Residents look to St John Parish history to save a rural stretch of the West Bank from industrialization thelensnola.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thelensnola.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A little more than a year after the Florida Task Force on Abandoned African-American Cemeteries submitted their final report, there’s been little (legislative) action related to the panel’s findings and recommendations. But, in that time, several previously unknown cemeteries have been documented, including a few from the northwest region.
Alabama voters head to the polls for the midterm elections next week. One ballot item would abolish slavery in the state. The vote takes place one hundred and fifty seven years after the thirteenth amendment ended the practice nationally. Historians say many of the estimated four hundred thousand enslaved people, who were freed, chose to live out their lives in Alabama. APR spoke to some of their descendants who say they’re still dealing with the impact of the slave trade. The Alabama Public Radio newsroom spent nine months investigating one aspect of that. Namely, the effort to preserve slave cemeteries in the state.
The thirteenth amendment did away with slavery in the United States one hundred and fifty seven years ago. Alabama voters may take similar action next month. The state’s Constitution still allows involuntary servitude. An estimated four hundred thousand slaves were held in Alabama before they were finally freed in 1865. APR spoke with the descendants of some of these people. They talked about trying to find the burial sites of their ancestors, and facing roadblocks not shared by their white neighbors.