consistent and persistent failure of this country to live up to the promises of it’s founding documents, especially as it relates to black individuals and families, black families have endured the burdens of racism, prejudice, and colorism. My family is one of those families that has survived and thrived since its arrival in this country.

One part of my family line has lived in this country since the mid 1700’s. The Roberts clan, people of mixed African, Native American, and European descent, lived in eastern North Carolina along its border with Virginia. The first Roberts settlers lived as well-respected, free landowners for at least a generation before the American Revolution.

The families’ prosperity came under threat in the early 1800s. The lack of sufficient enslaved people forced plantation owners to?share enslaved individuals. This required that enslaved individuals be allowed to move from plantation to plantation.?However, the movement of enslaved people caused anxiety among the plantation owner and other white residents. Slave codes which had been in place since the colonial era were strictly enforced.?Although the slave codes were establish to control the movement of enslaved people, free black people were often the subject of enforcement. Anxious white residents called for more control over black bodies.?

Over the course of twenty years,?starting in the 1820’s, the North Carolina legislature made it increasingly difficult for the Roberts to live comfortably on their own land. State laws made it a crime to teach black people to read or write; to distribute any information encouraging rebellion among enslaved peoples; and restricted the movement of enslaved and free black people.

By 1835, North Carolina prevented free blacks from voting, attending school, or preaching in public. In this hostile environment, the Roberts clan understood that their freedom was in true jeopardy.

In July 1835,?my ancestors, Hansel Roberts, Elijah Roberts, and Micajah Walden traveled to Indianapolis to buy land offered for sale by the federal government. The three men had decided to move to Hamilton County, a little north of Indianapolis. They considered the area to be safe as their land was in close proximity to a Quaker settlement. Quakers were known to be abolitionists and supportive of free black people.

By the end of that year the three men moved their families from North Carolina to Indiana. Together they settled in the wilderness and established a farming community which became known as Roberts Settlement.?By 1840 the community included ten families and 900 acres of land. The early years in Hamilton County were challenging. However, the community continued to grow.

The Roberts enjoyed good relationships with the local Quaker community. Sadly, white Hoosiers’ general tolerance for the blacks in their midst grew tenuous, the result of increasingly negative views of African-American stemming from the national debate over slavery. The Indiana legislature added Article XIII to the state’s 1851 Constitution which prohibited further black settlement, a sign of the depth of white resentments.

Despite the growing hostility of

whites in the area and the challenges of farming in the wilderness, the Roberts families persisted through the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century.?Members in the community became preachers, teachers and barbers and provided services to residents of the settlement and beyond.

In the mid-1920s, growing self-awareness of Roberts Settlement’s special heritage led former residents to organize annual homecoming reunions, establishing a Fourth of July tradition that has continued to the present day. At the first gathering Cyrus Roberts, who grew up in the neighborhood during its most prosperous days, proclaimed to the assembled?celebrants that:

“Our religious and educational facilities and opportunities have not been excelled in the past, [and] our religious influence and intellectual ability. . . are known far and wide. . . . [Today] our talent is sought and the name “Roberts Settlement” has become a synonym, not only for greatness, but also for honesty and uprightedness wherever spoken”

It was my honor and privilege to attend the one hundredth reunion of this amazing family. Close to two hundred members of the Roberts clan gathered to celebrate the courage of our ancestors, the allies who supported them on the journey and the descendants who will carry the story into the future.

My celebration of July 4th is a reminder that people of color like my family continue to strive for freedom and justice. I believe those who continue to strive will succeed. We will be supported by allies, and we will hold in our hearts the words of Martin Luther King, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” ?Change is going to come so I will keep my eyes on the prize.

Special thanks to Dr. Stephen A. Vincent, an independent professional historian who has carefully documented the history of Roberts Settlement and its families.?For more information about this family, I invite you to read his book Southern See, Northern Soil:?African-American Farm Communities in the Midwest, 1765-1900.?You can also find information at www.robertsseettlemnt.org.