The Black Statue of Liberty Rumor

An Inquiry into the History and Meaning of Bartholdi’s Liberté éclairant le Monde

FINAL REPORT

Rebecca M. Joseph, Ph.D.

with Brooke Rosenblatt and Carolyn Kinebrew

September 2000

Northeast Region Ethnography Program, National Park Service This project was funded by the National Park Service. Principal Investigator Dr.

Rebecca M. Joseph was formerly Senior Anthropologist, Northeast Region, National Park

Service and is the author of this report. Research associates Brooke Rosenblatt and Carolyn

Kinebrew are independent consultants. Release of this report does not imply endorsement of its conclusions or recommendations by National Park Service.

Note

Since this manuscript was completed in September of 2000, the NPS hired professional editors on two occasions to improve the organization and writing style of the report, which was a recommendation of peer reviewers, without altering the results and findings. However, each effort introduced changes to the report that ultimately were considered unsatisfactory by the NPS. In making the report available in its original form, the NPS seeks to preserve the nuances and details of the research as they were presented by the investigators. The information discussed in this report is an important addition to the more conventional understanding of the origin and meaning of the Statue of Liberty, and it has been used to help formulate significant new research and planning projects that are ongoing at the present time.

The manuscript has been modified by the NPS in the following areas:

1. The Introduction has been edited to improve readability. 2. Appendix D was added to provide a selected list of scholarly literature on the Statue of Liberty’s history and symbolism, for additional reading. 3. Two footnotes were added. Footnote 106 was inserted to identify scholars by name who have stated that the design for the Statue of Liberty evolved from the sculptor's earlier concept of a similar figure entitled, "Egypt Bringing Light to the Orient." Footnote 102 expresses a reservation about the author's identification of Egyptian fellah as "black." EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In early 1998, the Statue of Liberty National Monument staff began receiving inquiries about rumors that the Statue of Liberty was originally meant to be a monument to the end of slavery in America at the end of the Civil War. In response, the Monument's Superintendent launched an intensive, two-year investigation of the rumors and the truth about the statue's early history. The research reported here is based on investigations conducted on the internet, through personal interviews and in public and private library and archival collections in the U.S. and France.

The rumors have been circulating on the Internet, through e-mail networks and in telephone calls. In their totality, the rumors constitute a counter-narrative about the origin and development of the statue that preserves and transmits valuable information about its early history (discussed in Part I of the report). Parts II and III of the report examine four specific claims that are made in the multiple and often overlapping versions of the rumors. Part III also includes a discussion of the roles of African Americans in the statue's early history (1876-1886) and race relations as an enduring theme associated with the monument. A Chronology of American Race Relations for the Statue of Liberty is presented here. Following the Conclusions and Recommendations for Further Research, appendices present additional information about research methods, specific research findings concerning the rumors' Proof of Documents, a chronology of internet and media dissemination of the rumors, and a list of further readings about the meanings and interpretations of the statue.

The Rumors

Claim 1. The Statue of Liberty was conceived at a dinner party in 1865 at the home of Edouard de Laboulaye, a prominent French abolitionist, following the death of President Lincoln.

Finding: This story is a legend. All available evidence points to its conception in 1870 or 1871. The dinner party legend is traceable to a single source --- an 1885 fund-raising pamphlet written by the statue's sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi, after the death of Laboulaye.

Claim 2. Edouard de Laboulaye and Auguste Bartholdi were well-known French abolitionists who proposed the monument to recognize the critical roles played by black soldiers in the Civil War.

Finding: No evidence was found to support the claim that the Statue of Liberty was intended to memorialize black combatants in the Civil War. Edouard de Laboulaye was a prolific French abolitionist who believed that the end of slavery marked the realization of the American democratic ideal embodied in the Declaration of Independence. His use of references to the French role in the American Revolution to generate support for his efforts on behalf of American slaves and freedmen are critical to understanding his conception of the Statue of Liberty. Auguste Bartholdi was largely apolitical and adapted his self-presentation to advance his career as an artist. His frequent references to race-related subjects during his 1871 visit to the United States reflect the influences of his French patrons and American contacts. Claim 3: The original model for the Statue of Liberty was a black woman, but the design was changed to appease white Americans who would not accept an African-American Liberty.

Finding: The statue's design almost certainly evolved from an earlier concept Bartholdi proposed for a colossal monument in Egypt, for which the artist used his drawings of Egyptian women as models. Bartholdi’s preliminary design for the Statue of Liberty is consistent with contemporary depictions of Liberty, but differs markedly from sculptures representing freed American slaves and Civil War soldiers. Bartholdi changed a broken shackle and chain in the statue's left hand to tablets inscribed "July IV, MDCCLXXVI” (July 4, 1776) at Laboulaye's request, to emphasize a broader vision of liberty for all mankind. There is no evidence that Bartholdi's “original” design was perceived by white American supporters or the United States government as representing a black woman, or was changed on those grounds.

Claim 4: By the time of its dedication in 1886, European immigration to the United States had increased so substantially that earlier meanings associated with the statue were eclipsed, and this association has continued to be the predominant understanding of the statue’s meaning from then until now.

Finding: The conventional interpretation of the statue as a monument to American immigrants is a twentieth-century phenomenon. In its early years (1871-1886), that view was only rarely and vaguely expressed, while references to the Civil War and abolition of slavery occur repeatedly from its first introduction to the United States in 1871 up to and including the dedication celebrations in 1886. Immigrants did not actually see the Statue of Liberty in large numbers until after its unveiling. In the early twentieth century, the statue became a popular symbol for nativists and white supremacists. Official use of the statue's image to appeal to immigrants only began in earnest with public efforts to Americanize immigrant children and the government’s advertising campaign for World War I bonds. The "immigrant" interpretation gained momentum in the 1930s as Americans prepared for war with Hitler and by the 1950s, it had become the predominant understanding of the statue's original purpose and meaning.

The Role of African Americans in the Statue's History

Although African Americans played no active role in the statue's conception or design, they contributed to the main fund-raising drive for the statue’s pedestal, participated in public celebrations during its dedication in New York City, and conducted their own celebrations at that time as well. African American newspapers throughout the country covered those events extensively. Yet for black Americans the Statue of Liberty has also long symbolized America's failure to protect their civil rights. In the early 1900s, many African Americans were victims of white supremacists and nativists who used the statue to represent their exclusionary views. Since then, continuing ambiguity among African Americans about whether to embrace “Liberty” hopefully or scorn it as a symbol of American hypocrisy has been expressed in numerous works of art, political debates, and, on at least one occasion, violent protest. Planning and construction of an Immigration Museum at the Statue of Liberty took seventeen years (1955-1972); and the effort involved a fierce public debate about how African-Americans who were brought involuntarily to America as slaves could or should be presented as "immigrants" and, if so, how their history and contributions to American society should be told. Conclusions

 Was the original model for the Statue of Liberty a black woman?

Most versions of the Black Statue of Liberty rumor refer to a cast (c. 1870) of a no longer extant maquette owned by the Museum of the City of New York as proof that “the original model” for the Statue of Liberty was a black woman. The temporal proximity and aesthetic overlap between Bartholdi’s Egyptian proposal and the Statue of Liberty project, and the preliminary nature of the statue's study models, makes it impossible to rule out an 1870-71 Liberty model that has design origins in Bartholdi’s drawings of black Egyptian women in 1856. Based on the evidence, the connection is coincidental to the development of the Statue of Liberty under Laboulaye’ patronage. We found no corroborating evidence that Edouard Laboulaye or Auguste Bartholdi intended to depict Liberty as a black woman. Laboulaye’s intent was to present a monument that would commemorate the fulfillment of America’s commitment to universal liberty established by the Declaration of Independence, and set an example for other nations. Liberty depicted as a freedwoman would have represented his strong anti-slavery convictions, but it would not have fulfilled this broader vision.

 Is the Statue of Liberty a monument to the end of slavery in the United States?

The Statue of Liberty would never have been conceived or built if its principal French and American advocates had not been active abolitionists who understood slavery as the cause of the Civil War and its end as the realization of the promise of liberty for all as codified in the Declaration of Independence. But the Statue of Liberty was not intended entirely as a monument to the end of slavery. The statue’s form after June 1871 clearly embodies Laboulaye’s views on the two-part realization, in 1776 and 1864, of his ideal of liberty. The centennial of the American Revolution was significant to the French sponsors because the Civil War ended slavery and preserved the Union at a time when the France’s future was still uncertain. For the American republicans, it was a timely opportunity to erect a monument to their efforts and worldview. Laboulaye and his French colleagues also wished to send a political message back to France. Bartholdi cast the project in the broadest terms, hoping to encourage additional commissions.

 What roles do African Americans have in the Statue of Liberty’s history?

The black press championed the French-American project; and African Americans contributed to the pedestal fund, participated in the public celebrations for its unveiling in New York City and conducted their own. Blacks were among the immigrants whose first sight of the United States was the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. In the early 20th century, African Americans died because of the perverse appropriation of the statue’s symbolism by white racists. They were targeted by and responded to the government’s Liberty bond campaign during World War I. Racial justice, particularly for African Americans, has been a recurrent theme ever since the Statue of Liberty’s inception as evidenced by political cartoons, poems written for the 50th anniversary, debates over the content of the American Museum of Immigration’s exhibits, and acts of civil disobedience in the 1960s and ‘70s. Along with recent work by African American artists, the Black Statue of Liberty rumor extends this tradition of active engagement with this American icon. All great people glorify their history, and look back upon their early attainments with a spiritualized vision.

Kelly Miller, “The Artistic Gifts of the Negro,” 1906

Memory is life, borne by living societies founded in its name. It remains in permanent evolution, open to the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, unconscious of its successive deformations, vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation, susceptible to being long dormant and periodically revived. History, on the other hand, is the reconstruction, always problematic and incomplete, of what is no longer.

Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History,” 1994 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1

A Note on Language 4

Part I:

1. The Black Statue of Liberty in Cultural Context 5 2. History of the Black Statue of Liberty Rumor 12 3. Rumor Texts from Cyberspace 19

Part II:

4. The Dinner Party Legend 25 5. Laboulaye and Bartholdi View African Americans 34 6. The Model Mystery 48

Part III:

7. African Americans and the Statue of Liberty, 1876-1886 63 8. Doesn’t the Statue of Liberty Celebrate Immigrants? 74 9. American Race Relations: An Enduring Theme 88

Conclusions 102

Recommendations for Future Research 108

Appendix A: Research Methods 109 Appendix B: Research Results for the Rumor’s Proof Statements 114 Appendix C: Chronology of Internet & Major Media Dissemination 122

Acknowledgements 125 Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 1

INTRODUCTION

I have received some information, which I have enclosed for your perusal, about the Statue of Liberty. It intrigues me and baffles me at the same time… All the Statue of Liberty stands for is reason enough that only the truth be known about this. No other stories should be allowed to be attached to the legend that would cloud the true meaning of it’s [sic] message. I feel protective about this and it is important to me to get to the truth, whatever it is….1

In early 1998, the Statue of Liberty National Monument began receiving inquiries about rumors circulating through e-mail networks and on the Internet. According to these texts, French statesman Edouard de Laboulaye and sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi intended the Statue of Liberty to depict a black woman breaking the chains of bondage as a monument to the end of slavery in the United States. In some versions, the statue’s purpose was to commemorate the heroic role of black soldiers in winning the Civil War. Some state that evidence proving these claims is available in the United States, others that it is in France.

The rumors and related texts had circulated for at least a dozen years before coming to the attention of the National Park Service. African Americans are generally familiar with one or more versions. In recent months, as a direct result of media coverage of this study, awareness of the claims has spread among other U.S. and international populations. The rumors encourage an interested public that is seeking more information about the statue’s early history to contact a variety of institutions and individuals alleged to have evidence proving the rumors’ claims.

After fielding as many as ten telephone calls a day for several months, the Museum of the City of New York issued a formal statement in February 1998 and posted photographs of its related holdings on the Internet. The French Embassy in Washington, D. C. created a four page fact sheet and assigned an intern to handle its high call volume which included referrals from the French Mission to the United Nations and the French Consulate in New York. University of Florida professor Jim Haskins, one of the individuals named in the texts, has also been deluged by inquiries. Exasperated, he told the Boston Globe earlier this year that the “Internet is the most dangerous thing in the damn world.”2

Excited about what appears to be a major historical discovery, the public has begun requesting documentation from the National Park Service. Having already accepted the rumors as statements of fact, some people recommend that the Statue of

1 Letter to Régis Hueber, Curator of the Bartholdi Museum, Colmar, France from a woman in Durham, North Carolina, dated July 14, 1998. 2 Tatsha Robertson, “Liberty’s New Face?” Boston Globe, February 4, 2000, p. B8. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 2

Liberty National Monument change its current interpretation of the statue’s significance. Most of this communication comes to the park by e-mail or telephone. Park rangers also report receiving questions from visitors to Liberty Island.

Citing the National Park Service’s commitment to uncovering the “untold stories” of our national treasures and growing public interest in the potential results, Diane H. Dayson, Superintendent of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, wanted to examine the validity of these rumors about the statue’s early history. In the spring of 1998 she requested assistance from the Boston Support Office’s Northeast Applied Ethnography Program which produced this study in partnership with the park. Development of a new, long range interpretive plan for the Statue of Liberty is now underway making its completion especially timely.

