[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 43 (Thursday, March 13, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E396]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               BLACK HISTORY EXHIBIT OPENS ON WEST COAST

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                          HON. NORMAN D. DICKS

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 13, 2008

  Mr. DICKS. Madam Speaker, the United States Capitol Historical 
Society has prepared a fascinating exhibit of artifacts and 
interpretative materials entitled ``From Freedom's Shadow: African 
Americans and the United States Capitol'' which is being displayed 
across America this year. It is a depiction of what is truly one of the 
better kept secrets in our Nation's history: that the construction of 
the United States Capitol, and even the casting of the Statue of 
Freedom that sits atop the dome, was accomplished with the help of 
slave labor.
  Earlier this month the exhibit opened on the West Coast, at Olympic 
High School in my congressional district, and it has given everyone in 
my home community an interesting, yet disturbing, insight into one of 
the most troubling contradictions of American society in the 18th and 
19th centuries. We were a society founded on the principle of freedom 
and yet even in the construction of the iconic seat of this Government 
we tolerated and benefited from the labor of people who were deprived 
of the essential freedoms that were celebrated beneath the Capitol 
Dome.
  This is an important and instructive exhibit, Mr. Speaker, and I am 
honored to submit for the Record an article from the Central Kitsap 
Reporter that was published on March 1st, entitled ``Black History 
exhibit at Oly exposes `cruel irony'.''

            [From the Central Kitsap Reporter, Mar. 1, 2008]

          Black History Exhibit at Oly Exposes ``Cruel Irony''

                           (By Paul Balcerak)

       Central Kitsap School District board members, employees and 
     educators had the tables turned on them Wednesday night.
       It was their turn to learn as they got one of the first 
     looks at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society's traveling 
     exhibit, ``From Freedom's Shadow: African Americans and the 
     United States Capitol.''
       The exhibit, a production of the U.S. Capitol Historical 
     Society, offers insight into one of the better kept dirty 
     little secrets in American history: that the U.S. Capitol was 
     built with help from black slave labor.
       The exhibit put front-and-center a jarring truth which the 
     historical society's Web site called a ``cruel irony.''
       ``It's a real tangible experience of the history that most 
     people don't know,'' Olympic Principal Bob Barnes said.
       Barnes admitted unawareness of the history before being 
     introduced to the project during the plan to bring it to CKSD 
     last year.
       ``In mainstream history, you get little snippets of things, 
     but you don't really get a feel (for what things were 
     actually like),'' he said. ``There are lots of little facts 
     out there that our history, as it's written, doesn't 
     necessarily reflect.''
       Documents showcased at the exhibit cover a period from 
     1794-1800 and shed light on some of the people history has 
     forgotten, People like Philip Reid, a slave who, ironically, 
     helped cast the five sections of ``Freedom,'' the statue that 
     sits atop the Capitol, in bronze.
       The title of the exhibit is in reference to the statue 
     itself.
       It wasn't easy unearthing stories such as Reid's, as 
     evidenced by the work exhibit curator Felicia Bell and her 
     colleagues did to bring the exhibit to life.
       ``It was a lot of primary source research, but also 
     secondary source research (to understand the context of the 
     primary sources),'' Bell said.
       Also director of education and outreach for the historical 
     society, Bell has spent countless hours at the National 
     Archives, Library of Congress and various historical 
     societies searching for any remnants of information that 
     could contribute to the exhibit. Some of it is scant, but 
     striking; Bell showed off an old timecard used to track all 
     workers' hours that used an ``N'' next to slaves'' names to 
     denote them as ``negroes.''
       The small document offered a blunt lesson: even timecards 
     were segregated.
       ``It's chilling, but I think it's important to understand 
     so we don't make those mistakes again,'' CKSD Curriculum 
     Specialist Jeni Zapatka said.
       Zapatka was responsible for discovering the exhibit and 
     pushing to have it brought to CKSD. Thanks to donations from 
     UPS, the exhibit is shipped across the country for free and 
     the only cost to the district was to bring Bell to the area 
     to showcase the exhibit.
       ``It's fun to see how students from various locations and 
     various backgrounds react to the exhibit,'' Bell said. ``I 
     think that it was kind of an eye-opener for students and 
     adults.''
       She has traveled with the exhibit to various locations 
     around the United States. Its arrival at Olympic, however, 
     marks the first time either have ever been to the West Coast.
       The exhibit is now in the hands of students at Olympic, who 
     spent Thursday being trained as docents by Bell. They'll be 
     the ones to pass information along to the public, which has a 
     few opportunities to see the exhibit between now and March 19 
     (see gray box).
       Students were equally outspoken and struck by the exhibit 
     during their training day.
       ``I never knew anything about the Freedom statue and all 
     the things the enslaved people had to go through to build the 
     Capitol,'' junior Amanda
       Vincent said. ``As it stands now, this exhibit being here 
     is top rate for me.''
       ``I like that it's at our school because our school, in the 
     district, is kind of known as the most diverse,'' junior 
     Kylee McWilliams added.
       The exhibit got high marks from those who saw it Wednesday 
     and several involved expressed excitement for the project's 
     value to students and the public.
       ``I'm just sorry we don't have it in a place that will be 
     open more hours,'' school board member Christy Cathcart said. 
     ``There was . . . quite a lot of introspection going on (at 
     Wednesday's showing).
       ``Everyone went away with some knowledge that they didn't 
     have before.''
       `From Freedom's Shadow' public viewing times
       March 3, 5-7 p.m.
       March 11, 6-9 p.m.
       March 19, 6-9 p.m.
       The exhibit is located in the Olympic High School library.
       The exhibit also can be previewed online at 
     http:\\uschsonline-exhibits.uschs.org/freedom (no ``www.'').

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