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Bill Proposes a Clearinghouse to Aid Blacks' Genealogical Research

BY BRUCE ALPERT
c.2005 Newhouse News Service

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WASHINGTON -- Because black Americans have a hard time researching their family histories due to the scarcity of records during slavery and beyond, some lawmakers think Congress ought to help by creating a clearinghouse for genealogical research.

"For many African-Americans, the search for their family history can be extraordinarily difficult and particularly frustrating," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

Landrieu and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., this week reintroduced the Servitude and Emancipation Archival Research Clearinghouse Act, which would designate $5 million for a new national clearinghouse to help blacks research their past. The two introduced the bill with little fanfare in the last Congress, but it died in the House after passing the Senate.

Cummings, who is black, said he knows personally the difficulty of obtaining family history. During his research, he was able to uncover some clues about his great-grandparents' struggle with slavery, but little solid information.

Landrieu said that during slavery, many records included just the first names of slaves, and little or nothing about their families. Even after emancipation in 1865, "rampant racism" in many communities meant that records kept on blacks were far less likely to include important details, or even to be stored in an organized fashion.

Charles Bolton, a history professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, said the U.S. census during slavery captured detailed information on whites, including names, but little other than the gender and numbers of blacks in a household.

There is substantially more information available about Louisiana slaves, according to historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall. This is partly because black slaves were considered property there, and by state law, records of property transactions were considered public documents to be stored in parish courthouses.

Through an appointment by Southern University, Hall is updating her own database of some 90,000 entries about slaves in Louisiana, which she collected over 15 years of visits to parish courthouses and archives as in places as far-flung as France and Spain.

Some documents, she said, include not only the names of the slave and master, but information about the slave's origins and special skills.

People have a strong need to learn about their ancestors, Hall said.

"Many African-Americans who get to learn about their ancestors are excited because they never thought they would have that chance because of slavery," she said.

Cummings said that for many, learning about ancestors who were slaves is confirmation about how much blacks have had to overcome, and of the race's resiliency and strength.

Landrieu said it's important that Congress help those who want to research their pasts, "even if it leads to something as painful as slavery." Unless Congress acts soon, she said, it's likely that records stored in courthouses, churches, cemeteries and other places across America will fall into such disrepair as to be useless.

She would like to see a clearinghouse help organize the available information so that blacks beginning a genealogical search have a better shot at getting what they seek.

June 24, 2005


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