There are and have always been many claims about the Statue of Liberty that complement and compete with one another for public recognition. This report will clarify the issues raised by the rumors, present the study’s results, and facilitate further research and debate where the evidence available to us is inconclusive. Its methodology and conclusions bridge the disciplines of history and ethnography. Not everyone will agree with our assessment of the historical record. Some will argue with our interpretive approach to culture. The report’s findings help us to better understand the statue in historical context and to more fully appreciate its meaning today. They do not necessarily negate other traditions or interpretations associated with the statue.

This report is based on nearly two years of research conducted on-line, through personal interviews, and in public and private collections in the United States and France. Its goal is to answer three questions:

 Was the original model for the Statue of Liberty a black woman?

 Is the Statue of Liberty a monument to the end of slavery in the United States?

 What roles do African Americans have in the Statue of Liberty’s history?

There is an extensive scholarly literature on the Statue of Liberty’s history and symbolism (see Appendix D for a list of recommended sources). This report does not present a comprehensive assessment of that body of work, though we have reviewed all available published accounts. We assume that readers are familiar with well-known publications, current National Park Service interpretation, or both.

This report starts by taking the rumor seriously as a potential source of substantive information about the Statue of Liberty. In Part 1, a discussion of the cultural significance of the rumor to African Americans today is followed by three examples of rumor texts collected from the internet and an account of the rumor’s history. Part 2 of this report focuses on historical evidence related to the rumors’ claims. Three sections address specific claims made in various versions of the rumor and related texts: Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 3

1. The idea for the Statue of Liberty was introduced at a dinner party at the home of Edouard de Laboulaye following the death of President Lincoln in 1865.

2. Edouard de Laboulaye and Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi were prominent French abolitionists who proposed that the French government present a monument to the people of the United States to recognize the critical roles played by black soldiers in the Civil War.

3. The original model for the Statue of Liberty was a black woman, but the design was changed to appease white Americans who would not accept an African American Liberty.

Part 3 examines African Americans’ roles in the Statue of Liberty’s early history (1876-1886) and race relations as an enduring theme associated with the monument. One section addresses a counterclaim that we encountered frequently during our research:

4. By the time of its dedication in 1886, European immigration had increased so substantially that any earlier meanings associated with the Statue of Liberty were eclipsed. Emma Lazarus’ poem, “The New Colossus,” represents the predominant understanding of the statue’s meaning from then until now.

The discussion illuminates important aspects of the statue’s history that are largely ignored in other studies. These sections also demonstrate that the Statue of Liberty’s profound cultural significance for African Americans long predates its 1933 transfer to National Park Service administration and cannot be separated from the larger national historical narrative. The Conclusion summarizes the findings and offers suggestions for future research.

Footnotes provide citations and additional information for those seeking more detail. The appendices provide useful information that does not have a place within the main report, including research methods and a list of places on the Internet where the rumor has been posted. Footnotes and Appendix A (Research Methodology) will point interested readers to additional sources containing a broad range of relevant information not included in this report. Appendix B reports the specific findings of our investigation of the “documents of proof” (see rumor texts below). Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 4

A NOTE ON LANGUAGE

We have made every effort to present our research and findings in concise, jargon-free language. To avoid confusing or possibly offending some readers, several of our language choices require brief explanations.

Auguste Bartholdi’s title for his monument is Liberté Eclairant le Monde or, in English, “Liberty Enlightening the World.” As early as the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, the project was publicly known in the United States as the Statue of Liberty. We use both names. “Statue of Liberty” appears most frequently because it is the better known of the two.

This report draws extensively on French sources. For readability, direct quotations are presented in English in the body of the text. The original French sources are included in the footnotes along with the name(s) of the translator(s). Where the French can be translated in more than one way, relevant alternatives are noted. For example, the French phare can be “beacon” or “lighthouse” in English.

Several fine studies examine the meanings of “liberty” and “freedom” in the United States and France during the nineteenth century. Following historian Robert C. Williams’ report that all but a few mid-19th century Americans “continued to use liberty and freedom more or less interchangeably,” we have done the same.3

Some readers will object to our use of “rumors” to denote what they consider to be factual texts about the Statue of Liberty. Our usage follows the convention adopted by African American scholars and journalists, including Patricia Turner, Spencie Love, Michael Eric Dyson, and Wil Haygood.4 Folklorists include these texts in the category of “urban” or “contemporary legends.”

Readers who would prefer a “colorblind” text may be troubled by our use of “African American(s)” or “black(s)” in juxtaposition to “white(s)” in several places. We recognize that all racial labeling is problematic and that the population of the United States was and is diverse in many ways. We use these terms for two reasons: 1) they are the salient social categories used by African Americans in constructing American history narratives, a significant part of what this report is about, and 2) the people referred to viewed themselves in these terms.

3 Robert C. Williams, “From Liberty to Freedom: Transatlantic Republicanism, 1830-1870,” unpublished paper, 2000, p. 4. See also Seymour Drescher, “Liberty and Liberalism in Nineteenth Century France and America,” Making a Universal Symbol: The Statue of Liberty Revisited. Wilton S. Dillon and Neil G. Kotler, eds. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Press, 1994; Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1998; Michael Kammen, Spheres of Liberty, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986. 4 Cf. Patricia Turner, I Heard It Through the Grapevine. Berkeley: University of California, 1993; Spencie Love, One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996; Wil Haygood, “True or false, rumors spread: Amid history of distrust, some in black community often don’t need to hear proof,” Boston Globe, December 16, 1996, p. A1. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 5

PART I

THE BLACK STATUE OF LIBERTY IN CULTURAL CONTEXT

There are words like Freedom Sweet and wonderful to say— On my heartstrings freedom sings All day everyday.

There are words like Liberty That almost make me cry. If you had known what I know You would know why.

Langston Hughes

Based on results from a national survey of Americans’ engagement with history in their everyday lives, historians Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen recently concluded that African Americans have a stronger sense of a public, and especially an American past, than whites do. In addition, African Americans relate personal, family, and communal experiences to well-known people and events much more frequently than whites.5 Nationally prominent individuals and events typically figure centrally in the overall American history narrative.

African Americans’ narratives about United States history are characterized by series of events which add up to an American history in which blacks have been oppressed and betrayed by whites, who then depict their actions in books and movies that exclude them. Rosenzweig and Thelen found, “The “we” [African Americans] invoke stands in sharp contrast to the triumphal American “we”….”6 Byron Rushing, Massachusetts’ state representative from Boston’s South End and a frequent speaker at National Park Service conferences on race, goes further: “[African Americans] see the world differently than whites. What we consider possible - and the kind of evil and calculated abuse that we consider possible - is very different from what white people think is possible.”7

For many African Americans, oral transmission of history and other important information competes with “official” versions that are often distrusted. Many African Americans place greater value on eyewitness and relatives’ accounts than teachers, museums, and books.8 Patricia Turner, an authority on rumors in African American

5 Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past, New York: Columbia University Press, 1998, p. 153. 6 Ibid., p.13. 7 Haygood, op. cit. 8 Rosenzweig and Thelen, op. cit. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 6 culture, has shown that rumors have historically functioned among blacks as a means of communicating otherwise inaccessible information and narratives of events that counter white versions. In her view:

Attention to the content of the rumors, however unsettling, merely detracts attention from the function these rumors serve for those who believe them. The rumors do not cause the wounds from which African Americans suffer --- racism, inequality, and prejudice do.9

Racially based rumors pre-date the founding of the United States. They occur in all periods of American history and all geographical regions irrespective of the legal status of blacks at the time. Many rumors, legends, and folk ideas about the origins and meaning of racial difference can be traced to the early slave trade.10 In general, they circulate either among African Americans or among whites. The vast majority of rumors implicated in acts of inter-racial violence have been generated by whites about blacks.11 Still, racial animosity, rooted in the abuses of the slave system and post-Reconstruction era, continues to be a strong theme in African American rumors many of which project threats to the integrity of black bodies.12

In order for rumors to gain momentum in any population, they must reinforce beliefs already held by many people. Recent commentary on the Black Statue of Liberty rumor by African Americans demonstrates how deeply it resonates with the shared meanings imbedded in many other contemporary black American history narratives:

Example A:

Tell me, does the truth ever matter to you? Do you prefer to be lied to or to be told the truth? The truth behind this matters deeply for those who are Black. Symbols mean a great deal. Could it be possible that had the statue been portrayed in the “correct” (we are not yet sure) light that maybe US race relations would be different? American History has constantly disregarded the phenomena of Blacks/African Americans in this country…It matters deeply for those who have been taught a history that is watered down into nothingness, and if the [NPS] research proves [it] to be true (that the statue was in honor of

9 Turner, op. cit., p. 220. 10 Ibid., p. 9. 11 On the history and social dimensions of rumors and race, especially in inter-racial violence, see Terry Ann Knopf, Rumors, Race and Riots. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1975; Howard W. Odum, Race and Rumors of Race. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997 (1943). 12 Some well known examples include the Ku Klux Klan’s alleged ownership of Church’s Fried Chicken and R. J. Reynolds (see Turner, op. cit.); the death of blood plasma pioneer Dr. Charles Drew in 1950 allegedly after a whites-only hospital refused to treat him (see Love, op. cit.); the death of seven year old Gavin Cato in 1991 allegedly after a privately owned Hasidic ambulance sped away after he was hit by another Hasidic vehicle (see Jonathan Reider, “Reflections on Crown Heights: Interpretive Dilemmas and Black-Jewish Conflict,” Antisemitism in America Today. Jerome R. Chanes, ed. New York: Birch Lane Press: 1995, pp. 348-384). Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 7

the end of slavery), this will be yet another proof of the attempt to erase the truth of the wickedness of White America, or better put, the cowardice and fear of White America… As for the Statue of Liberty being a symbol of freedom, I know it is a symbol of freedom because it was taught to me as so, but I have never recognized it as a symbol of freedom for Blacks/African Americans and that my dear are two different things.13

Example B:

(Post #1)…Besides, who really care [sic] what race the statue is. I’ve seen her, she is green! What race is that? Can’t she represent us all?

(Post #2) This really stinks and it continues to be a portion of the foundation for [racial] separation in this country. The idea of “what does it matter anyway…” is almost always heard from the side of the coin that is up. The people who represent the “down side” are interested, we want to know! When the “upside coin” people are done dealing with something, they sweep it under the rug and hope that it surfaces only when convenient. The convenience is not solely yours. It is now “convenient” for us to put it in your face and force you to finally deal with it. When it does surface and isn’t convenient for you, we are afforded another “opportunity” to be forced to forget what we never really knew. Then, the “why do you have to bring that up” attitude arises. Because your fathers who were in control (and now you) did all that they could to prevent us from knowing the truth and to rob us of our identity, sources of pride and contribution to the “great county [sic]”, we continue to live as parentless children on the perceived graces of a society that by “grace” has given us an “opportunity” and all we do is “complain and freeload, abuse and overwhelm the welfare system.” The “why don’t they go back to Africa if they are so discontent mentality prevails.” Who cares? We do, even if you don’t!… We need to be able to decide for ourselves, based on ALL information what we want to forget and when. Not leave it up to people like you to decide for us….14

13 Posted February 9, 2000; htpp://boards.go.com/cgi/abcnews/request.dll?/MESSAGE&room= statueofliberty&id=3. This example was collected on the ABC News website. 14 Posted February 27, 1998 and March 13, 1998, respectively; http://esowon.com/wwwboard/messages. Examples B and C were collected on message board sponsored by an Afrocentric book store on the West Coast. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 8

(Post #3) Sure, the Statue of Liberty can represent all of us, but why is it that very few people realize that INDEED, the Statue was modeled after a black woman? There has been a history in this country of many white people withholding useful information about the inventions of blacks and other people of color, and I see the same trend here. That’s why it matters… How would you feel if you were never given credit for being the muse for one of the most beloved figures in U.S. history? Not too great, I suspect…the “green” Statue can and should represent us all, but it’s a shame that America wouldn’t let itself be represented by the black model.15

Example C:

Yeah its [sic] true. There are several places you can check…My aunt works on the board of education at City College in NYC. Call and ask to speak to Dr. Leonard Jeffries, he was probably the first to really research this….16

While these examples show that not everyone accepts the Black Statue of Liberty rumors’ claims at face value, many African Americans feel a strong enough personal stake in the rumor’s claims to seek out additional evidence. In an e-mail message to the Museum of the City of New York, an attorney in Portland, Oregon expressed the common frustration people experience when seeking further information about the rumor texts’ claims using the section called “Documents of Proof:”

I am saddened by the complete lack of respect someone has for the importance of Black History. We as a people have been purposely written out of history. To regain our self respect [sic], self worth [sic], and dignity we must collectively re-educate ourselves, our young, our family, and peers. The promotion and education of everyone regarding the contributions of blacks in American history is something not to be taking lightly. I am presently attempting to trace this information to its origin. I encourage everyone who received it to do the same. The person(s) who(m) [sic] disseminated this information, if it is indeed false, should be held accountable.

A contributor to the African American genealogy listserve sponsored by a southern university recounted her attempt to research “the real story on the Statue of Liberty” at the National Library of France:

It was disappointing to not find the conclusive evidence I thought we would find…I was disturbed because two years ago McDonalds put out a little booklet to commemorate Black History Month and this story…was in it. So much of our history has been

15 Ibid., posted September 8, 1998. 16 Ibid., posted August 18, 1998. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 9

white washed but we still have a duty to be sure of our facts before we take it for gospel. I sure hope someone proves me wrong on this one.17

Underscoring the strong appeal of the rumors’ claims, another message was soon posted in response. Cross-referenced to a listserve on slavery sponsored by another university, it countered her conclusions by re-posting one of the rumor’s most common versions.

