The WPA "Slave Narratives". Greatly Needed Today

 


Under the auspices of Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, (WPA) a "Federal Writers Project" was established to promote the stage, literary pursuits, and historical research, among other things. 

One of its most important accomplishments was a project to interview the many then still living former Slaves at that time who chronicled their experiences as they survived enslavement, rose up, or were otherwise kept down by the legacy of Slavery. Here is a link to the Library of Congress page which summarizes the project and provides references. Many people will be surprised to know that this was part of the FDR program to rebuild the Nation, including those who profiled him as a racist. 

Wouldn't it serve the American people well to make this a centerpiece of history curriculum in public schools, and to revive one of the little known but great accomplishments of FDR''s New Deal? The voices of these survivors speak to us from the not all that distant past. Their accounts carry tremendous moral authority above and beyond that of well intentioned but privileged academics writing in the present. They lived it. They are survivors of the Black Holocaust, and their stories should remind us of the impending horror the future holds if Trumpism and its related "Slaveholder Values" outlook succeeds in turning back the clock. 

Let's pick fights like this with the leadership of the new Confederacy. Shove this history down their throats until they choke on it.

https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/articles-and-essays/introduction-to-the-wpa-slave-narratives/wpa-and-the-slave-narrative-collection/

https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/

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