White House officials welcomed members of prominent Black families to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Feb. 13 for its first-ever “Descendants Day.” The observance marked a time for racial convening, political reckoning, and powerful conversations to shape the future while remembering the horrors of America’s brutal past with chattel slavery.
“We owe them a great sense in terms of duty and responsibility and obligation, to continue to carry on their legacy through our deeds, our words, and our actions,” Vice President Kamala Harris told a packed room of attendees carrying the bloodlines of former President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington.
“As a daughter of Selma and the Representative of Alabama’s Civil Rights District, I know that I stand on the shoulders of giants like the ones we honor today. It is because of their courage that this little Black girl could go on to become Alabama’s first Black Congresswoman,” said Rep. Terri Sewell, who shared opening remarks. “I applaud these families for their personal sacrifices and tireless work to preserve and protect the legacies of their ancestors. At a time when our fundamental freedoms are once again under attack, we are grateful to President Biden not only for convening this event, but for his commitment to furthering the progress that our foremothers and forefathers fought and died to achieve.”
A 2023 Reuters analysis determined that at least 100 of 536 members of the last sitting Congress descended from slaveholders. Four living former presidents were discovered to have similar roots, with Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush cited as familial benefactors of the slave trade.
Many in attendance noted how the elected elite have a stark and storied heritage as it relates to their wealth acquired through racial discrimination in the U.S.
“We need generational investments in our country,” Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Steven Horsford remarked on efforts toward achieving equity.
Shannon Lanier, a descendant of former President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, who was enslaved, said his family’s story is just one of many that delineates slavery’s permutation on Black families and their ability to acquire accrued wealth.
“Depending on who you ask there are different narratives on Hemings’ relationship with Jefferson. Some see it as a love story, but we know she was owned property, as an enslaved woman who did not have the option to say yes or no,” Lanier said. “It’s a complicated story but
not one that is uncommon. So many people owned people and had their way with them as they saw fit.
“I’ve always known my history and our legacy was shared and passed down to my brother and I,” he added. “Our family members believed we had to know where we were coming from so we could see where we were going.”
The families in attendance embraced the call for change and engaged in conversations amongst themselves as it relates to educational repeals.
“When you marginalize someone, you try to push that person down or push their history down to make their history less than, which is the same thing that happened on the plantation,” said Ernestine Wyatt, a great-great-great-grand niece of Harriet Tubman. “Our ills as a country do not make us less-than. Recognizing the ills and writing the ills makes us grow to be a better country. To try to hide that is a disservice to the people this has happened to, but also to the country itself.”
As a descendant, Wyatt actively works to uplift Tubman’s legacy already known for her efforts in liberating enslaved Blacks, but whose time served in the U.S. Army is often overlooked. Wyatt is also the founder of Harriet Tubman Day, hosted annually in Washington, D.C. and an advocate for Tubman’s inclusion on currency printed by the U.S. Treasury.
“I view her as patriotic and I try to lift her up as a symbol. Symbolism and how symbolism has been created in this country remains a silent influence in our lives,” Wyatt said. “She is the kind of person we should aspire to be: Full of love, full of faith.”
The successors present which Wyatt referenced as “iconic people of black history” felt handpicked to continue the legacies which they were born into.
“We are standing on their shoulders and their sacrifices to be where we are today. It’s our job to push the country to become the best it can be where there is justice, opportunity, and equality for all,” said Michelle Duster, descendant of Ida B. Wells and author of “Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth: Educator, Feminist, and Anti-Lynching Civil Rights Leader.”
Her words were echoed by Kenneth Morris Jr., who laid the groundwork to plan this event over two decades ago.
“It was pretty amazing to have all of those families together today. We bear the weight of expectation. It could be a burden or a blessing,” he said. “I just feel very fortunate. Somehow God chose me to carry this forward and then to bring all of these descendants together that still carry that weight of expectation, but also have that obligation to carry freedom’s torch forward.”