Race-related rumors typically link specific issues, events, and grievances with larger social conflicts. African Americans’ responses to the Statue of Liberty’s centennial restoration and celebration varied, as did their perspectives on the proceedings. The same themes are sounded in many of these accounts as in comments on the Black Statue of Liberty rumor. In both instances, the diversity of views counters David Proctor’s analysis of the rhetoric associated with the centennial celebration which reduces a complex set of African American responses to competition between “separatists” and “integrationists.”18

Historian John Hope Franklin flatly refused to participate in the centennial celebration: “It’s a celebration for immigrants that has nothing to do with me. I’m interested in it as an event, but I don’t feel involved in it.”19

Jim Haskins, who was actively involved in fundraising and writing about the importance of Statue of Liberty’s history to African Americans, began “The Statue of Liberty: An All-American Vision”:

A common saying among blacks is that the Statue of Liberty has always had her back to us. …that conventional wisdom betrays a lack of knowledge of the real history behind the Statue of Liberty, a lack of knowledge that we black Americans share with Americans of whatever color. Lost in the mists of invisibility that have long shrouded black history in America is the fact that the Lady’s very existence is in some measure due to us.20

In The Journey of the Songhai People, Robinson, et. al. wrote:

During the summer of 1986, a nationwide celebration of the Statue of Liberty took place in the United States and was widely

17 This message was posted on http://www.msstate.edu/afrigeneas in April 2000. The author explains that she traveled to Paris with a cousin specifically to undertake this research. The McDonalds publication, “Little Known Black Histroy Facts,” was released in February 1999. 18 David E. Proctor, Enacting Political Culture. New York: Praeger, 1991. 19 Ross F. Holland, Idealists, Scoundrels, and the Lady. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1993, p. 20 Haskins, op. cit., 1986, p. 13. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 10

televised. The television production coincided with the big business financing of the renovation of the century-old Statue. The whole celebration had to do with the landing of European immigrants in America, their feelings, their emotional ties to the Lady in the Harbor, how they felt, and what it meant to them. No mention was made to our knowledge about the real reason for the Statue of Liberty—the celebration of winning the war by Black soldiers. News reporters had the audacity to ask Black Americans how they felt about the celebration. I was called and asked, I told the reporter, (MY NAME LISTED) the history of the statue. Not one word that I say, or any of my colleagues saw, recorded what I had told the reporter. It seems incongruous, that ABC with all of its international connections, with all of its resources could have overlooked this history that is recorded in all of the reference books. The World Book Encyclopedia, mentions that the statue was presented to the United States government because of the end of slavery in the United States, but it states, “At the feet, but seldom seen, is a broken shackle. It symbolizes a people winning their liberty”…When I quoted that I asked my questioner, what people in the United States had just won their liberty? Certainly it was a bit late for such a monument to be presented for congratulations for the United States for winning their liberty from Britain a whole century before, “It symbolizes a people winning their liberty.” Who is “their” people? It was the Black American… This Black connection is never mentioned in the history books. That story, too, is buried in America’s Memory Hole. Oddly however, the American Committee’s White Statue of Liberty has been gradually turning Black, a chemical transformation that baffles everyone….21

Of New York City’s African American community, Abiola Sinclair wrote in The New York Amsterdam News:

In 1986, the renovations on the statue were completed. Black people, like everyone else donated their dollars for the renovation and turned out with those little green sponge liberty crowns for the citywide celebration. The newspapers took cute photos of blacks with their cute little liberty crowns on, although everyone sort of knew the Statue of Liberty was celebrating another cultural experience. We were after all taught in school that “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these the homeless, the tempest- tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” That was for the refugees. Not for Black people.22

21 Robinson, et. al., op. cit., p. 196. 22 Abiola Sinclair, “The Statue of Liberty was supposed to be Black,” The New York Amsterdam News, September 14, 1991, p. 28. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 11

With the exception of Franklin’s explanation of his refusal to get involved with the Statue of Liberty centennial, all of the preceding texts were written for African American readers.

For African Americans, the Black Statue of Liberty rumor is not just about the historical particulars of Auguste Bartholdi’s statue in New York harbor. It is fundamentally about the central role of racial inequality, specifically in black-white relations, in American culture and history. Multiple accounts of the centennial restoration, as well as recent commentary about the rumor, explains why it is so widespread and why so many African Americans who do not embrace the ultra- nationalist views described below (in the section on the history of the rumor) still find some, if not all of its components compelling. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 12

RUMOR TEXTS FROM CYBERSPACE

Rumors emerge in response to specific situations involving social conflict and ambiguous facts. Research demonstrates a set of common characteristics across time and place for most African American rumors:

1. Use of a famous American (in symbolic form) to tell a larger national history in which racial oppression figures prominently.

2. Revelation of a misrepresentation of American history by whites and their agents, such as the government and public schools, to exclude African Americans’ achievements and participation.

3. Linkage of personal with communal and national experience.

4. Allegation of the violation of a black body (through erasure, disfigurement, or negation of its blackness).

5. Incorporation of “proofs” of their validity.

Rumors are not static texts. The following examples show several variants of the Statue of Liberty rumor posted on the Internet between October 1997 and July 1999. Modified versions of the texts, sometimes reduced to a few sentences, have also appeared on-line, in newspapers, books, radio spots and television commercials. These texts show that the Black Statue of Liberty rumors clearly fall within the African American cultural tradition.

Version #1: This is one of the earliest rumor texts posted on the Internet. Presented as fact, it consists almost exclusively of the core text taken from The Journey of the Songhai People.

EACH ONE TEACH ONE

Another unknown fact…

...a bit of little known information…I had heard that the Statue of Liberty was originally a Black woman, but as memory serves, it was because the model was black. The following is far more enlightening:

In a book called “The Journey of the Songhai People,” according Dr. Jim Haskins (a member of the National Education Advisory Committee of the Liberty-Ellis Island Committee, professor of English at the University of Florida, and prolific Black author) what stimulated the original idea for that 151 foot statue in the harbor initially was the Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 13

part that Black soldiers played in the ending of Black African bondage in the United States. It was created in the mind of the French historian Edourd [sic] de Laboulaye, chairman of the French Antislavery [sic] Society, who, together with sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, proposed to the French government that the people of France present to the people of the United States through the American Abolitionist Society, the gift of a Statue of Liberty in recognition of the fact that Black soldiers won the Civil War in the United States. It was widely known then that it was Black soldiers who played the pivotal role in winning the war, and this gift would be a tribute to their prowess.

Documents of Proof:

1). You may go to see the original model of the Statue of Liberty, with the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand. Go to the museum of the City of New York, Fifth Avenue and 103rd St. (212) 534-1672 or call Peter Simmons and he can send you some documentation.

2). Check with the NY Times magazine, part II May 18, 1986. Read the article by Laboulaye.

3). The dark original face of the Statue of Liberty can be seen in the NY Post, June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the broken chains at her feet.

4.) Finally, you may check with the French Mission of the French Embassy at the UN or in Washington, DC and ask for some original French material on the Statue of Liberty, including the Bartholdi original model. You can call in September (202) 944- 6060 or 6400.

Posted October 7, 1997; University of Colorado, Denver.

Version #2: This variant elaborates on the core text by developing themes related to American culture and history, Black History Month, well-known African Americans, and the author’s own experience. It makes explicit the value of whites, as well as blacks, better understanding African Americans’ contributions to American history.

“The Real Lady Liberty Looks Kinda Like My Momma”

Every year around this time I see advertisements in the popular media about Black History Month. Corporations like Coca-Cola and Kodak remind us each year that African American History is, in fact, American History. I am happy to see that these commercials and print advertisements seem to be getting better each year. I especially like the one that shows a White dad showing his son paintings by Jacob Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 14

Lawrence in a museum. The commercial ends with the cute little White kid looking up at a painting of Harriet Tubman and saying, “Wow!”

Every February I am also exposed to great TV programming (especially on PBS) about the past present and future of my people. Through such programming, various community events, and my own reading, I always pick up little tidbits about the Black Experience. Most of it is enlightening, much of it is educational, and some of it is downright inspirational. Sometimes, I even come across a new piece of information that, frankly, blows my mind…you might say, “things that make me go Hmmm, why didn’t I learn this in eighth grade history class?”

One of the most striking of such facts was something I heard about while at the Million Man March and was recently reminded of in an e- mail message. According to a book called “The Journey of the Songhai People,” what stimulated the original idea for the creation of the Statue of Liberty was the part that Black soldiers played in the ending of Black African Bondage in the United States. Dr. Jim Haskins, a member of the National Education Advisory Committee of the Liberty-Ellis Island is quoted as having said that the statue was created in the mind of the French historian Edourd [sic] de Laboulaye, chairman of the French Antislavery [sic] Society. Together with sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, de Laboulaye proposed to the French government that France present a “Statue of Liberty” to the United States. This gift was to be in recognition of the fact that Black soldiers played the pivotal role in the Civil War.

Moreover, the Statue of Liberty was intended to be a Black woman. The original model, presented to the US Minister to France in 1884, was reported to be a woman of African descent, holding an American flag, with broken shackles at her feet (see photo). US government officials reportedly rejected the idea on the basis that such an image would be offensive to many in the US South-a reminder of Blacks winning their freedom.

Suzanne Nakasian, director of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Foundations’ [sic] National Ethnic Campaign said that the Black Americans direct connections to Lady Liberty is unknown to the majority of Americans, BLACK or WHITE. The e-mail I was sent offered these “documents of proof:” The Museum of the City of New York has the original model of the Statue of Liberty, with the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand. You may visit at Fifth Avenue and 103rd St. (212) 534-1672 or call Peter Simmons and he can send you some documentation. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 15

Check the NY Times magazine, part II May 18, 1986. Read the article by Laboulaye. The original face of the Statue of Liberty can be seen in the NY Post, June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the broken chains at her feet. Finally, you can check with the French Mission or the French Embassy at the UN or in Washington, DC and ask for some original French material on the Statue of Liberty, including the Bartholdi original model. You can call in September (202) 944-6060 or 6400.

I myself plan to follow up through these sources to get the “real deal” in the near future.

I still wonder why information like this was not readily available in elementary and junior high school History classes. I do remember being taught that the statue was a gift from France, but I never really knew why. I also remember going to tour the Statue of Liberty as a child, but never hearing this side of the story. I am still left saying, “Hmmm.” I think it would be great if next time I go to visit the Statue, I see a parent pointing to the shackles on the existing shackle’s feet and telling his or her cute little child, “the statue was originally supposed to be a Black woman.” Then like my favorite commercial this month, the kid would respond, “Wow!”

Posted February 17, 1998; University of California, Los Angeles.

Version #3: Like Version #2, this variant adds to the core text. The most recent of the three to enter cyberspace, it emphasizes continuing white oppression of blacks, specifically through the suppression of black history. In addition to incorporating the core text within a personal narrative, it adds new “evidence.”

“THIS ARTICLE IS VERY INTERESTING…..

It is hard to believe that after many years of schooling (secondary and post) the following facts about the Statue of Liberty was never taught [sic].

Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people including myself have visited the Statue of Liberty over the years but yet I’m unable to find one person who knows the true history behind the Statue amazing. Yes, amazing the so much important Black history (such as this) is hidden from us (Black and White). What makes this even worse is the fact that the current twist on history perpetuates and promotes white supremacy at the expense of Black Pride. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 16

During my visit to France I saw the original Statue of Liberty. However, there was a difference, the Statue in France is Black. “Ya learn something new everyday!” The Statue of Liberty was originally a Black woman, but as memory serves, it was because the model was black. In a book called “The Journey of the Songhai People,” according Dr. Jim Haskins, a member of the National Education Advisory Committee of the Liberty-Ellis Island Committee, professor of English at the University of Florida, and prolific Black author, what stimulated the original idea for that 151 foot statue in the harbor. He says that the idea for the creation of the statue initially was the part that Black soldiers played in the ending of Black African Bondage in the United States. It was created in the mind of the French historian Edourd [sic] de Laboulaye, chairman of the French Antislavery [sic] Society, who, together with sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, proposed to the French government that the people of France present to the people of the United States through the American Abolitionist Society, the gift of a Statue of Liberty in recognition of the fact that Black soldiers won the Civil War in the United States.

It was widely known then that it was Black soldiers who played the pivotal role in winning the war, and this gift would be a tribute to their prowess. Suzanne Nakasian, director of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Foundations’ [sic] National Ethnic Campaign said that the Black Americans direct connections to Lady Liberty is unknown to the majority of Americans, BLACK or WHITE. When the statue was presented to the U. S., Minister to France in 1884, it is said that he remonstrated that the dominant view of the broken shackles would be offensive to a U. S. South because since [sic] the statue was reminder of Blacks winning their freedom. It was reminder to beaten South of the ones who caused their defeat, their despised former captives.

Documents of Proof:

2). Check with the NY Times magazine, part II May 18, 1986. Read the article by Laboulaye.

3). The dark original face of the Statue of Liberty can be seen in the NY Post, June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the broken chains at her feet. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 17

Knowledge is Power!”

Posted July 24, 1999; African Ancestored Genealogy List, Mississippi State University.

Rumors become legends through regular repetition over time, endorsement by trusted individuals and institutions, and resonance with enduring collective experiences. The trajectory of the Black Statue of Liberty rumors suggests that this story will soon achieve legendary status among African Americans. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 18

HISTORY OF THE BLACK STATUE OF LIBERTY RUMOR

Rumors in broad circulation are notoriously difficult to track. Once widely known, it is impossible to pinpoint their exact origins. Since it first surfaced in print during the statue’s centennial restoration, the Black Statue of Liberty rumor has left a clearer trail than most. Still, its precise origins are uncertain. Its full history will never be known.

