Why Do I Research and Document African-American History in the East Florida Parishes, Louisiana?

Dr. Antoinette Harrell researching at the Attala Library
Photo Credit: Walter C. Black, Sr. 

Growing up as a young girl who enjoyed reading books and magazines, under the oak tree on the family place of my maternal grandparents in Amite, Louisiana on a hot summer day with a cool drink of water from the water well was a beautiful day for me. Most of the books I read came from the school library or school textbooks.  Reading history and science books or other educational materials related to the two subjects were my first choice.  I consisently paid attention to the illustrations in the books, and none of them were of African American descent. The illustrations told me that the characters were not of people of color.  It gave me a feeling that something wasn't  correct about these pictures.  If I didn't know that African American people made contributions and help to build the society, state, and nation I live in could have been devastating to me as a child with an impressionable mind. 

I moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1972 with my family. It didn't get any better in junior high school either. Colton Junior High was in the middle of ingregation and fights between African Americans and Caucasins were high.   A little skinny country girl moving to the big city with my mother and three brothers was a new experience for all of us.  My brothers Reginald, Thomas, Micheal, and I  didn't  know what to expect that summer. I had just finished sixth grade at West Side Elementary School in the Town of Amite and was promoted to the seventh grade. I am the oldest out of my three siblings.  All  three attended Marie Couvent Elementary School in the seventh ward on Pauger Street.

It was the summer of 1972 that my mother signed my brothers and me up for summer camp at what they called Tambourine and Fan. The camp director's name was Jerome Smith.  On the first day of camp, my brothers and I didn't know what to expect. We just did what the camp leaders told us.  I remember before going to our camp rooms, we had to go through our little camp prep chant with Jerome. Once we got to our camp rooms there were books, materials, posters, and black history eduational disussions about African-American pioneers and trailblazers. People like Harriet Tubman,
Freddrick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King and others. 

At the camp, I got to read books about people that looked like me.  Back home in Amite, Louisiana,  I remember my mom purchased a set of encyclopedia for her youngest sister who was attending college and her four children. She also bought the Negro Heritage books. I'll never forget the orange set of books. I still have them to this day. 

I remember flipping through the pages with happiest in my eyes. Page after page, the people looked just like me. Although I was hoping to find something about my family or people in the community that I knew.  Saddened by the fact that I couldn't  find them in the index.  As I grew older and embraced the study of genealogy it was my opportunity to change things. I had researched and collected enough information about my family and the community they live in to write and record my own story and to educate others about their history and the legacy they left.

African American people like my grandfather Jasper Harrell, Sr., who took his old pick truck to pick up people at no charge and took them to the voting polls.  Robert "Free Bob" Vernon who donated land for Mt. Canaan Church and School.  Or African American men in Tangipahoa who dreamed and  had great admiration to give African-American children in the parish a right to education during Reconstruction in Tangipahoa Parish. 

\After living in New Orleans for thirty-four years and returning to the same parish my ancestors once lived, I wanted to come back to make a difference by researching and documenting their history and rich legacies. I wanted to conduct oral interviews and record the stories of family members and people who live in the community. I wanted to look at photographs and encourage others to preserve their family history and heirlooms. 

Educating the descentandants of African-American people who make up the fabric of the parish and community. While designing a blueprint that will help foster pride and dignity to people who may not know the contributions or the names of their ancestors. Writing their names and recording their story because it's important to me and I know it's important to the people who are the descendants of such notable individuals who stood tall in the face of adversary and triumphs. And the people who were determined to make a better life for themselves.