14/52 - Sliding Doors (1) — Immigrant Secrets

Apr 4

Apr 4 14/52 - Sliding Doors (1)

I am a great fan of movies and stories where chance encounters turn into life-changing events. The 1998 film Sliding Doors (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120148/) is a good example. Here’s an excerpt from a review on the IMDB site:

“…a great look at how quickly a person's life can change in a matter of moments. By taking one path instead of another, forming a tantalizing 'what if?' In fact, this movie gives the impression that some things are meant to be known, while some things are not."

Of course, this is a trivial example. The concept of chance encounters also applies to the tragic events of our lives; horrible encounters can completely change lives and communities.

Last year, we passed through Montgomery, Alabama, on the way back from the AIIM Conference. We had the good luck (we arrived just before closing, and a lovely lady let us in) to visit The Legacy Museum (https://legacysites.eji.org/about/museum/), an incredibly moving journey through America’s history of injustice.

The Museum was constructed on the site of a cotton warehouse where enslaved Black people were forced to labor in bondage. It was one of the most influential museums I have ever visited. This chance encounter touched me deeply, especially in the current environment of racial denial and the willful whitewashing of history. I was reminded of our visit to the Museum by a segment just a few weeks ago on NBC, a visit by Lester Holt to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park (https://www.nbcnews.com/video/freedom-monument-sculpture-park-honors-lives-of-enslaved-people-part-1-207430725736), which is located nearby. Both places tell the horrible story of post-Reconstruction lynchings within the broader context of the systems of racial violence suffered by African Americans.

“The lynching era left thousands dead; it significantly marginalized Black people in the country’s political, economic, and social systems; and it fueled a massive migration of Black refugees out of the South. In addition, lynching—and other forms of racial terrorism—inflicted deep traumatic and psychological wounds on survivors, witnesses, family members, and the entire African American community. Whites who participated in or witnessed gruesome lynchings and socialized their children in this culture of violence also were psychologically damaged. And state officials’ indifference to and complicity in lynchings created enduring national and institutional wounds that we have not yet confronted or begun to heal.” (https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/)

On the cusp of the memory triggered by the Lester Holt news story, I started thinking about the overabundance of Confederate statues that still exist, primarily erected during the early 1900s as part of the Jim Crow era to intimidate African-Americans, and how few memorials and monuments there are to the victims of slavery. I also started wondering particularly about the history of lynching in some of the areas where we've lived.

It will come as no surprise to anyone—especially those in some of my family history networks—that I am fascinated by the family stories that surround and provide the context for the pure facts of history. These micro-histories are something of a rathole; once you start researching a person or a topic, you tend to get deeper and deeper, and before you know it, two hours have gone by. This is one of the advantages of semi-retirement.

All of this background partially explains how I wound up roaming around two old church graveyards less than 10 miles from where we currently live in Apex, NC, and pondering the lives of Eugene Daniel and Gertrude Stone, their families, and their communities.

Two lives collided. And nothing was ever the same.

But that’s a long story and one for my next few posts.

The five previous most recent posts…