Happy New Year Grassroots Wire readers!

As we try to forget a terrible 2020, let’s remember an important, untaught history lesson and the landmark document that delivered one of the most important developments in world history.

On January 1st 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the end of the independence struggle in Haiti. This historical milestone — the first successful slave revolt, first republic in Latin America, precursor to Bolivarian revolution—required the Haitian guerrilla army to out-fight, out-negotiate, and out-think the armies of the world’s competing superpowers.   The French, the British, and the Spanish all tried to re-conquer and re-enslave the Haitian people.  But the European nations' superior finances, military technology, and standing armies were no match for the determination of the Haitian people.  One after the other, they came to the realization that they were fighting an unwinnable war.

The Haitian Declaration of Independence was released on this day 216 years ago.  This was a remarkable document and not only because it was created by the unlettered Dessalines. He crafted a multi level statement that sent a message to at least four different sets of friends and enemies.

To the Maroons and the Haitian people, a volatile mixture of Blacks, Creoles, Mulattoes, Francophiles, nationalists: he sent a message of victory, hope, reconciliation, and encouragement.  To the remaining French enemies of abolition, he sent a warning.  To their worried neighbors - the United States, Jamaica, Cuba, Latin American - he offered reassurances that Haiti would not immediately bring revolution to their countries.

Why isn’t the Haitian Revolution taught in New York’s public schools - alongside the French Revolution, the Magna Carta, the Russian Revolution, and the American Revolution? Why aren’t our Brown and Black elected officials insisting on such a modest symbol of equality?  This is a lesson appropriate for everyone; it should be heard by both Black and non-Black students.

Until New York parents take control of their children's futures, the system will continue to serve up the Christopher Columbus myth, the Alexander Hamilton myth, and the myth of Black inferiority.