Legends about the Statue of Liberty have probably existed in oral form in some African American families for decades, dating to the project’s American introduction in the 1870s. At least some of these stories would likely be at odds with the National Park Service’s past and current presentations of the statue’s history and cultural significance. Calvin R. Robinson reports that his grandmother, who was alive during its construction, often spoke of the statue being a black woman designed to commemorate the end of slavery.23 Black Civil War veterans who marched in the dedication parade, donors who received American Committee models for their contributions to the pedestal fund, and others who witnessed various stages of the project’s development may have shared such views with family and community members that were passed on to subsequent generations.

As explained in the first section of Part 1, African American counter-narratives to official or “textbook” histories are quite common, though often unknown by other Americans. If counter-narratives about the Statue of Liberty previously existed, the publicity and fundraising efforts around the gala celebration of the statue’s centennial served as catalyst for their development and widespread dissemination. Championed by President Reagan, fundraisers, and commercial interests as the pre-eminent symbol of a triumphant American history, the Statue of Liberty centennial symbolically excluded African Americans from the nation of white Europeans whose ancestors came seeking freedom and economic opportunity for themselves and their families.24

Not everyone agreed with this interpretation. In July 1986, Jim Haskins’ published an article in American Visions, a magazine of African American arts and culture, and a children’s book, The Statue of Liberty: America’s Proud Lady.25 Both state that the end of slavery inspired the Statue of Liberty project. Haskins was an especially credible source. An award winning author and professor of English at the University of Florida-Gainesville, he was also a member of the National Education Committee of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and Vice-Chairman of the southeastern regional campaign.

23 Robertson , op. cit. Robinson’s account alone does not prove a pre-existing oral tradition. He shared this story with The Boston Globe thirteen years after the publication of The Journey of the Songhai People, the book at the center of the cybertext rumor, which he co-authored. It does not appear in the book. 24 Ronald Reagan’s use of the Statue of Liberty in this way for political gain pre-dates the centennial celebration. See, for example, paid advertisements in the 1984 presidential campaign. 25 Jim Haskins, The Statue of Liberty: America’s Proud Lady. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing Company, 1986. Haskins revisits the subject with the same conclusions in “Blacks and the Statue of Liberty,” Opportunity Journal, February 2000, pp. 46-48. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 19

In its July 3-9, 1986 issue, the nationalist weekly, The Black American, ran a lead article on the Statue of Liberty. The author, Jack Felder, began:

Did you know the first and original U.S. statue of liberty was to be dedicated to the liberation of the Black African slaves recently freed in 1865? The original model had broken chains of slavery at her feet and in her left hand, also she had a dark Negroid face….26

Some months later, the content of Felder’s article, including a section called “Proof or Documents,” appeared with Haskins’ name attached in The Journey of the Songhai People. Written by Calvin R. Robinson, Redman Battle and Edward W. Robinson, Jr., it was published in two editions in 1987 by the Pan African Federation Organization. Calvin R. Robinson was a founder of PAFO. He and Battle served as President and Vice President, respectively, when the book was published. The text is considered a classic popular survey of black history written from an Afrocentric perspective.

Their account of the origin of the Statue of Liberty forms the core text of the Black Statue of Liberty rumors. It reads in part:

According to Dr. Jim Haskins, a member of the National Education Advisory Committee of the Liberty-Ellis Island Committee, professor of English at the University of Florida, and prolific Black author, points out to [sic] what stimulated the original idea for that 151 foot statue in the harbor. He says that what stimulated the idea for the creation of the statue initially was the part Black soldiers played in the ending of African bondage in the United States. It was created in the mind of the French historian Dr. Edourd [sic] de Laboulaye, chairman of the French Anti-Slavery Society, who, together with sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, proposed to the French government that the people of France present to the people of the United States through the American Abolitionist Society, the gift of a Statue of Liberty in recognition of the fact that Black soldiers won the Civil War in the United States. It was widely known then that it was the Black soldier who played the pivotal role in winning the war, and this gift would be a tribute to their prowess. Suzanne Nakasian, director of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Foundations’ [sic] National Ethnic Campaign said that the Black Americans direct connections to Lady Liberty is unknown to the majority of Americans, Black or white…

26 Jack Felder, “This Miss Liberty Was Modeled on Racism,” The Black American, Vol 26:27. The article was subtitled, “The Original Model Was Black And Displayed The Chains of Slavery.” Felder, a former chemist, is best known for his theory that AIDS was created by an American scientist for a United States government experiment intended to kill tens of millions of Africans worldwide through HIV infection. See Turner, op. cit, pp. 151-163 for a discussion of related rumors. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 20

When the statue was presented to the United States Minister to France in 1884, it is said that he remonstrated that the dominant view of the broken shackles would be offensive to a United States South, because since the statue was a reminder of Blacks winning their freedom it was reminder to a beaten South of the ones who caused their defeat, their despised former captives… PROOF OF DOCUMENTS 1. You may go and see the original model of the Statue of Liberty with the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand. Go to the Museum of the City of New York, Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street (212-534-1672). 2. Check with the New York Times magazine, part II - May 18, 1986. Read the article by Laboulaye. 3. The dark original face of the Statue of Liberty can be seen in The New York Post. June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the broken chains at her feet. 4. Finally, you may check with the French Mission at the United Nations and ask for some original French material on the Statue of Liberty, including the Bartholdi original model….27

Since these publications first appeared, articles reporting the rumors as fact have intermittently repeated their accounts in African American newspapers and magazines, such as Newark (NJ) Clarion, Los Angeles Sentinel, and Rap Pages. The most frequent

27 Calvin, R. Robinson, Redman Battle and Edward W. Robinson, Jr. The Journey of the Songhai People, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Pan African Federation Organization, 1987, pp. 195-197. In 1999, Haskins posted a formal statement on the University of Florida’s website: From my viewpoint… Misinformation has been disseminated via the Internet, print articles, and other sources as to my role in the controversy over whether the Statue of Liberty was originally a black woman. I have written one 48-page book for children on the statue: The Statue of Liberty: America’s Proud Lady (Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing Company, 1986). I have never written a book entitled The Journey of the Songhai People. I have also never stated that the statue was presented by the people of France to the people of the United States to honor the role of black soldiers in the Civil War. In The Statue of Liberty: America’s Proud Lady, I state that the impetus for the creation of the statue—and its presentation to the United States of America by the people of France—was the abolition of slavery in the United States. I further state that Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the statue, used his mother as the model for the face, and that for the body he used as a model Emilie Baheux de Puysieux, a young woman who later became his wife. I state also that in the course of creating the statue, Bartholdi made changes in composition. At first, he had a torch in her left hand; later, he changed it to her right. At first, she was a very defiant figure; later, he made her more remote from the affairs of men. At first, she held a broken chain in her other hand, to symbolize the broken chains of bondage; later Bartholdi decided she should hold a tablet, inscribed with the date of the Declaration of Independence, and that a fragment of chain would be on the ground as if she had already thrown it there. Regarding Suzanne Nakasian, see Appendix B. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 21 coverage has been in The New York Amsterdam News.28 Like the recent Internet and e- mail versions, all are based on Robinson et. al. or Felder. In most cases, only minor changes have been made to the original text(s). The language in Robinson, et. al. is used most frequently, followed by Felder’s. The Journey of the Songhai People’s co-authors cite Felder’s article in The Black American, but not Haskins’ works, as a primary source.

These publications alone would have been sufficient for the rumor to spread widely among African American readers of Afrocentric texts and their social networks. As early as 1991, Leonard Jeffries, Jr., professor of African-American Studies at City College of New York and one of the best known academic racial nationalists, also began promoting the Felder’s claims about the statue’s origins as fact in his public appearances. During an infamous two hour speech in which he referred to George Washington as “the slave master bastard Founding Father” and accused “rich Jews” of responsibility for the slave trade, Jeffries told the audience at the Empire State Black Arts and Cultural Festival that based on Felder’s “proof,” photographs in Marvin Trachtenberg’s The Statue of Liberty and text about Edouard de Laboulaye in a 1986 commemorative publication, he concluded that the original model for the Statue of Liberty was a black woman.29 The conference speeches were broadcast on an Albany cable station, NY-SCAN. Jeffries’ controversial remarks were reprinted and are still available for purchase on the Internet.

Felder currently serves as president of Al Sharpton’s Community Action Network’s scholars committee. He produced a second piece on the Statue of Liberty in 1992. The self-published tract, From the Statue of Liberty (Liberation) to the State of Bigotry (White Racism Facing Europe), expands on his newspaper article.30 He reports visiting the Museum of the City of New York in 1986 to see what he calls the “original model” with broken chains in her hand. Felder alleges that when he asked to see the maquette, a white curator told him that he did not know what he was talking about. Then, he says he asked a black guard who showed him the maquette in the museum’s basement. From this, he concluded that the museum was trying to hide the original model and the truth.31 This anecdote is very similar to a visit described by Jeffries’ in the Albany speech, except that Jeffries reported that he only questioned black employees and did not ultimately see the allegedly hidden maquette.

28 Jim Haskins, “The Statue of Liberty: An All-American Vision,” American Visions, July/August 1986, 12-19; Charles Baillou, “Is Lady Liberty really a symbol for Blacks too?” The New York Amsterdam News, 1988, p. ; Leroy Vaughn, “Our Heritage: The Black Statue of Liberty,” Los Angeles Sentinel, November 12, 1998, p. A-8; Ronnie Brown, “Lady Liberation,” Rap Pages, January 1998, pp. 24-25. 29 “Text of Jeffries’ Speech,” The New York Amsterdam News, August 31, 1991, p. 30. The second text was probably Pierre Provoyeur and June Hargrove, Liberty: The French American Statue in Art and History, Cambridge, MA: Harper & Row, 1986. 30 Jack Felder. From the Statue of Liberty (Liberation) to the State of Bigotry (White Racism Facing Europe. New York: self-published, 1992. 31 This anecdote is often misattributed to Leonard Jeffries, Jr. See, for example, Helàn E. Page, African Americans and National Parks in the New England Cluster. Boston: National Park Service, 1998, unpublished technical report. In a telephone interview on October 1, 1998, Jan Ramirez, former Deputy Director for Interpretation and Curator of Sculpture and Paintings, Museum of the City of New York, disputed Felder’s story. See Appendix B. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 22

Just two months after his Albany speech, Jeffries told The New York Amsterdam News that “this information [about the statue’s history], though not deliberately hidden, is not widely enough broadcast and should, in fact, be taught in the classrooms all across the nation and certainly in schools in New York State.”32 By promoting the idea that the “original model” was locked away in an inaccessible location in the basement of the Museum of the City of New York, he strongly suggested that the information was purposely concealed.

Writing in the Los Angeles Sentinel, an African American newspaper, in November 1998, Leroy Vaughn stated:

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte stated that history was only “a lie agreed upon.” Nothing could be more illustrative than the history of the Statue of Liberty originally called “Liberty Enlightening the World.” The liberation of African American slaves was the only inspiration for the creation of a Statue of Liberation for Edouard Rene LeFebvre DeLaboulaye [sic]…. The official web site of the Statue of Liberty states that the statue was given to the people of the United States by the people of France as an expression of friendship and to commemorate the centennial of American Independence (1776). The Encyclopedia Britannica states Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty as a monument to the Franco-American Alliance of 1778. These are absolute and total lies!33

Vaughn’s article is one of several in the black press that draw heavily, though without citation, on Felder’s second piece. It appears infrequently as a direct source in Black Statue of Liberty rumor texts, probably because of its relative obscurity.

While it appears that the rumor began with Felder’s first publication in 1986, precisely how and when the rumor texts first entered cyberspace is unknown. Virtually all its Internet and e-mail versions include text that is taken verbatim from Robinson, et. al. or, occasionally, directly from Felder’s 1986 article. As the rumor traveled electronically, the text changed somewhat to produce several versions in concurrent circulation.

From 1997-1999, people connected with academic institutions were probably the most prolific sources and frequent recipients of the rumor’s electronic versions. The first documented sighting on the Internet originated in the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Tulane University in March 1997.34 A partial list of academic institutions it has passed through since includes:

32 Ibid. 33 Vaughn, op. cit. 34 The Messenger, March 1997, see http://www.tulane.edu/~oma/Mar97.html. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 23

Case Western Reserve University University of Alabama, Birmingham Central Michigan University University of California, Davis Clemson University University of California, Los Angeles DePaul University University of Central Arkansas Harvard University University of Colorado, Denver Mississippi State University University of Missouri New School University University of Ohio Southern Louisiana University Yale University

During this time, campus-based electronic dissemination was almost exclusively among African American faculty, students, and alumni. History professors at California State University-San Bernardino and Michigan State University (and probably other campuses) distributed versions of the rumor text to their classes. They also traveled through the black Greek system, offices of multicultural affairs, and e-mail lists used by academic researchers. In February 2000, a research officer at Harvard University’s W. E. B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research unequivocally stated, “It is widely believed in academic circles that Laboulaye meant for the statue to honor the slaves, as well as mark the recent Union victory in the Civil War and the life of Abraham Lincoln.”35 Since so little research has been conducted on this subject, his statement likely reflects the rumors’ influence on more mainstream scholars.

In 1991, City College’s Jeffries recalled, “When [Felder’s 1986 article] first came out, it was a student who gave it to me…”36 The rumor’s jump from limited circulation through Afrocentric publications to widespread dissemination via college campuses is not surprising given the avid interest in black nationalist ideas among African American students, as well as some scholars and administrators, and the availability of related materials in courses, libraries, and student centers. In recent years, e-mail has become the preferred means of communication throughout much of academia. Internet access, including personal homepages, are available to faculty and students on many academic institutions’ websites.

