Adorn: May 2015

I hope you take a few minutes to read this HERE.

It's about John Cummings, (right) and the Whitney Plantation Slavery Museum, the FIRST in the United States. There are African American museums where there is a section devoted to slavery, but NO museum is dedicated solely to the horrific history of slavery in this country, to 245 years of it. Slavery existed in the United States longer than the existence of this country as an independent nation.

Shiri and I visited the museum while in New Orleans. It's about an hour outside the city, one of many other plantations, except this one does not tell the story of the lovely, tranquil, mint julep drinking times. This plantation tells what really went on. We met John Cummings while on our visit. An inspirational man with a simple message: "Get involved".

From the article in the NYT:

“Challenge me, fight me on it,” he said. “I’ve been asked all the questions. About white guilt this and that. About the honky trying to profit off of slavery. But here’s the thing: Don’t you think the story of slavery is important?” With that, Cummings went silent, something he does with unsettling frequency in conversation. “Well, I checked into it, and I heard you weren’t telling it,” he finally resumed, “so I figured I might as well get started".

It was certainly one of the highlights of our visit. If you are in the area, make a point of visiting. Here is the website: www.whitneyplantation.com