THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 24, 1996 TAG: 9606240048
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROANOKE ISLAND LENGTH: 99 lines
Surrounded by memories and four generations of her family, 62-year-old Betty Spence called Sunday a ``great day.''
``My great-great-great-grandfather was one of the freedmen,'' said Spence, sitting at a stone picnic table, under a cool canopy of longleaf pines and sprawling live oaks.
``I think for the first time, people are beginning to recognize black history, that for so long was either forgotten or completely ignored.''
The Camden woman was among about 500 African Americans and whites who gathered to celebrate the Roanoke Island Freedman's Colony, a settlement of freed slaves that flourished on this North Carolina island from 1862 until 1867.
In the wake of the recent outbreak of fires aimed at predominantly African-American churches across the country, Sunday's festivities took on a special meaning.
``It really bothers me that there is so much emphasis on the negative things that happen, when there are positive things like this happening in our communities,'' Spence said.
Folks sang, clapped, danced, hugged and prayed throughout the daylong event, the first-ever commemoration of the Freedman's Colony. Military re-enactors, sweltering in full Confederate and Union regalia, bivouacked to the beat of a rock 'n' roll band. The celebrants renewed old acquaintances and made new friends over heaping plates of fried fish and glasses of iced tea.
``It's been great to come back and learn about what the freedmen did for the Outer Banks,'' said Spence's daughter, Alena Gallop of Waterbury, Conn. ``But it's really something to see people come together like this. It's like a family reunion.''
The Rev. LaVert Taylor, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lexington, Va., and a veteran of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, said celebrations like Sunday's gathering are common around the country.
``I think it's good that African Americans and whites can come together in a spirit of love and fellowship.''
Organizers for the event had hoped to attract up to 1,000 people. Virginia Tillett of Manteo, who traces her roots back to the Freedman's Colony and headed the organizing committee, was pleased with the first-year turnout.
``We've had people come from all over North Carolina, Virginia and as far away as Connecticut,'' said Tillett, chairwoman of the Dare County School Board.
The colony was established after Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside captured this strategically important coastal island in 1862. The community was established by Rev. Horace James, a Congregationalist minister. Under his direction, schools, churches and a hospital were constructed, and light industry was established. The colony grew to nearly 4,000 settlers.
By the war's end, the colony's population declined. And in 1867, property that was provided for African-American settlers was returned to white property owners who took loyalty oaths and had clear title to the land.
``The Roanoke Island colony was special for two reasons,'' said Patricia Click, a historian for the University of Virginia who is writing about the settlement. ``First, there are a number of parallels to the Lost Colony.''
The Lost Colony was the name given to 1587 English settlers who disappeared.
``Also, the missionaries on the island saw it as a great social experiment.''
Click said the settlers showed the importance of education and family.
``There was a man who was attending one of the schools on the island,'' Click said. ``At one point in class, he threw up his hands and said to his teacher, `Oh, how you do let the light in!' ''
Click said Sunday's celebration was a good start.
``I think it's an exciting beginning,'' she said. ``I hope that it will lead to many more celebrations.''
Barbara-Marie Green, a Virginia Beach poet whose work was recently included in an anthology of poetry by African-American women, compared Sunday's festivities with a painting. Her parents, Joe and Thenia Green, were the children of slaves.
``I think events like this are painted in pastels,'' she said. ``The ugly things that happen are painted in darker, more dominant colors. But the richness of life happens in pastels. That is where true human feelings are, and I emphasize true.''
Perhaps the most moving event of the day came Sunday morning when some 250 African-American and white worshipers heard Taylor exhort them to hold on to their dream of a nation where all people can live together in harmony. At the close of the service, the multitude joined hands, singing ``We Shall Overcome.''
In the afternoon, as the celebration drew to a close, Spence said her great-great-great-grandfather probably would have summed up the day in two words:
``At last.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
DREW C. WILSON photos
The Virginian-Pilot
Barbara-Marie Green, a Virginia Beach poet, above, reads poems in
Sunday's commemoration of the Freedman's Colony, a settlement of
freed slaves that flourished from 1862 to 1867. Left, five
generations of colony descendants gather around a display honoring
patriarch John Frank Wise, a Roanoke Island shoemaker.
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KEYWORDS: REUNION ROANOKE ISLAND by CNB