Once launched in cyberspace, the rumor quickly traveled through all of the major Internet service providers’ e-mail systems (e.g. American On-Line, Microsoft Network, Yahoo, Compuserve, Hotmail), corporate systems such as AMC Theaters, Anheuser- Busch, AT&T, Dow Jones, Lucent, Merck, and Southwest Bell, and government networks including the Kansas City Public Schools, California Legislature, U. S. Army and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It reached numerous international destinations including France, Kazakhstan and Japan.

Without further documentation, the prevalence of the Black Statue of Liberty rumors on college campuses, in corporate and government workplaces and on the Internet should not be mistaken for knowledge or acceptance among African Americans in general. “Public opinion” among academics and their students, black professionals, or

35 Tom Kirchofer, Park Service Investigates Statue of Liberty’s Racial Origins, Boston: Associated Press, February 7, 2000. 36 Op. cit., The New York Amsterdam News, August 31, 1991. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 24

Internet users and lurkers is not necessarily representative of African Americans collectively or even of those sub-groups.37 However, in addition to print and electronic distribution, the rumor has reached increasingly large African American audiences through the black-owned and ethnically targeted broadcast media. Jim Haskins reports refuting the black model assertion on Tony Brown’s weekly public affairs show when he and Jeffries were guests in the early 1990s.38 More recently, the claims have been broadcast nationally in abbreviated form on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” and printed in a related book, Little Known Black History Facts, Volume 2, which is available by mail order.39 In 1999, the Burrell Communication Group, an African American-owned media company, produced a commercial based on this publication for the National Black McDonald’s Operators Association that ran during Black History Month in 90 urban markets in the United States and Canada.40

As widespread as dissemination of the rumor has been in recent years, until very recently, it was virtually unknown outside of African American social and professional networks. On February 4, 2000, the Boston Globe published a feature article describing the National Park Service’s research efforts with commentary by African American scholars and community leaders.41 The article generated substantial interest from other domestic and international news organizations. A list of known coverage resulting from the article is included in Appendix C.

37 For a discussion of a comparable distortion of “public opinion” among scientists on-line, see Susanna Hornig Priest, “Public Opinion, Expert Opinion, and the Illusion of Consensus: Gleaning Points of View Electronically,” The Electronic Grapevine. Diane L. Borden and Kerric Harvey, eds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 1998, pp. 23-30. 38 Jim Haskins, personal communication. 39 Lady Sala Shabazz. Little Known Black History Facts, Volume 2. Los Angeles: Black Inventions Museum, 1998. 40 Internal memo from Manny Strumpf to Cynthia Garrett and Rebecca Joseph, February 11, 1999. The park has a copy of the commercial on videotape provided by Burrell Communications Group. 41 Robertson, op. cit., pp. B1, B8. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 25

PART II

THE DINNER PARTY LEGEND

Claim #1:

The idea for the Statue of Liberty was introduced at a dinner party at the home of Edouard de Laboulaye following the death of President Lincoln in 1865.

Finding:

This story is a legend. It is traceable to a single, unreliable source - an 1885 fundraising pamphlet written by Auguste Bartholdi for the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty. Its continuous repetition and association of two powerful symbols of American freedom, the Statue of Liberty and President Abraham Lincoln, give it the appearance of fact.

While it is impossible to pinpoint exactly, the preponderance of historical evidence points to the “birth” of the statue of Liberty as some time in late 1870 or early 1871, a pivotal time in the lives of Laboulaye and Bartholdi. It is unclear who initiated the idea.

People who strongly embrace this legend as fact will continue to believe that the dinner party or something like it occurred in 1865 although faced with clear evidence to the contrary.

Were it not for the powerful appeal of a story about the birth of the Statue of Liberty that ties France to the United States at the end of the Civil War, the Black Statue of Liberty rumor might never have gotten started. Since it was first published in 1885, this story has been repeated so many times in histories, reference books, newspapers, magazines, and even advertisements, that it long ago entered legendary status in American history. Anyone interested in the Statue of Liberty can find it in some form with very little effort. A look at the circumstances of the story’s emergence is the first step toward better understanding the Statue of Liberty’s history in relation to the questions posed in the Introduction.

The most often repeated account of the statue’s origins places the first discussion of a commemorative monument at a dinner party given by Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, a prominent French scholar, jurist, and abolitionist, in 1865 shortly after the death of President Abraham Lincoln. The story’s source is an 1885 promotional pamphlet, The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, written by sculptor Auguste Bartholdi to raise money in the United States for the American Committee for the Statue Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 26 of Liberty’s pedestal fund.42 The Committee, which had been struggling for nearly a decade to meet its commitment to its French counterpart, the French-American Union, hoped that a first-person account by the artist would succeed in generating new interest and donations.

Advocates of the view that the statue commemorates the abolition of slavery, including some prominent historians, argue that together with Laboulaye’s anti-slavery activities the temporal proximity of Lincoln’s assassination to this event demonstrates its French promoters’ intent. In The Story of American Freedom, Eric Foner writes:

An immense crowd gathered in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886, for the unveiling of Liberty Enlightening the World, a fitting symbol for a nation now wholly free. The idea for the statue originated at a French dinner party in the summer of 1865. It was conceived by Edouard de Laboulaye, an educator and author of several books on the United States, as a response to the assassination of President Lincoln. The statue, de Laboulaye hoped, would exemplify Franco-American friendship…and celebrate the triumph, through the Union’s victory of American freedom.43

In 1986, New York Post columnist Eric Fettmann wrote a 10-part series on the history of the Statue of Liberty, a part of which is cited as one of the “Documents of Proof” in the Black Statue of Liberty rumor. In response to the Associated Press story about this study, Fettmann reiterated:

The U.S. Civil War and the abolition of slavery was, in fact, the critical inspiration for the statue, which was conceived at an 1865 dinner at the home of Edouard-Rene de Laboulaye, an internationally famed jurist and France’s leading expert on American constitutional law... The time, he felt, was ripe for such a monument; Abraham Lincoln’s assassination a few months earlier had provoked a massive outpouring of grief in France….44

Despite its powerful appeal, Bartholdi’s accuracy in recounting of the 1865 dinner is suspect. The tract in which the story appears opens with a statement that immediately casts doubt on its reliability:

42 Excerpts appear in another American Committee publication, Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World by the President of the United States, New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1887. 43 Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998, p. 115. 44 Eric Fettmann, “The Black Statue of Liberty?” New York Post, February 9, 2000. His column, which can be downloaded from NYPost.com, is beginning to appear on other websites, such as The Black World Today . Fettmann’s original series ran in the New York Post from June 16-27, 1986. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 27

The origin of the work of the Franco-American Union is of so modest a character that it would be very difficult to search it out if I did not recount it myself.45

Unknown to the American public, this claim is most certainly false. The French- American Union is well documented.46 Formed in 1874 to raise French funds for the statue, Laboulaye served as president until his death. His close associate, abolitionist and historian Henri Martin was a vice-president, along with Bartholdi’s cousin, Dietz Monin. The project’s history would have been well-known to its officers, all of whom were prominent public figures known to one another, as well as to the Americans most closely involved in the project.

Bartholdi’s vague recall of events appears only after his patron Laboulaye’s death and only in the United States.47 Without reference to the time of year, the Civil War or Lincoln’s death, he tells of a discussion of international politics “one evening twenty years ago” at “a gathering of men eminent in politics and letters” in Edouard Laboulaye’s home near Versailles. In contrast to the subsequent detailed text, a description of a similar dinner at Laboulaye’s home in 1871, he recalls no specifics of the 1865 event except that Laboulaye proposed a monument to commemorate American independence that would be “built by united effort…a common work of both nations.”

Bartholdi admits:

I cite these words from memory, since they have never been put in print so far as I know; but this conversation interested me so deeply that it remained fixed in my memory and if I am not able to give the precise form of it, at least the ideas are exact, because they may be found in the addresses of M. Laboulaye in regard to the work of the French-American Union.48

If the idea for the Statue of Liberty was introduced at a dinner in 1865, the project would most likely have commenced very soon afterward and there would be at least a partial record of it. Still, many authors accept Bartholdi’s 1885 account at face value and then build an historical account that reinforces its apparent truth.

Beginning in 1874, Laboulaye’s writings about and on behalf of the French- American Union contain no references to an 1865 dinner. Laboulaye’s earliest mention of the project occurs in letters dated 1871. Like his detailed recollections of the statue’s early history, Bartholdi’s earliest written references and first recognizable fabrications also date to 1871. Until this pamphlet was published in 1885, Laboulaye and Bartholdi

45Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. New York: North American Review, 1885, p. 1. 46 See, for example, Catherine Hodeir, “The French Campaign,” Liberty: The French-American Statue in Art and History, Pierre Provoyeur and June Hargrove, eds., Cambridge: Harper & Row, 1986, p.120 - . 47 Edouard de Laboulaye died on May 24, 1883. 48 Ibid., p. 3. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 28 never mentioned any earlier discussions of or plans for the project. This is surprising for Bartholdi, whose letters and diaries chronicle his professional activities from the mid- 1850s onward, and for Laboulaye, whose writings and correspondence often prescriptively address his admiration for the United States as a political model for Europe, particularly France.

Historians who accept the dinner party legend must account for the gap between the introduction of the idea for the statue and its initial execution. The most common explanations are the unfavorable domestic political situation in France and Bartholdi’s involvement with the unsuccessful Suez Canal lighthouse project. Though these conditions existed, they did not deter related activities. For example, in 1865-66, Victor Hugo led a successful national subscription campaign to present a memorial medal to Mary Todd Lincoln despite strong opposition from Napoleon III. Except for a period in 1870-71, when both Laboulaye and Bartholdi served in the Franco-Prussian War, they were actively involved in other projects throughout this period. Laboulaye founded the French Committee for Emancipation of the Slaves in 1865 to raise funds for the freed slaves and initiated a transnational letter writing campaign advocating their full political enfranchisement. Despite political setbacks, he continued to write prolifically on political and social issues. Bartholdi completed four major works, as well as smaller commissions.49

It is unclear who initiated the idea for Liberty Enlightening the World, though it is most frequently attributed to Laboulaye. Bartholdi knew the much older Laboulaye in the mid-1860s as evidenced by the commissioned bust he completed during that period. Odile de Lavergne, steward of Laboulaye’s personal collections - including the Bartholdi bust - believes that her grandfather saw the artist’s models for the Suez Canal project and encouraged him to travel to the United States to meet with Americans and develop a suitable monument.50 Catherine Hodeir, a French scholar, also believes that Laboulaye approached Bartholdi with his idea for a monument.51

In the 1885 account, Bartholdi recalls an after dinner conversation at the home of Laboulaye, crediting Laboulaye’s convictions for “the germ” of the French-American Union’s monument and for encouraging him to make his first visit to the United States in 1871, but taking full credit for both the idea for the monument and its design. If Laboulaye did not initiate the project, he was certainly its moral conscience and original French patron.

Bartholdi’s 1885 version of the events leading up to the founding of the French-American Union conflict with other accounts. From an unidentified newspaper published September 16, 1876:

49 Génie Funèbre, 1866; Les Loisirs de la Pays, 1868; Jeune Vigneron Alsacien, 1869; Vercingétorix, 1870. 50 Personal communication, April 2000. 51 Hodeir, op. cit., p. 121. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 29

Several years ago, as the Centennial celebration of American independence began to be looked forward to and talked about in Europe, some of the warm republican spirits of France suggested the idea of a contribution to that celebration from their own country that should be worthy of the great occasion. The suggestion was received with enthusiastic approval, and it was determined to carry it into effect; but the form which it should take was not decided on then. Soon afterward M. Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor, who was one of the men interested in the project, made a trip to the United States….52

The African American Cleveland Gazette ran at least seven solicitations from the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty between April 1885 and January 1886. As part of its comprehensive coverage of the statue’s dedication, the newspaper gave an account of its history:

At the entrance to New York Harbor, Bartholdi, it is said, conceived the idea of rearing a colossal statue to symbolize America’s message of Liberty to the world while sailing up New York bay on his visit to this country in 1871, with heart depressed at the ruin and wretchedness in his native land after her defeat by Germany. On his return to France he suggested to his friends his idea of such a statue to be presented by the French nation to the United States.53

Following his death in 1904, The Athenaeum’s obituary for Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi read, in part:

It will be appropriate just now to recall the circumstances which gave birth to the idea, and which led to the realization of one of the most ambitious schemes in the history of modern sculpture. Soon after the conclusion of the disastrous war with Germany the idea was mooted of erecting a suitable memorial to the old friendship between France and America. In 1874, the Franco-American Union was established, its promoters including Laboulaye, De Remussat, Waddington, Henri Martin, De Lesseps, De Rochambeau, Lafayette and the sculptor whose death we are chronicling today. Bartholdi submitted his scheme for ‘Liberté Eclairant le Monde,’ and this was accepted.54

We found no corroborating source for the 1865 dinner party anecdote among the many primary documents we reviewed. Laboulaye biographer Walter Gray, who begins his repetition of the legend with, “It is often said…,” also notes that the 1885 pamphlet is

52 Italics added. 53 Cleveland Gazette, October 30, 1886. 54 The Athenaeum Vol. 2, pp. 489-490. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 30 the only evidence that the event occurred.55 In an interview for this study, Gerard de Laboulaye reported an oral tradition in his family, but was not aware of any concrete evidence among his great-grandfather’s personal papers.56 Just as it appears in posthumous French histories, it is quite likely that the story entered the family from an external source sometime after the statue’s dedication.

