Grant Chapel A.M.E. Church Black History 2014 Event

You and your family are invited to Celebrate Black History Month at Grant Chapel A.M.E. Church in Amite, Louisiana. In honor of Black History, Vera Wheeler has invited Antoinette Harrell to be the keynote speaker, an activist, author, and community organizer will address the issues that African Americans face today in their communities. History will be brought alive by re-enactment of  Slavery, Jim Crow and Affirmative Action by the church youth. Mark your calendar to attend this upcoming event.

New Book Released by Author Antoinette Harrell " Department of Justice"

Antoinette Harrell has spent counting of hours in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., conducting peonage research in Class 50 (Peonage) Litigation Case Files, 1907 - 1973. The cases and documents in the book is directly from these files. 

These Class 50 litigation case files were created or accumulated by the Civil Rights Division in carrying out the Department of Justice's (DOJ) responsibilities in matters arising under statutes implementing the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. 
This series consists of litigation case files that cover matters arising from violations of statutes implementing the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which outlaws slavery and certain forms of involuntary servitude. The files pertain to complaints made by persons (victims) who were being held against their will or forced to work off debts through threats and intimidation by employers or others (subjects). Most of the victims were Negroes who were physically forced or sometimes beaten to return to former employers to work off their debts. 

The files contain correspondence, memorandums, telegrams, newspaper clippings, transcripts of testimonies, FBI reports of investigations, and indictments.So why don't you know anything about slavery in the 20th Century. The U.S. Government knew, the FBI knew, the NAACP knew, Governor Earl Brewer of Mississippi knew, President Calvin Coolidge, President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew, local sheriffs, elected officials knew, and the Supreme Court knew. You didn't know because the truth of this American nightmare--for those who lived it--has been buried in an unnamed darkness in dusty courthouse attics and the National Archives "Department of Justice" files in Washington, D.C.

I am available for speaking engagements, lectures, and open discussions. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans were held in slavery by chains, gunpoints, and beatings. Some where even murdered on some plantations in the south. This book will expose some terrible atrocities that took place. 

Antoinette Harrell conducting peonage research at the National
Archives in Washington, D.C.
Photo Credit: Walter C. Black, Sr.