Vincente Guerrero - "The First Black President in North America"

12/30/15 • 30 min

Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña (Spanish: [biˈsente raˈmoŋ ɡeˈreɾo salˈdaɲa]; August 10, 1782 – February 14, 1831) was one of the leading revolutionary generals of the Mexican War of Independence. He fought against Spain for independence in the early 19th century, and later served as President of Mexico. Of Afro-Mestizo descent, he was the grandfather of the Mexican politician and intellectual Vicente Riva Palacio. In November 1810, the revolution for Mexican independence from Spanish rule broke out, and though Vincente’s family was devout supporters of Spanish rule, Vincente expressed a great deal of anti-colonialist sentiment and within two (2) years of the revolution’s onset, Vincente had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was responsible for organizing forces in the southern regions of the country. “Compañeros...I have always respected my father but my Motherland comes first.” Between the years of 1810 and 1821, Vincente won a total of four hundred and ninety-one (491) battles, using primarily guerrilla tactics in his victories against the Spanish army. While he is afforded the credit in history, he instead credited his fellow soldiers, to say, “It wasn’t me, but the people who fought and triumphed.” Vincente wasn’t President for very long, but he was surely effective in implementing sweeping reforms and changes to help the working class and extending additional rights to the indigenous people of Mexico. He instituted taxes on the rich, provided protections to small businesses, abolished the death penalty, and advocated for villages to elect their own councils of representatives. He was a very strong advocate for social equality as well, and even took to signing his official correspondences as “Citizen Guerrero”.

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George Alexander McGuire - "God and Christ are Black"

George Alexander McGuire was born on March 26, 1866 at Sweets, Antigua, in the Caribbean West Indies. As a child, he studied in local grammar schools on the island, then continued on at the Antiguan branch of Mico College for teachers and eventually at the Moravian Miskey Seminary in the Danish West Indies. McGuire pastored a Moravian congregation at Frederikstad, St. Croix, but when he came to the United States in 1894, he chose to be confirmed in the Protestant Episcopal Church. At the beginning of his career, McGuire led small mostly black Episcopal churches in Cincinnati, Richmond, Virginia and Philadelphia. From 1905 to 1909, McGuire served as Archdeacon for Colored Work in Arkansas where he passionately worked to increase the number of missions from one to nine. While involved with the Arkansas Diocese, McGuire wrote a crucial addendum to a book entitled, “The Crucial Race Question OR Where and How Shall the Color Line Be Drawn?” in it, McGuire revealed publicly for the first time, not only his eloquent and learned style, but also the pride of race that characterized his life and the way in which he taught. McGuire reflected that the Episcopal’s record of dealing with race issues left much to be desired and that the affairs of segregation within the sect were so bad, that publicly, both Black Methodists and Baptists openly would refer to them as a “black body with a white head”. McGuire's experience in the Episcopal Church had been tainted with incidents of discrimination against himself and fellow black clergy. He severed his ties with the Church and decided that only in a denomination of Blacks with a Black administration would equality and spiritual freedom be attained. Stating: “The white churches in America had drawn a circle to exclude people of color. Our vision is to draw a wider circle that will include all people.” At its inception the African Orthodox Church took strides to establish ecclesiastical and spiritual freedom for Blacks and people of color.

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Emily Morgan - "Yellow Rose of Texas"

There are three (3) historical documents that support the existence of an Emily Morgan in connection with the time period immediately surrounding the independence of Texas. Emily ended up catching the eye of Mexican General Santa Anna, and against her will was forced to her tent and kept there for his amusement and entertainment. The legend goes, Santa Anna was so enthralled with Emily’s beauty that he was literally caught with his pants down when Sam Houston and troops rode into the fields of San Jacinto and decimated the Mexican army in one fell swoop; also capturing Santa Anna while he tried to escape. But, the story of the legendary Emily Morgan doesn’t end there, legend goes that Emily Morgan may have intentionally stayed behind in New Washington, and then became a prisoner of Santa Anna all in an effort to distract him and potentially act as a spy to learn his plans and potential troop movements. Whatever the case, Santa Anna was forced to attempt his escape in only a linen shirt and silk drawers. The only written account of this was captured by a visiting Englishman named William Bollaert, who captured the following in a diary entry from 1842 after being told the story by Sam Houston : “The Battle of San Jacinto was probably lost to the Mexicans, owing to the influence of a Mulatto girl, Emily, belonging to Colonel Morgan, who was closeted in the tent with General Santa Anna, at the time the cry was made ‘the enemy! They come! They come!’ and detained Santa Anna so long, that order could not be restored readily again.” The Texas State Library actually has documentation to even further reinforce the story and the myth. In 1837, “Emily D. West” applied to the Secretary of State for the Republic of Texas for a passport to return home, stating in fact that she had lost her “free papers” at San Jacinto in April 1836. The document with the Texas State Library further states that the Emily applying for the passport came to Texas from New York in 1835 with James Morgan, and further confirms that she was in fact a woman of color, but not a slave. The lyrics of the original song said the following: There’s a yellow rose in Texas, that I am going to see; No other darky knows her, no darky only me; She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart; And if I ever find her, we nevermore will part. She’s the sweetest rose of color this darky every knew; Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew; You may talk about your Dearest May, and sing of Rosa Lee, But the Yellow Rose of Texas beats the belles of Tennessee; When the Rio Grande is flowing, the starry skies are bright; She walks along the river in the quiet summer night; She thinks if I remember, when we parted long ago; I promised to come back again, and not to leave her so; Oh now I’m going to find her, for my heart is full of woe; And we’ll sing the songs together, that we sung so long ago; We’ll play the banjo gaily, and we’ll sing the songs of yore; And the Yellow Rose of Texas shall be mine forevermore. The immortalization of a black woman in song, especially one sung on the battle lines, and otherwise racially divided segments of white Texans comprises an unprecedented circumstance matched only by a second fascination that’s a quieter kept secret, but plays to the importance and impact of the diaspora. A love story between black people that was powerful enough to be immortalized in song. The woman and the song serve Texas history well, but they serve African American history, folklore and culture even better.