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Tshaka gets slaves their due

Tshaka gets slaves their due
By Nathan Duke

Congress will vote on a resolution to place a marker in Washington, D.C.’s Emancipation Hall to recognize the U.S. Capitol was built with slave labor after Bayside activist Mandingo Tshaka brought the matter to U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman’s (D-Bayside) attention last year.

Tshaka attended the opening ceremony for Emancipation Hall in Washington, D.C., in early December and was upset there was no mention of the Capitol being built by African slaves.

“There’s nothing in that building to identify with enslaved Africans,” he said. “They did not even have a picture of Abraham Lincoln. I was outraged.”

Emancipation Hall will be the largest space in the new underground visitors center on the east side of the Capitol. The hall is to be a reminder of the enslaved laborers who built the Capitol as well as a celebration of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to free slaves in the Confederate states.

Ackerman said Congress will soon be voting on a resolution which calls for a marker or display to be placed in the hall that would recognize that slaves were used in the Capitol’s construction.

“It’s late, embarrassing and being remedied,” Ackerman said about the absence of any mention of the role of slaves. “There is no indication that slave labor helped build the Capitol of the free world.”

The Capitol’s architects would be in charge of coming up with a design for the marker, which could be a plaque, the congressman said. The marker would have to be designed and then approved, but Ackerman said this would not likely take too long to complete.

Congress could vote on the matter as early as this week, he said.

Tshaka said he was pleased Congress would address his concerns.

“They heard my voice in the wilderness,” said the longtime community activist. “God moves in mysterious ways.”

But he said he believed the hall should not only have a marker but also statues or some sort of display that describes the use of slaves in building the Capitol.

“A plaque is all right, but I’d like to see something that identifies it with the people that were emancipated,” he said. “We need someone whose ancestors were a victim of slavery to be involved in deciding this.”

Tshaka said he would also like for there to be another ceremony for the hall once any additions are completed.

Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.