Our research supports the view that the “Statue of Liberty, an eternal symbol of hope, was born out of the despair of two of the most devastating conflicts of the mid- nineteenth century, the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War.”57 The importance of the Civil War is discussed in detail in the next section. The Franco- Prussian War is not well known in the United States, but was pivotal in the lives of both Bartholdi and Laboulaye. France’s defeat resulted in the short-term occupation of Paris and Prussia’s annexation of Alsace. Laboulaye, who was convinced that France would prevail, as the North had in the Civil War, was distressed by the loss and by American support for the Prussians. He was forced to leave Paris in September 1870 and did not return until late March 1871. Bartholdi joined the National Guard in August 1870 and served in a unit led by Guiseppe Garibaldi, an Italian military hero who volunteered to serve France after Napoleon III’s capture in September 1870. He visited a besieged Colmar briefly before returning to Paris on May 31, 1871. In his 1885 account of the origin of the Statue of Liberty project, Bartholdi states that the discussion at Laboulaye’s home in Glatigny-Versailles that produced the idea for the commemorative gift moved from the Italians and specifically Garibaldi’s aid to France to a comparison with the relationship between France and the United States. This conversation makes sense in 1871, just before Bartholdi sailed for the United States, but not in 1865.

Following the Napolean III’s defeat, Laboulaye’s political stature and influence increased. He and Bartholdi corresponded about the project before the artist wrote on May 8, 1871:

It occurred to me that this is a good moment to take that trip which I had the honor of discussing with you, and I am now ready to go to the United States at the end of this month!…above all, I hope to succeed in realizing my plan for the monument in honor of Independence…I will try especially to glorify the Republic and Liberty over there, hoping that I will one day find them back here, if possible….58

In summary, evidence that the “birth” of Statue of Liberty actually occurred in 1870 or 1871 far outweighs support for its legendary origin in 1865. The former includes:

55 Walter D. Gray, Interpreting American Democracy in France: The Career of Edouard Laboulaye, 1811- 1883. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1994, p. 128, see also p. 160 f61. 56 Personal communication, March 20, 2000. 57 Christian Blanchet and Bertrand Dard, Statue of Liberty: The First Hundred Years. Eng. trans. Bernard A. Weisberger, New York: American Heritage, 1985, p.13. 58 Ibid., p. 33. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 31

 The first documentary records of the project contained in diary entries and correspondence written by Bartholdi and Laboulaye;

 Bartholdi’s and Laboulaye’s experiences during and just after the Franco- Prussian War;

 Temporal proximity to the 25th anniversary of the Republic of 1848’s abolition of slavery in the French colonies (1873) and the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence (1876);

 Evolution of the statue’s design (see Claim #3).

Why would Bartholdi embellish the truth about the project’s origins? The creator of colossi was also a skilled practitioner of hyperbole. During the 1880s, Abraham Lincoln emerged as a legendary figure in the United States. It was also a time when many Americans viewed personal narratives as more reliable purveyors of “truth” than official sources in part due to the sensationalism of the press and its politically biased news coverage. Consistent with his earliest documented motives for involving himself in the transnational Liberty project, Bartholdi took advantage of the opportunity to write a history for the American Committee to promote an image of himself that would appeal to potential American patrons and secure his place in history.

Bartholdi’s concern with improving his career prospects are evident from his first letters from the United States. Shortly after his arrival in New York in June 1871, he wrote to his mother in Alsace:

…I must meet a considerable number of people, and then, if my project is impossible to realize, I shall have made enough acquaintances here so that American amateurs of art will come to see me in Paris, and some will think to ask me for some of my sculptures… …If you share my letters, please omit - in the case of certain people - what I tell you about my projects. There are some who will not be able to understand…I believe that, even if I obtain no immediate results, I shall have made myself known in the world, that I shall be able to attract Americans traveling in Europe, in Italy and that this way I shall find excellent sources of support.59

Bartholdi succeeded in securing several commissions during this trip to the United States, including the Lafayette statue in New York City completed in 1874. During his second trip in 1876, the artist served as a judge at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. A full-size replica of the Statue of Liberty’s arm was displayed along with several of his other pieces. With the help of Frederick Law Olmsted, he again used his

59 Translation by Joseph. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 32 entrepreneurial talents to sell a fountain to the United States government. It was placed on the Olmsted-designed Capitol grounds.

During his third trip to the U. S., Bartholdi believed his place is history was finally secure. he arrived in New York shortly before the statue’s dedication in October 1886. The New York Times reported:

“When I first came to America,” said M. Bartholdi radiantly, “I dreamed of this. I said to myself, ‘What a great thing it would be for this enormous statue to be placed in the midst of such a scene of life and liberty!’ My dream has been realized. I can only say that I am enchanted. This thing will live to eternity,” said M. Bartholdi, looking with an expression heavenward; “when we will have passed away, and everything living with us has moldered away.”60

Personal aggrandizement was Bartholdi’s only reason for beginning his account of the statue’s history in 1865. In 1885, the American Committee faced an immediate, potentially fatal threat to their success. For some months before the pamphlet’s publication, unfavorable stories were circulating in the United States about the Statue of Liberty’s origins. Circulation was aided by the American press:

A disturbing rumor reaches us from across the Atlantic in regard to the statue of Liberty, which only the other day was formally presented to the United States. It is said that M. Bartholdi’s colossal figure was not originally either to be presented to this country or to be a personification of Liberty, but that it was designed to represent Progress and to be placed at the entrance of the Suez Canal. For some reason or other this programme was not carried out, and then the donation of the statue to the United States was determined upon as an afterthought.61

In 1885, the nearly bankrupt American Committee needed Bartholdi to present a credible history of the Statue of Liberty that would clear his name and theirs. He vehemently denied any connection between the two projects. Doubts remained even after the statue’s dedication.62 Five years later, Bartholdi was still refuting the claim: “C’est idiot! (It’s idiotic!)…It is an old and threadbare falsehood, the source of which I well know. It was a certain vile individual, wishing to injure me, set that report afloat. The whole thing is based on this.” While working on the Suez Canal project from 1867-1869, he added, “…my Statue of Liberty did not exist, even in my imagination….”63

60 The New York Times, October 26,1886, p. 5. 61 Unidentified newspaper, July (?) 1884 quoted in Carol Perrault, “Construction History: The Statue, Its Pedestal, and Foundation (Book 1),” Statue of Liberty Monument Historic Resources Study, Lowell, MA: National Park Service, 1997, p. 174. The rumor was first published in Paris in 1882. 62 See Bartholdi, op. cit., p. 37. 63 “Bartholdi and the Statue: The French Sculptor Nails a Vicious Falsehood Once More,” The World, April 22, 1890. See also, Perrault, pp. 22-23. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 33

Whether Bartholdi deliberately began The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World with an invented 1865 dinner party story or merely confused the facts more than twenty years later will remain a mystery. In hindsight, it was a brilliant move. By having the Statue of Liberty’s origins, at least in concept, predate the start of the Suez Canal project by two full years, Bartholdi strengthened his claim that the two were unrelated. He positioned himself as the heroic central figure in the saga of the Liberty’s realization during the very time when President Lincoln was beginning to emerge as the embodiment of “what ordinary, inarticulate Americans have as cherished ideals.”64 He could not have fully anticipated the impact this “false” memory would have on the world’s understanding of his best-known work decades later. But he would have loved it.

64 David Donald, “The Folklore Lincoln,” Lincoln Reconsidered, New York: 1956, pp. 144-66. Quoted in Michael Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991, p. 128. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 34

LABOULAYE AND BARTHOLDI VIEW AFRICAN AMERICANS

Claim #2:

Edouard de Laboulaye and Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi were prominent French abolitionists who proposed that the French government present a monument to the people of the United States to recognize the critical roles played by black soldiers in the Civil War.

Finding:

Today, Edouard Laboulaye is best known in the United States for his association with Liberty Enlightening the World, Auguste Bartholdi’s colossal Statue of Liberty. In the 1850s until his death in 1883, he was recognized throughout Europe and the United States as a prolific French abolitionist. Scholars agree that Laboulaye and other liberal intellectuals used their anti-slavery activities to critique the government of Napoleon III and influence domestic politics in France. Where it appears in histories of the Statue of Liberty, Laboulaye’s abolitionism is frequently misinterpreted as abstract or primarily directed at his French political foes.

Laboulaye’s understanding of liberty and thoughts about American democracy can not be separated from his staunch anti-slavery position. His belief that the end of slavery marked the realization of the American democratic ideal embodied in the Declaration of Independence and his use of references to the French role in the American Revolution to generate support for his efforts on behalf of American slaves and freedmen are critical to understanding his conception of the Statue of Liberty.

In contrast to Laboulaye’s activism, Auguste Bartholdi was largely apolitical and adapted his self-presentation to advance his career as an artist. His frequent references to race-related subjects during his 1871 visit to the United States reflect the influences of his French patrons and American contacts, especially Laboulaye and Senator Charles Sumner.

There is no evidence that either Laboulaye or Bartholdi specifically intended the statue to memorialize black combatants in the Civil War.

The Black Statue of Liberty rumor and related texts treat Edouard Laboulaye’s and Auguste Bartholdi’s views on American slavery and blacks, in general, interchangeably. An examination of their respective bodies of work demonstrates how different they actually were. The Statue of Liberty represents a unique synthesis of their thoughts and experiences. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 35

Edouard Laboulaye

Laboulaye was among the leading anti-slavery activists in France for more than thirty years. A full account of his abolitionist writings and activities is beyond the scope of this report. The material included here explains how Laboulaye conceptualized liberty in relation to the end of slavery in the United States. It demonstrates that the French- American friendship motif had a different meaning to Laboulaye and his colleagues than it does to us.

The origins of the Statue of Liberty actually date to 1848, the year the fledgling republican government abolished slavery in the French provinces. Laboulaye was appointed by the government to the post of professor of comparative law at the ideologically militant Collège de France the same year, a position he retained until 1882. His research and teaching focused on American constitutional law and history as an example for France under the new regime. The continuation of slavery in the United States quickly became problematic for him intellectually and politically. Together with Augustin Cochin, Agenor de Gasparin, and others, he became increasingly active in anti- slavery causes. French historian Claude Fohlen calls Laboulaye and Cochin the most important abolitionist writers of the 1850s.65

At first, Laboulaye translated the works of American abolitionists into French. Then he began corresponding directly with prominent anti-slavery activists and politicians; writing his own tracts, several of which were published in the United States in translation; and organizing his colleagues and students. From an initial position of advocacy for gradual emancipation, he became an outspoken critic of all forms of slavery.

Laboulaye followed developments in the Civil War very closely. He considered President Lincoln a hero equal in stature to Benjamin Franklin and campaigned actively for his reelection in 1864. News of the Lincoln’s death reached Laboulaye several days after he heard of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox. Shortly thereafter, he wrote a tribute to the late President that was translated and published in a limited edition in the United States.66

Making America a nation without slaves composed only of free and equal men was the French abolitionists’ primary objective, particularly Laboulaye’s.67 His work against slavery and on behalf of African Americans did not end with the Union victory. Following the war, Laboulaye opposed the repatriation of blacks to Africa, including the Liberian colony, on the grounds that they were Americans

65 Claude Fohlen, Histoire de l’Esclavage aux Etats-Unis, Paris: Perrin, 1998, p. 19. On the development of Laboulaye’s views, see André Dauteribes, Contre L’Esclavage aux Etats-Unis, D’après Quelques Lettres Inédités d’Edouard de Laboulaye á Auguste Conchin, La Revue Tocqueville/The Toqueville Review XX(2), 1999. 66 Gray, op. cit, p. 92, see also p. 93 f91. 67 Dauteribes, op. cit., p. 10. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 36 entitled to full enfranchisement. He wrote, “We will not drive out the Blacks from America; they must live there.”68

Laboulaye founded the French Committee for Emancipation of the Slaves in 1865 to raise funds to purchase clothing and food for the newly free and served as its president. The Committee held its first public meeting on October 10, 1865 at the Salle Herz in Paris. The subject was especially timely because the United States was in the process of ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution which freed slaves throughout the country. Laboulaye presided. The group was addressed by several Frenchmen who had recently returned from the United States, a representative of an anti-slavery society in New York, a French and an American pastor, all of whom spoke of the freed slaves’ dire circumstances.69

Laboulaye himself gave a lengthy address. He ended by citing the example of Lafayette who came to the aid of the American colonies during their revolution. He urged the audience to fulfill the spirit of Lafayette by giving funds to support America’s freed slaves. His reference to Lafayette held a double meaning for his audience, reiterated by Chauncey Depew at the Statue of Liberty’s unveiling in 1886:

With the fall of Yorktown Lafayette felt that he could do more for peace and independence in the diplomacy of Europe than in the war in America…The fight for liberty in America was won. Its future here was threatened with but one danger-the slavery of the negro [sic]. The soul of Lafayette purified by battle and suffering, saw the inconsistency and the peril, and he returned to this country to plead with State legislatures and with Congress for what he termed “My brethren, the blacks.”70

He also took up the cause of African Americans’ political participation. Declaring that “for all inhabitants of the Union…equality is the condition for liberty,” he continued in a letter to Senator Charles Sumner:

…Like you, I always thought that the end of the war did not mean the end of the difficulties and that those defeated in the South would try to remain influential and powerful and attempt to reunite with the Democrats in the North, their old friends. The question of Negro suffrage will perhaps be in your future. If we exclude the emancipated slaves because they are black, if we create an aristocracy of the skin, you will soon have in the South insolence and menaces; with equality, you can, in my opinion, create peace. A republic, a democracy with political idiots is not wanted. That is elsewhere contrary to the

