February 16, 2005: Headlines: COS - Ecuador: Black Studies: Slavery: NY Daily News: "People generally do not think of New York City as a center of slavery, but the city actually has a longer history of slavery than it has of freedom, said Ecuador RPCV Howard Dodson, who heads the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
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February 16, 2005: Headlines: COS - Ecuador: Black Studies: Slavery: NY Daily News: "People generally do not think of New York City as a center of slavery, but the city actually has a longer history of slavery than it has of freedom, said Ecuador RPCV Howard Dodson, who heads the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
"People generally do not think of New York City as a center of slavery, but the city actually has a longer history of slavery than it has of freedom, said Ecuador RPCV Howard Dodson, who heads the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
"People generally do not think of New York City as a center of slavery, but the city actually has a longer history of slavery than it has of freedom, said Ecuador RPCV Howard Dodson, who heads the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
"People generally do not think of New York City as a center of slavery, but the city actually has a longer history of slavery than it has of freedom, said Ecuador RPCV Howard Dodson, who heads the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
City's forgotten slavery days
Director of Schomburg Center pushing year-round curriculum
BY LINDA TARRANT-REID
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
When considering slavery in America, New York City doesn't usually come to mind, but it does for Howard Dodson, who has got some history with the subject.
"People generally do not think of New York City as a center of slavery, but the city actually has a longer history of slavery than it has of freedom, said Dodson, who heads the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. "The first enslaved Africans came here in 1625 or so, and slavery wasn't abolished in New York until 1827. So, that's about 200 years of slavery and we would have to go into about 2027 to have 200 years of freedom."
Dodson is an authority on the history of people of African descent around the world - including the African slaves who helped build Colonial New York, their descendants and the thousands of black immigrants who've helped shape New York and the nation.
"The impact has been far more than those initial people who came," he said of those first enslaved Africans. "I would say that the position that people of African descent in United States have in virtually every form of literature, music, art, theater, and dance has been, in some respect, either fashioned here in New York or given voice and presence here in New York. New York's own, if you will, identity has been in many respects shaped by the cultural creativity of the production of people in the Harlem community, specifically, and New York, in general ... dating back to the 19th century."
Dodson, 66, has been at the helm of the Schomburg Center since 1984. The Harlem-based national research library houses more than 5 million items in its collections of art, audio and videotapes, books, manuscripts, films, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, prints, recorded music and sheet music.
Born in Chester, Pa., the former Peace Corps volunteer and national staff member, graduated from West Chester State College and Villanova University, and completed graduate studies at the University of California-Berkeley. Before coming to the Schomburg Center, Dodson spent three years as a consultant for the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington and nine years at the Institute of the Black World in Atlanta.
For more than 20 years, he has worked diligently to expand the collections at the center and present groundbreaking exhibits, including "Censorship and Black America and Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery" and one of his current ventures "In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience."
This interactive project consists of a book, an exhibition and a Web site on the migration of black people to and from the United States from the start of the transatlantic slave trade to the present.
Dodson has been working on a black history educational initiative called the "Freedom Trail Curriculum" that he hopes will be used year-round in schools. "We basically worked with a group of teachers to create course outlines and curriculum that look at the history of slavery and the slave trade in New York City," he said. "We are waiting on word from the Department of Education as to whether or not we will have money to do a Web site based on the research."
Although Dodson's expertise in black culture spans continents, New York City - and its fascinating history - holds special meaning for him.
The author of five books on African-American history and culture, including "The Black New Yorkers: The Schomburg Illustrated Chronology," he is involved in preserving the city history through projects such as the creation of an interpretive program for the Colonial-era African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan. "Among the things that we have proposed is that there be some kind of historic trail in New York City that marks those places where African-American institutions and major political and social events occurred," said Dodson.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is at 515 Malcolm X Blvd.. Visit its Web site at: www.schomburgcenter.org.
Linda Tarrant-Reid is the author of "Discovering Black New York: A Guide To The City's Most Important African American Landmarks, Restaurants, Museums, Historical."
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Story Source: NY Daily News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Ecuador; Black Studies; Slavery
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