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Fanny’s Plan. Fanny was Hazel’s mother. Her plan was to use whatever methods she could to give the younger generation the means to start businesses and schooling, which in turn would guarantee they and their children would never face the challenges Fanny and her children faced growing up. And she didn’t care if she had to beg, borrow, or steal to accomplish that. Hazel marrying into the family of that rich Creole had been part of that plan. All the money made off the swindling, the gambling, and the other enterprises are ensuring the young have a future.”
“There are Black nuns here?” Seeing the wonder on his face, she laughed softly. “Yes, Steele. They’re the Sisters of the Holy Family. They’ve been here since before I was born. The Oblate Sisters of Providence in Maryland are also Black, and their order is much older.”
“Because Congress banned the Klan back in ’71, the supremacists now call themselves rifle groups,” she explained with disgust. “This one is known as the New Knights of the White Camelia.”
“I remember playing stickball after school one day. The field was muddy and I was covered with dirt and grime when I came home. I’ll never forget the disappointment in my mother’s eyes or the stern lecture I received about the image I presented to those outside the race by being so dirty. She said they were always looking for ways to prove we were less polished than they in every way. I never played stickball after school again.”
On July 18, under the command of Massachusetts abolitionist and Harvard graduate Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the Fifty-Fourth along with five thousand Union soldiers began marching in the darkness towards the rebel-held Fort Wagner on South Carolina’s Morris Island.
In a mean-spirited show of contempt, the Confederates dumped Shaw’s body and the bodies of the dead of the Fifty-Fourth into an unmarked grave and sent a telegram to the Union generals saying, “We have buried Shaw with his niggers.” They’d hoped this would make other White officers think twice about leading Black troops. It didn’t. The 180,000 Black troops under their White commanders would go on to help the Union win the
The fugitives would either move on into Canada or integrate themselves in the Beacon Hill community.” “Something else I never knew.” “It was a maritime escape route. Many fugitives found freedom that way.”
Another real person was regiment member William H. Carney. Born into slavery in 1840, he became the first Black man to be given the US Medal of Honor for his bravery during the Fort Wagner fight. Although the battle took place on July 18, 1863, he wasn’t awarded the medal until May 23, 1900. He died in a Boston hospital eight years later. Lucy Holcombe Pickens was the only woman depicted on Confederate currency. She was known as the Queen of the Confederacy and was also the First Lady of South Carolina. She led a very interesting life. Google her for more info.
