and what I often say to black folks now in this climate of extraordinary hate um is we did it before and we can do it again yeah and we had far less okay we had far less to work with and we had much greater tragedies confronting us and I believe in that I believe that we are the pupil of the eye surrounded by a sea of white but it is a pupil that contains the sight it beholds what is before it that's scriptural and I believe that that is what the greatest fear is is what
I see you and I can see through you yeah and we have to remind our children that they were born with the right to be treated with respect and and integrity they didn't have to earn it every human being was born with the right and we need to infuse into them their intrinsic nobility their intrinsic greatness that's what we have to infuse in our children regardless of what anyone else else does I'm not waiting for someone else to educate listen children I I I think that's what's so important right and you tell the story about
uh the Statue of Liberty and as a former history teacher you know I just love these historical facts right that we cannot negate we cannot skip past so you tell this story of the Statue of Liberty being commissioned in 1865 by the French artist and the original drawing right of the Statue of Liberty and you know that story I had no idea that it resonated the way it did with folks because I was experiencing it right so it's actually the whole story is in the in the book the revised book I actually put it in
there so uh it was about 2007 2008 um a friend of mine called me and said to sent me joy and and this friend uh Floyd Meers brother of Heavy D um he called me he says joy uh you know he lives at uh Mount Vernon and our families are really close he said I got a new job I said what's the new job he said I work for the Department of the Interior I said really he said I'm over all the national parks for the state of New York right so Forestry Department all these
F he said I'd like you to come to the Statue of Liberty I said no then he said no why why not I said I'm not go I'm not going Floyd it's it's going to make me mad I'm not going he says well why is it going to make you mad I said because well you know I've been to France I'd actually seen the original drawings of barthod who was the you know the the architect who did the sculpture um and uh I knew that the Statue of Liberty you know and everybody knows in her
right hand she's holding a torch and I always ask my audience what is she holding in her left hand right and when I was at the sexual Liberty because I eventually agreed you know cuz because Floyd was insistent and he said I can give you a pass we can go up in her eye and everything I said okay so I when I go there I'm going there with the knowledge that the Statue of Liberty was holding originally in her left hand broken chains again commission 1865 pretty important date end of slavery end of the Civil
War all of those things were why she is a statue of what Liberty which makes sense so she has broken chains in her left hand now she's holding a rectangular object with a Roman numeral on it that's what she's holding so I'm telling Floyd I said I know for a fact this is a historical document I I know it is so we first thing that happens when you go to Statue of Liberty and I actually went to the first time with a friend of mine and her name is Faith Holmes and faith is white very
white white white blond hair blue eyes she almost got us thrown out of the place she had a meltdown right I'm going look you can't be melting down here okay we we we're not having it you know news at 11 so I'm so we're there and I'm the really really very very the ranger who was you know you you get taken together and you get put in these groups you're assigned a ranger and he was very enthusiastic he really was really enthusiastic man he says so now you know I am going to be your Ranger
today and they tell you more about the Statue of Liberty than you ever want to know they tell you why it's it's green because it was copper and it oxidized they tell you how they got it over there they tell you how they changed the torch a couple of times uh they tell you that they even show you how thin it is right just just how how thin the whole thing is right um and he says and if you have any questions so of course excuse me my head shot up right and I said I
was wondering if you're going to um talk about the chains right so now you got to understand every 20 minutes thousands of people are getting off that fery coming to Ellis Island coming to Statute of Liberty so I say something about chains and now you got people translating it into different languages they she says I'm about chain change right so because I knew that she was holding you know those those broken chains so now at this point I'm like you know they got to be here somewhere so Floyd and I are now looking for the
historical document that I said the picture rub it I said got they can't not have it it's a Statute of Liberty they got to have it there so we go into the basement of the Statute of Liberty this was so crazy to me we're in the basement of Statue of Liberty we find the document encased in ass behind figurines facing a wall in a hallway H so here we have the truth hidden in plain sight so I'm sitting there going so Floyd I take a picture of it the picture is in the book right so
I took a picture um and I said this is insane I said this is really insane that you know here I you know we have that picture well I then ask my audience you know who won the argument because bartholdi insist isted that the chains remain he really did he was adamant he was an advocate for abolitionism he said the chains got to stay and I asked audience who won did baroli win or did the United States win and they always say well you know the United States won I said no they didn't bartholdi won
the chains are actually still there and they have always been there the entire time at her feet where it is impossible to see them under any circumstances those broken shackles are on both sides on her as she's as she's looks like she's walking there are broken shackles at her feet so the agreement was we'll we'll we'll keep the chains but we'll make it so no one can see them because if she's on a pedestal Statue liberty if no one who's ever been they sometimes they don't realize because we always see her like she's standing flat
on the ground but she's huge pedest so you can't see over to see the the chains and if you're inside you can't see them so they're there and they're hidden so now I'm feeling some kind of way right but I'm thinking Floyd just got the job you know what I'm saying the man I can't I can't let him you lose his good black job the man I can't get the man so I told Floyd and Floyd being Floyd he said go on and bring it Joy go and bring it so I spoke to his supervisor
I said you know I would like to pay to have a picture of the chains at her feet so that they're on display and they explained and he said no I said tell you what I can do I Saidi sure that I can get just cross the the water a black sculptor that will just sculpt that part because God knows they show you every aspect of Statue of Liberty and he says yeah no said okay I'mma tell on you and so I travel all over the world yeah for living I travel all over the world
and I told this story and I showed the pictures all over the world so I get this call from the Department of the Interior they said we'd like to talk to you Dr degu and I'm going you know I'm not scared I'm from South Central you know I did tell my family where I was going so they call me and I come over and uh his boss I think it was his boss's boss who said to me Dr degree we want to one apologizing and we want to acknowledge that we've been negligent and we want
to correct this uh we want to immediately correct this and the first thing we want to do is um well we want to hire you to train all our Rangers I said okay and we're going we're going to correct correct you know this this negligence we've shown so I didn't believe him so I went back undercover right because I wanted to know a couple of things I wanted to know if they were going to first talk about the chains unasked because I had asked right chains and um we I was assigned with my little group
this is 2013 2014 I'm I go back uh and I and I want to know if they've actually changed that and my third visit I go back and I have a great ranger the ranger not only tells the story of the chains turns to me and says this is American history I'm sharing it is your history and it is my history and I am proud to tell the story it's a white ranger right so I'm thinking great you know this is this is wonderful and the next thing I know well on that on the second
visit I had seen the picture displayed and all that was great but then in 2019 May 23d the Washington Post they now have a museum that wasn't there and they have a huge Museum now at the Statue of Liberty and it says the Statue of Liberty was designed to celebrate freed slaves not immigrants M it's new Museum now recounts and it goes on explain that the the immigration came later right years later it came it was literally commissioned to celebrate the end of slavery but when black people walk through you hear white people say oh
well you know my great great and my great great but black men women and children feel no connection to Lady Liberty but how much prer would they be if they knew that their ancestors that didn't come through aliside and that came chained together in the belly of ships that she was standing on those shackles how much prouder would those young people be how much honor would they display in understanding who paid for them yeah you erase the chains you erase me H so why don't we show the chains and that was the whole point because
you see once you show the chains you've got to explain them you got to explain and do you understand every black man woman and child can literally say oh no that's mine that's mine that's mine and all of this time America lied to its people and to the world the most recognized symbol probably on the planet and we've never told the truth hey VA family thanks for watching if you enjoyed this clip make sure to check out our full interview on our Channel at Vault empowers talks we don't just scratch the surface we dive deep
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