68 Ibid., p. 13. Original, Preface to De l’Esclavage, 1866. 69 Laboulaye, Edouard. “Meeting en faveur des esclaves affranchis aux Etats-Unis,” Revue des cours literaires de la France et de l’etranger, November 11, 1865, pp. 809-12. For the speeches delivered at the second meeting two months later, see Revue des cours, January 27, 1866, pp. 149-66. Quoted in Gray, p. 100. 70 Chauncey M. Depew, Oration at the Unveiling of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, New York Harbor, October 28, 1886. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 37

Declaration of Independence and to the principles friends of liberty have always defended in the United States. I know that without education, some blacks will make poor voters, but that will only last a generation and in the meantime, they will maintain equally in the southern states, and assure duration of the Union.71

In a similar letter to Secretary of State William Seward, he wrote:

There is a question, which from a distance, I can have only a limited opinion; but which seems to me important for the future of the Union. This is the suffrage of Negroes. On the one hand, it is very difficult to give the vote to people who have not received an American education, on the other, it seems dangerous to me to create an inequality of the skin and so return to the false position from which we only left by a terrible war. To exclude Negroes because they are not white and yet, to count them in the electoral population, this seems to me to recreate an aristocracy that will be as dangerous and insolent as the one that you destroyed. For a democracy such as yours, the people to whom the future of the world belongs, it seems unwise to allow such inequality and discord to ferment. The personal incapacity of the Black will pass in a generation, his legal and political disability will last perhaps as long as slavery, and will end as violently.72

Laboulaye viewed white racism toward blacks as the enduring obstacle to liberty and equality in the United States. In the preface to his translation of William Ellery Channing’s works on slavery, first published in 1855, his views with regard to the alleged inferiority of blacks are quite clear:

…nothing demonstrates, a natural inferiority; as for educational inferiority, it exists but is a problem of the same kind as a people’s ignorance…

…animosity is the great obstacle to emancipation; the Black is an object of horror and disgust for Americans , and there is the same antipathy in the free states as in the south.73

The French Emancipation Society convened an international conference in Paris in 1867 in conjunction with the Universal Exposition. Participants included

71 Letter from Laboulaye to Sumner, August 31, 1865. Translation by the authors. 72 Letter from Laboulaye to Seward, August 31, 1865. Translation by the authors. Some authors incorrectly report that along with Victor Hugo, Edouard Laboulaye was a leader of the French subscription drive to present Mary Todd Lincoln with a gold memorial medallion, a project completed in 1866 despite strong opposition from the emperor who supported the South during the Civil War. Haskins’ (1986) misattribution has particular relevance for this project because the article was one of the first to appear in a well-known African American magazine, American Visions. 73 Edouard Laboulaye, Oeuvres de W. E. Channing, De l’esclavage précédé d’une preface et d’une étude sur l’esclavage aux États-Unis, Paris: Comon 1855 (1865). Also quoted in Dauteribes, p. 13. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 38 representatives from abolitionist societies in the United States, England, Spain, Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, and Africa. Laboulaye presided and spoke three times. Opening the conference, he stated its purpose:

If we hasten emancipation by one day, if we can spare the poor souls who are still slaves a few tears, some suffering, we will have achieved our goal.74

He closed it by saying:

People will know that at a meeting of men from the world’s first nations, there was unanimous agreement in favor of liberty, an ardent desire to put an end to the abomination called slavery; and it is a great thing that such an assembly has thrown the weight of its authority into the balance.75

The conference’s keynote speakers were Laboulaye, who gave a history of the anti-slavery movement emphasizing the work of American abolitionists, and William Lloyd Garrison who commended the French for abolishing slavery during the Republic of 1848. Garrison singled out Laboulaye and his associates for their aid to the United States during the Civil War.

Micheline Tronçon du Coudray Laboulaye, Laboulaye’s wife, was active in the parallel women’s organization. It worked in partnership with the National Freemen Association in New York raising funds and conducting clothing drives across France. His abolitionist colleagues’ spouses, Mmes. Cochin, Pressensse, and Coignet, were also active members.

Laboulaye continued to advocate for the freed slaves and those who assisted them in the United States, endorsing General Grant in the 1868 presidential election. He addressed the causes of the Civil War again in the three-volume Histoire de Etats-Unis, published in 1870. Reiterating that slavery was the only cause of the war, he describes the Confederacy’s 1863 constitution as the “opposite of liberty” because “liberty is the privilege of the aristocracy.” With this language, Laboulaye is clearly addressing both the American and French situations.

The direct connection between Laboulaye’s anti-slavery activities and the Statue of Liberty project are clear in a letter written on February 17, 1872 to his friend and renowned abolitionist colleague, Augustin Cochin:

Will you give a brief audience to my friend Bartholdi, a distinguished sculptor, recently returned from the United States. He will speak to you about a Franco-American monument project to celebrate the centennial of July 4, 1776. The idea is captivating, the work is

74 Gray, op. cit, p. 102. 75 Ibid., p. 103. Gray translates liberté in the original as “freedom.” Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 39

powerful; I am very interested in it, and I will be pleased to have your agreement that our names be used together in this proof of sympathy given to America.76

Laboulaye knew that by lending use of their names, Auguste Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty would be associated by all with their anti-slavery positions. He must have expected this would greatly enhance the project’s prospects in France, as well as in the United States.

When the Franco-American Committee was organized to raise funds for the Statue of Liberty, the 25th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the French colonies during Republic of 1848 was still fresh in the minds of Laboulaye and other liberals who recalled their roles in anti-slavery movement, particularly in the United States.77 The Committee members hoped to raise funds within a year so that in 1876 France would have the amount of money needed to erect the statue in time to coincide with the celebration of the centennial of the United States’ Declaration of Independence. The upcoming event held greater symbolic importance for them as an opportunity to commemorate the end of slavery than for most Americans who were still struggling in the aftermath of the Civil War. In addition, it provided an ideal opportunity to reestablish the warm ties with United States that were strained by America’s support for their enemy Napoleon III during the Franco-Prussian War.

On November 6, 1875 Laboulaye and other committee members held a fundraising banquet at the Louvre Museum. In the course of his speech to the attendees, Laboulaye addressed the fraternal and ideological union between France and America during the American Revolution. He also mentions the French position on the Civil War:

Later, a cruel circumstance, at the time of Secession, one could say that France and America met again…You remember with what warmth the French press supported the cause of the Americans. I want to say nothing against Americans of the South. But to divide this large continent made to be united, to condemn it to political divisions that are the curse of Europe, to implant there jealousies, armies, customs fights, to condemn this large continent to our perpetual wars, that would have been, I believe, a large misfortune. On the other hand, in France—all hearts were for the abolition of slavery…78

Laboulaye viewed the United States not only as an example of freedom and democracy for Europe, but for the world. He saw Americans as one people, the political

76 Translation by Joseph. Dauteribes, op. cit., p. 20. 77 Ibid. 78 Translation by Rosenblatt. Edouard Laboulaye, “Address,” “Discours de MM. Henri Martin, E.-B. Washburne, Edouard Laboulaye, et J.W. Forney” from the Banquet on 6 November 1875, Paris: Biblioteque Carpentier, 1876?, p. 36. Although the French people overwhelmingly supported the Union during the Civil War, Napoleon III and commercial cotton interests supported the Confederacy. It is to the credit of Laboulaye and his colleagues that the French government was unable to publicly recognize the Confederacy as a legitimate state. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 40 and social descendants of those who fought in the Revolutionary War. He opposed slavery and other forms of black disenfranchisement precisely because he saw Americans of African descent as Americans.

Laboulaye’s conception of the Statue of Liberty is best summarized in his own words:

For thirty years, Europe treated the American democracy contemptuously because this democracy practiced slavery… Rejuvenated by the victory, reinvigorated by the ordeal, America will drive out slavery from the world, and will provide an example even greater than that of the war and independence. Twice, she has founded liberty: political liberty in 1776; civil liberty in 1864. Neither Greece nor Rome left behind such grand momentos…The world is interdependent, and America’s cause is liberty. So long as there is on the other side of the Atlantic a society of 30 million people, living happily and peacefully under the government she has chosen, with the laws she has herself made, liberty will shine upon Europe like a luminous beacon, America rid of slavery will be the native land of all passionate souls, of all liberal hearts.79

Auguste Bartholdi

Edouard Laboulaye penned these words shortly after the Civil War. It is quite likely that Auguste Bartholdi was familiar with them. In 1871, a month before departing for the United States, he wrote to Laboulaye from Colmar saying the he had “read and reread” the scholar’s works on liberty. The French word phare, translated here as “beacon” also means “lighthouse.” Bartholdi’s first plan for a colossal monument, a lighthouse in the form of an Egyptian woman to be built at the entrance of the new Suez Canal, ended without realization in 1869. Bartholdi also designed the Statue of Liberty as a functioning lighthouse. It was managed by the Lighthouse Board, an agency of the Department of the Treasury from 1886-1902. The relationship between the two projects is discussed in the next section.

Bartholdi’s work prior to 1870, including the Suez Canal project, demonstrates an interest in representing Africans naturalistically and as allegorical representations.80 His acquaintances may have included prominent abolitionists in Laboulaye’s circle.81 Still,

79 Translation by Joseph. Quoted in Dautribes, op. cit., p. 2. 80 For a detailed discussion, see pp. 43-59. 81 In was not unusual in France or the United States at this time for liberal politicians, writers and artists to gather socially. This did not mean that everyone in a particular circle held the same views on public issues or expressed them in their work. One of the best examples is the relationship between Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his close friend, Charles Sumner. Longfellow writing never addressed slavery, although Sumner lived at his home when he was in Boston and was part of an active social circle centered at Longfellow’s home that included other prominent anti-slavery activists. Through an introduction from Sumner, Bartholdi enjoyed a pleasant visit with Longfellow in Cambridge during his 1871 trip to the U.S. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 41 there is no evidence of personal involvement with anti-slavery causes prior to the Statue of Liberty project. None of his other works deal with freedom from slavery.

The Franco-Prussian War made the cause of liberty in France a personal one for Auguste Bartholdi. He prepared himself for his first trip to the United States by reading Laboulaye’s works that included extensive treatments of slavery and the Civil War. In his May 8th letter, he requested “…that important support which you were good enough to promise me…letters of introduction that will give me standing with the press, the government and associations.” His patron, Laboulaye, provided him with letters to prominent Republicans in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston and an introduction to Levi Morton, the U.S. representative in Paris, who provided additional letters.

Laboulaye’s letter to Charles Sumner introduces “the greatest orator in America” to “one of my good friends and compatriots, Mr. Bartholdi.” Laboulaye goes on to say that in addition to telling him about the situation in France, Bartholdi would talk with him about “a project that will bring honor to America.” Referring to their shared views on African American enfranchisement, “I would like our two countries to be fused together inseparably and I applaud everything that is for unity, arts or politics.”82

En route to New York, the artist’s reading included poems by Victor Hugo, one of the great French Romantics. His images had stirred Bartholdi’s imagination since his youth. Hugo was also a leading republican and abolitionist. Particularly after Laboulaye’s death in 1883, his public approval of the project was a reassertion of the project’s moral underpinnings. Just before the statue’s dedication in October 1886, Bartholdi told the World:

How the idea [for the statue] first dawned on me, I know not, but I remember during the voyages, Hugo’s Les Chantiments was my constant companion, and I find this line underscored: C’est l’ange Liberte: c’est le geant Lumtrec or This is the angel of Liberty; this is the giant light.83

After visiting Bartholdi’s Paris construction site in November 1884, Hugo reportedly said, “This beautiful work of art corresponds with my wishes and will constitute a pledge of lasting peace between France and America.”84 Bartholdi responded

82 Letter from Laboulaye to Sumner, May 1871. Translation by Joseph. 83 The World, October 24, 1886. Here again, Bartholdi may be conflating different sources. The posthumous publication of Hugo’s epic, Le Fin de Satan (“The End of Satan”), occurred in 1886, the year of the Statue of Liberty’s dedication. Its central figure, the angel Liberty, “conjured up a female figure already familiar to his contemporaries in the abundant iconography of the Revolution and democratic humanitarianism…Maternal and/or holy in aspect, she is a dynamic figure who pursues the freedom, not of the individual slave, but of all humankind.” (Lucretia Gruber, “An accident of iconography or a goddess in our midst?,” Tufts Criterion X(1), p. 7). The poem was widely acclaimed, but like Emma Lazarus’ The New Colossus, soon after all but forgotten. 84 The Sun & New York Times, December 1, 1884. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 42 by sending him a piece of copper from the monument inscribed, “…Presented to the illustrious apostle of peace, liberty, and progress, Victor Hugo.”

Bartholdi’s first visit to the United States is critical to understanding the intent of the Statue of Liberty project. Who he spent time with and what most impressed him, as evidenced in his many letters and diary entries, indicates that the status of African Americans and, to a much lesser extent, other minorities, was never far from his mind. His commentary on American politics reflect the influences of his Republican contacts, especially Charles Sumner, as well has his French patron, Laboulaye. What he did not do is also indicative of the circumstances in which the Statue of Liberty project took shape. In his cross-country journey, Bartholdi never traveled further south than Arlington, Virginia or St. Louis, Missouri.

Shortly after his arrival, Bartholdi sent Laboulaye a glowing description of the location in New York Harbor where he wished to site the monument and enclosed a drawing of his preliminary design. His diary entries and letters to his mother over the next several months show a rapidly evolving sensibility regarding African Americans.

