Black History Month

I've often felt listening to a first person reenactor makes history feel alive. Whether it is at Williamsburg or learning Rosie-the-Riveter, or going to the Spirit of the Jerseys State History Fair, or dining with them at the Cock and Bull restaurant in Lahaska, PA, it is mesmerizing listening to their story in a way that simply hearing a lecture or reading about them in a book. You walk away feeling as if you have met the person. To be able to ask "them" questions makes you feel as if you are getting answers from the ultimate source. Done well, it is easy to forget they are actors pretending to be the person and they just might not know all the answers.

This Black History Month I have had the pleasure of "meeting" Father Tolton and Phillis Wheatley in separate events.

Father Augustus Tolton lived in the mid-19th century. He was the first African American priest (but not the first Black priests as other countries allowed Black men to become priests before we did in the United States), and is on the path to sainthood. He was born in Missouri in 1854 as a slave and escaped to Illinois with his mother and siblings. He was kicked out of a German Catholic school because he was black. The Irish Catholic priest embraced him and encouraged him to learn. His faith, and the faith of his mother, was unshakable. The priest encouraged him to become ordained. After being rejected by all of the schools in the United States, he went to Rome to become ordained. Upon culmination of his program, they sent him back to Illinois to serve. Along the way he learned German, Latin, and Greek. He died when he was 43.

"Tolton from Slave to Priest: the true story of America's first Black Priest" is a Saint Luke Production. It was presented at Notre Dame High School. Jim Coleman performed the lead role. The others, including his mother, the devil, different priests, and his best friend, were presented on the screen. This format keeps the costs down. Throughout the 75-minute production, Jim changed his outfits representing the different stages in Father Tolton's life. I was disappointed there was not a Q&A session at the end. I entered knowing nothing about his life, and left fascinated by all he accomplished, a little ashamed at how little I have done with my life. Saint Luke Productions also educates people about other saints (and future saints) including Mother Theresa, John, and Saint Augustine.

A few days later I learned about Phillis Wheatley. Talk about feeling like a slacker! Here is a girl born in Africa about 1753 and forcibly brought to the United States in 1760 when she was only 7 years old. She is purchased in Boston by the Wheatley family. She led an in-between life. Though a slave, she lived in the main house and ate with the family. The Wheatley children educated Phillis (she was named Phillis because that is the boat she came over on). When they went to church, she sat upstairs with the slaves. When Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley died, nothing was left for her. She not only read the entire bible, she translated it into Latin. She could also read Greek. She was that kind of brilliant. She started writing poems, many of them elegies, and espoused political opinions. She traveled to England with the Wheatley's son. She was incredibly well education for a woman of her time, for any race.

Daisy Century, EdD, the re-enactor is also quite impressive. Through American Historical Theater, she presents eight different people, including Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Mme. C.J. Walker, Mary Fields, Bessie Coleman, and (of course) Phillis Wheatley. She did have a Q&A afterwards. The cutest question was from a little girl about seven years old who asked "didn't I see you as Bessie Coleman in the library?" I may be fooled by a wig and a change in posture, but this little girl was not! I asked Daisy how she keeps it all straight and she said it is through the clothes. Throughout her 75-minute presentation she adjusted her clothing in front of us, changing a hat or adding a shawl, to demonstrate how her life was changing.

Two very remarkable people. Had they lived near each other (both in time and geography), I wonder what their conversations would have been like. Both brilliant, neither one living in the right time or place.

What would their lives have been life if white people didn't enslave them?