The Historical History of Keeping Blacks in the USA and Why Our Existing Historical Records of National Origin Are Hidden!
Between 1834 and the 1860s, the U.S. Department of State refused to grant free people of color official passports for international travel. During a period when passport policy was still nascent, by rejecting black applicants, the federal government illustrated how travel and citizenship were inextricably linked in the United States. At the same time that African Americans could not get passports, state laws and customs required some people of color to carry a series of identification papers best thought of as racialized surveillance documents, including slave passes, black sailors’ passports, and free papers.
Demonstrating how fundamentally raced the idea of carrying papers was to white Americans, when white people traveled abroad, they consistently grumbled about having to show their papers. For colored travelers, however, the passport was an object of desire because it denoted U.S. citizenship. In the late 1840s and early 1850s, by pushing the federal government to address racial restrictions for acquiring the U.S. passport, colored travelers rendered the question of black citizenship a matter of national import almost a decade before the 1857 Dred Scott decision did the same. Americans have long regarded the freedom of travel a central tenet of citizenship. Yet, in the United States, freedom of movement has historically been a right reserved for whites.
African Americans fought obstructions to their mobility over 100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. These were “colored travelers,” activists who relied on
steamships, stagecoaches, and railroads to expand their networks and to fight slavery and racism. They refused to ride in "Jim Crow" railroad cars, fought for the right to hold a U.S. passport (and citizenship), and during their transatlantic voyages, demonstrated their radical abolitionism. By focusing on the myriad strategies of black protest, including the assertions of gendered freedom and citizenship, the basic act of traveling emerged as a front line in the battle for African American equal rights before the Civil War. This act of owning a passport still holds the same weight of importance it is a tool of power beyond any other document. In the quest for citizenship, Black so-called "Colored" travelers in the 1800's constructed ideas about respectability and challenged racist ideologies that made black mobility a crime.
With two exceptions, U.S. citizens were not required to have a passport for travel abroad until 1941. Passports were required for a short time during the Civil War (August 19, 1861–March 17, 1862) and during World War I (May 22, 1918–1921). After World War II began, passports became mandatory for all U.S. travelers. Marcus Garvey wasn’t the first black civil rights leader. But he was arguably the first to focus on black pride and self-reliance. The organizations he founded in the early 20th century, such as the African Communities League, crusaded for everything from black entrepreneurship to the pan-African struggle against colonial rule.
After World War I he emigrated to New York and founded the Black Star shipping line to help promote black business in the U.S. and abroad – and ferry black people who wanted to move to Africa across the Atlantic. Marcus Garvey and his organization, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), represent the largest mass movement in African-American history. Proclaiming a black nationalist "Back to Africa" message, Garvey and the UNIA established 700 branches in thirty-eight states by the early 1920s. The US Government panicked as black labor was the key to its economic growth. Blacks were more highly skilled in every trade including farming, architecture, and even academia when given equal access than their European counterparts and could be paid far less. The same reasons they were needed for the economy are the reasons they threatened the white power structure.
To promote unity, Garvey encouraged African Americans to be concerned with themselves first. He stated after World War One that "[t]he first dying that is to be done by the black man in the future will be done to make himself free. And then when we are finished, if we have any charity to bestow, we may die for the white man. But as for me, I think I have stopped dying for him." Black people had to do the work that success and independence demanded, and, most important, they had to do that work for themselves. "If you want liberty," claimed Garvey to a meeting held in 1921, "you yourselves must strike the blow. If you must be free, you must become so through your own effort." Prior to 1862, the Federal government did not consider free blacks to be citizens of the United States. As such, the Department of State rarely issued passports to free Blacks then they stopped them from leaving during World War I by requiring passports until the war ended.
Only two passport applications relating to free Blacks that were issued prior to the Civil War. The first #1673 issued to Robert Morris, Jr. June 28, 1861 and the second application #3373 was issued to Robert Purvis on May 19, 1834, in the Passport Applications, 1795-1905.Current Reasons for denying a passport include a valid, unsealed federal warrant of arrest, a federal or state criminal court order, a condition of parole or probation forbidding departure from the United States (or the jurisdiction of the court), or a request for extradition. Some may be surprised to learn that being behind in child support payments is also a way to keep people from access to a passport in the US. Passports are not a right, they are a privilege extended to "Americans" who are not incarcerated, do not have a warrant out for their arrest, and do not owe child support in excess of $2500.
In case you haven't noticed, the political arena in the U.S. is scary. If the defecation continues to hit the fan you want to be ready to leave if need be; there will be no time to wait for a passport to be ordered by then. And given the current state of white supremacy, shootings of unarmed Black men, murders of Black women while in custody and sex trafficking of underage girls and women going on (all of which are perpetrated by our police) there may come a time when you need to dip. Soon. And you'll need a passport unless you plan to swim. Racist conservative extremists Donald Trump’s rise has coincided with an explosion of hate groups. Well, at least the knowledge about these groups' existence. The fears of white America he campaigns on have ignited negativity, hatred and utter madness with his ideological reign.
Nationally, 56% of American adults own a valid passport, according to consumer survey data from MRI-Simmons. But a close look at the numbers through the prism of the ACP, suggests a complicated set of issues behind which some communities are disenfranchised based on income and social hierarchy and less likely to own a passport. The United States of America passport ranking is due to the degree of global entry it guarantees to American passport holders, who may travel visa-free to 187 countries, but who otherwise need a visa to access 23 countries globally.
In 2019, Ghana's president invited African descendants in the diaspora to mark the "Year of Return," commemorating 400 years since the first Africans arrived in the colony now known as Virginia on a slave ship. The invite prompted record tourism to Ghana, and an increase in Americans who applied for visas to stay. The African Americans within 4 years brought over 4 billion dollars to Ghana and helped catalyze the ideological opposition to neo colonialism. Their presence WOKE Africa. America's founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written. For generations, black Americans have fought to make them a reality and when we travel we point out hypocrisy we are the warrior caste of the diaspora loud, driven and unapologetic in our glorious blackness that does not require the belittling of others for us to shine.
This is why some people wat to erase black history because it is global and all encompassing! First used in the 1940s, the term “woke” has resurfaced in recent years as a concept that symbolizes awareness of social issues and movement against injustice, inequality, and prejudice. Everything a racist fears. Especially if they are crippled by not being taught truth their lack of knowledge weakens each generation. Making them less able to compete on a level playing field as they are engaged in an illusion of superiority. They are dreaming, and asleep. being Woke IS their endless nightmare!
To Apply for a US Passport, you will need:
Form DS-11, Application for a U.S. Passport
Evidence of U.S. citizenship
Photocopy of U.S. citizenship (if provided)
Photocopy of identification (front and back)
One passport photo
Passport application fee
"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." -Chinese proverb
コメント