Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
DID YOU KNOW THAT -
The Statue of Liberty was originally a Black woman, but, as memory
serves, it was because the model was Black. The original statue which is in France, is that of a "Black Woman"..
In a book called "The Journey of The Songhai People", according to
Dr.Jim Haskins, a member of the National Education Advisory
Committee
of the Liberty-Ellis Island Committee, professor of English at the
University of Florida, and prolific Black author, points out that
what
stimulated the original idea for that 151 foot statue in the harbor.
He says that what stimulated the idea for the creation of the
statue
initially was the part that Black soldiers played in the ending of
Black African Bondage in the United States.
It was created in the
mind of the French historian Edourd de Laboulaye, chairman of the
French Anti-Slavery Society, who, together with sculptor Frederic
Auguste Bartholdi, proposed to the French government that the people
of France present to the people of the United States through the American
Abolitionist Society, the gift of a Statue of Liberty in recognition
of the fact that Black soldiers won the Civil War in the United
States.
It was widely known then that it was Black soldiers who played the
pivotal role in winning the war, and this gift would be a tribute to
their prowess. Suzanne Nakasian, director of the Staue of Liberty,
Ellis Island Foundations' National Ethnic Campaign said that the
Black
Americans' direct connection to Lady Liberty is unknown to the
majority of Americans, BLACK or WHITE.
When the statue was presented to the U.S. Minister to France in
1884,
it is said that he remonstrated that the dominant view of the
broken
shackles would be offensive to a U.S. South, because since the
statue
was a reminder of Blacks winning their freedom. It was a reminder
to
a beaten South of the ones who caused their defeat, their despised
former
captives.
Documents of Proof:
1) You may go and see the original model of the Statue of
Liberty,
with the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand. Go to the
Museum of the City of N.Y, Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street (212)
534-1672 or call the same number and dial ext.208 and speak to Peter
Simmons and he can send you some documentation.
2) Check with the N.Y Times magazine, part II_May 18,
1986.
Read
the article by Laboulaye.
3) The dark original face of the Statue of Liberty can be seen in
the
N.Y Post, June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the
broken chains at her feet.
4) Finally, you may check with the French Mission or the
French
Embassy at the UN or in Washington, DC and ask for some original
French material on the Statue of Liberty, including the Bartholdi
original model. You can call in September (202) 944-6060 or 6400.
RELATED 
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The American Immigrant Wall Of Honor
Ellis Island Statue of Liberty Links
Statue of Liberty Facts
Statue of Liberty Facts
Virtual Birmingham Photo Gallery: Statue of Liberty
Views and prints of the Statue of Liberty -
Statue of Liberty -- History
STATs STLI Product 2 Data Sheet
AOL Search: Results for Statue Of Liberty