July 2-3, 1871. Using language that would have disturbed his patron, Laboulaye, Bartholdi writes to his mother:

The dining room is an immense hall full of Negroes. All the waiters are black, which contrasts with the whiteness of the blond guests and of their toilettes…Each guest has his monkey who stands behind his chair. The only way to get rid of him is to send him back to the kitchen for something.85

He records in his diary that “all of the waiters are black” at the Mansion House in Long Branch, NJ.

July 3-4, 1871. Bartholdi describes Washington, D. C. to his mother, “…Add to this, dust, many Negroes, bad pavements or none at all, plenty of sun and flies - and you have the city of Washington.” He notes that blacks work as the servants at many American hotels.

Bartholdi also mentions that Charles Sumner took him to see the Capitol Building. He admired the architecture, but criticized its “insane statue,” Thomas Crawford’s Statue of Freedom, also known as “Armed Liberty” or “Lady Liberty.” Sumner no doubt recounted the public debate over the statue’s symbolism which delayed its completion and unveiling by more than six years.86

85 Unless otherwise noted, translations of Bartholdi’s 1871 letters to his mother are by Rodman Gilder. 86 Beginning in 1855, it was championed by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, over Hiram Powers’ America (also called “Liberty”) which Davis and other powerful Southerners viewed as anti-slavery. However, Davis insisted that Crawford’s original design which had Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap, a symbol of freedom from slavery dating to ancient Rome, be refigured to remove any suggestion that it, too, would be interpreted as an abolitionist statue. At its dedication in 1863, the meaning of Crawford’s work Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 43

July 9, 1871. Bartholdi writes to his mother:

Dined at Senator Sumner’s. He is the person I have seen most of here. He is the most distinguished man, the greatest orator in the United States and one of the most important political figures. He greatly loves the arts, knows all the literature and showed great sympathy for France… Yesterday he showed me something curious and sad - one of the national cemeteries. The United States has acquired different tracts in different parts of the country containing the graves of Union soldiers who fell in the War of Secession. Not far from Washington the government has taken over the beautiful property of General Lee and has buried there in rows of white stones under the trees, extending into the distance as far as the eye can reach. Only too closely one sees the fruits of war…

The letter continues with a story told by Secretary Stanton during their dinner with Senator Sumner. It is also recorded in his diary:

Mr. Stanton, the cabinet officer who conceived the idea of the national cemeteries, also proposed that every soldier who had lost a leg or an arm in the war should be furnished at the government’s expense with an artificial limb. Black limbs and white ones were manufactured in the required quantities. But it seems that because most of the Negroes wanted white limbs, there was an insufficient supply for the white soldiers. This is a yarn that is told during the racial, political, and slavery discussions that I hear from time to time.…

July 12, 1871. In a letter to his mother from Philadelphia, Bartholdi describes his visit with a French diplomat, Marquis de Chambrun, to an African American church:

We went to a Negro Methodist religious service. The first impression is ludicrous. Imagine a large hall—with a gallery around— and a platform in recess at one end—full of Negroes and Negresses, the latter decked out in the latest fashion, every one with a busy fan. On the platform, a Negro orator flanked by two Negro attendants. I shall not relate the whole discourse. The orator stamped his feet, leaped from side to side like a marionette on strings. The attendants, lounging non-chalantly in their arm-chairs, nodded approval as they fanned themselves with palm-leaf fans. Full of emotion, the members of the congregation trembled, screamed and shouted and expressed their approval with the most cacophonous howls when the orator

was appropriated by President Lincoln who hailed it as “a symbol of the country’s unification under Northern hegemony.” Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 44

declared that God had made a wise choice in selecting Moses as the leader of the people, etc. It was very funny - and yet it commanded respect, this demonstration by people, slaves only yesterday, who turn their minds to the ideal, who have faith, and who interest themselves so violently in moral questions.87

July 14, 1871. Still in Philadelphia, Bartholdi writes to his mother about his reception among the city’s powerful radical Republicans:

I made some visits and was very well received. I was put up at the Union League Club by a friend of Mr. Laboulaye’s. A highly regarded club with 1700 members, it armed several regiments during the war, and has their regimental colors… In the evening I dined at the club and was taken through the entire building. I exchanged countless handshakes. We dined and talked at great length. I had to tell them about Garibaldi and the war. …Finally, I offered a toast with a speech in English. The New York Project was strongly approved by those who had seen it…

July 21, 1871. Bartholdi writes to his mother form New York:

Today, after having done some work on drawings for my projects, I went to the island which ought to be the sight of the monument. It is admirably located for my purpose…I believe this enterprise will take on very great proportions. If things turn out as I hope they will, this work of sculpture will be of very great moral importance.

Bartholdi’s use of the words “great moral importance” here and in several subsequent places, is important because ending of slavery and providing legal rights and economic support to former slaves were commonly argued on moral grounds by Laboulaye and his American counterparts.

Bartholdi also reports his meeting with General Grant. His next letter mentions meeting General Meade, whom he describes as being very distinguished during the Civil War.

July 27, 1871. Bartholdi records in his diary that politics were discussed at dinner at the Union League Club in Philadelphia. He spoke about art and “Negro songs.”

August 1, 1871. Bartholdi describes his visit to the Massachusetts State House to his mother, noting that the building houses busts of Lincoln, Sumner, and “other celebrated men who have distinguished themselves by their anti-slavery and republican ideas.”

87 Bartholdi’s reaction to the service partially reflects his religious upbringing overseen by his mother, a devout Huguenot. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 45

August 10, 1871. Bartholdi writes to his mother that his hotel in New York has “a double stairway with uniformed Negroes.” This is the fourth of five references that Bartholdi makes to the clothing worn by African Americans. It is almost as if he expects them to be dressed like the desperate people described in the French Emancipation Society’s fundraising appeals.

August 16, 1871. Bartholdi visits the library at the Chicago Historical Society and notes in his diary that it possesses an autographed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation.

September 8, 1871. Bartholdi writes to his mother from St. Louis about a political debate he attended in Stockton, CA:

I absorbed all the speeches which were good although long. The [Republican] arguments had a more solid basis than those of the Democratic orator, but in form the oratory was the same. Each party accused the other of peculation and excessive expenditure. The Chinese question is also of great importance in California. This a campaign for the election of a governor. I shall not undertake to describe the opinions of the two parties, but will say only that the republican party is at present in power and that the Democratic party instigated the attempt at secession and the ensuing war.

September 24, 1871. Having realized the benefits of aligning himself with the network of radical Republicans connected with Sumner and Laboulaye, Bartholdi writes to his mother from Boston:

…I believe that my work, beyond its artistic interest, will have a moral value that people will be grateful to me for someday. The idea may seem ambitious, but I believe that, if possible, one should not limit himself to the execution of a work, but that it is good to associate the production with a social movement. If this were done in every case, there would be a harmonious result instead of isolated achievements—as in a room where 25 students work each for himself.88

Within days of his arrival in the United States, Bartholdi amended his presentation of the monument project. His diary entry on June 28, 1871 reports that he explained to his French dinner host and later to members of the Union Club in New York that a French societé wanted to offer a commemorative monument to the United States in 1876, but needed land and, if possible, a pedestal. Two weeks later, he wrote to Laboulaye:

88 Translation by Joseph. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 46

After having seen a few people, I noticed that it was necessary to remove entirely from my project the nature of personal interest. Thus I tell each one, that some friends of the United States had conceived the idea to recall and to seal in a memorable manner the old bonds of two nations. We were hoping to offer the United States by the subscription of the project of a statue at the time of the centennial, but events were no longer permitting us to hope for the complete realization of our earlier idea. Thus, I was coming to see if we would find assistance in America, that we could count on being able to pay homage to them by a large plaster model and that we were hoping to find here enough patriotism to see to return our testimony of durable sympathy by a subscription that will permit its conversion to bronze. The project, thus presented, divides itself, really for the realization that we find sublime and executable. I spread the idea in part near influential people who will be able to do it successfully.89

Bartholdi traveled extensively during the four months he was in the United States and met with many people whose names are recorded in his letters and diary. He received his warmest receptions in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia where was hosted by prominent Republicans and others who had been associated with the anti-slavery movement or were high ranking officers in the Union Army. He was especially well- received at the Union League Club in Philadelphia and at New York’s Union Club which later became a sort of unofficial headquarters for the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty. A partial list of his American contacts includes President Ulysses S. Grant, William Evarts, Carl Schurz, John Forney, Charles Dana, Charles Parsons, Charles Eliot, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Generals Meade, Tyndale, Trobriand, and Sheridan. Bartholdi also met with prominent Americans of French descent and with diplomats in New York and Washington, D.C. While he was well-received by Republican leaders and Civil War heroes, his experiences with his compatriots were mixed.90

In July 1872, Bartholdi sent Charles Sumner a small bronze and wrote:

…I do not need to tell you, Sir, how deeply you are engraved in [my] memories. …I hope that you will be satisfied with the artist that you honored with your kindness. A bit belatedly, we are vigorously undertaking our republican and American manifestation, our grand monument project. You can see

89 Letter from Bartholdi to Laboulaye, July 15, 1871. Translation by Rosenblatt. 90 Over time Olmsted proved to be a particularly productive contact. Originals of his abolitionist writings are at Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. Bartholdi also spent time with Mary Booth, who translated more than twenty volumes of anti-slavery materials during the Civil War, including several by Laboulaye; Parke Godwin, abolitionist William Cullen Bryant’s son-in-law and successor as publisher of the New York Evening Post; and the Botta’s, who had championed the Union cause in the Italian press and in New York City. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 47

that France always retains its old sympathies for the United States and that we can recover there this great heart and lucid sprit that you esteem….91

Eduoard Laboulaye and Auguste Bartholdi came to the Statue of Liberty project with very different backgrounds and expectations. Laboulaye, the liberal republican and abolitionist, saw an opportunity to commemorate the fulfillment of American liberty achieved through the end of slavery that would also further his domestic agenda. The much younger Bartholdi was primarily interested in furthering his career. He saw what aligning himself with Laboulaye and his American counterparts could do and eagerly signed on.

91 Translation by Joseph. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 48

THE MODEL MYSTERY

Claim #3:

The original model for the Statue of Liberty was a black woman, but the design was changed to appease white Americans who would not accept an African American Liberty.

Finding:

Best known for his passion for works of colossal size, Auguste Bartholdi was one of many French sculptors producing public monuments in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in the 1870s. Never a great innovator, his art draws heavily on classical sources and European aesthetic conventions.

Bartholdi’s early work reveals an interest in Africans as ethnographic subjects. His Africa allegory in the Bruat fountain, created shortly after his return from an eight month trip to Egypt, Yemen, and Abyssinia (Somaliland) in 1856, depicts a black African man for which he might have used a living model. From drawings made during his travels, the female images on which he based “Egypt Bringing Light to the Orient” (1867-69) can be identified as black.

An argument can be made for an early black model for the Statue of Liberty based on the close resemblance between the first Liberty maquette and casts and study designs for the Egyptian project from which its form emerged. The relationship is coincidental. From the 1870 model(s), Bartholdi’s preliminary design is consistent with contemporary depictions of Liberty, but differs markedly from sculptures representing freed American slaves and Civil War soldiers. The statue’s form after June 1871 clearly embodies Laboulaye’s views on the two-part realization, in 1776 and 1864, of his ideal of liberty.

It is impossible to determine with certainty precisely when Bartholdi began the Statue of Liberty project or what he showed to potential backers when he visited the United States in 1871. His primary contacts consisted largely of former abolitionists and Radical Republicans. There is no evidence that his “original” design was perceived by these white American supporters or the United States government as representing a black woman or rejected on those grounds. Similarly, there is no evidence that he was pressured to change the design in 1876, 1878, or 1884 for this reason.

Rumors about the source of the Statue of Liberty’s facial features predates its dedication in 1886. Bartholdi’s often repeated anecdote about replicating his mother’s face in the statue is another legend based on unreliable evidence. Other attributions, including a black model, are also problematic. This aspect of the statue’s history will likely remain a mystery. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 49

All versions of the Black Statue of Liberty rumor make reference to an original black model. Some also state that Bartholdi changed his design in response to negative reviews from potential white patrons in the United States or U. S. government officials. Most versions, along with the texts they are derived from, identify a terracotta cast owned by the Museum of the City of New York as the “original model.” A recent variant says that the first model is in France. All of these texts cite physical evidence in the statue’s design to support their claims, particularly Bartholdi’s use of broken shackles and chains and the appearance of Liberty’s facial features.

Among art historians, Auguste Bartholdi is known as a competent, but not particularly gifted or innovative sculptor whose works mirrored the popular trends of his time. Summarizing his professional accomplishments, Marvin Trachtenberg writes:

Bartholdi’s career was not without frustrations and reverses, but they were never the result of controversial form or formal inadequacy…Bartholdi’s work, for the most part, bears little discernible stamp of formal originality, and resembles the output of a hundred other sculptors -- and monument-makers of his time.92

Prior to the Statue of Liberty subscription campaign, Bartholdi’s reputation as a sculptor in France derived largely from a series of patriotic public monuments he created beginning in 1854. In 1856, at the age of 22, the young artist received his second commission in his native city, Colmar. On the heals of his successful completion of a monument to Napoleonic General Jean Rapp, he was now to create a commemorative fountain to honor Admiral Armand Joseph Bruat, another Colmar native, who had advanced French strategic and colonial interests on several continents. The project took almost eight years to complete due to arguments over the representation of Europe in the design, financial troubles, and disagreements about where to site it.

Allegorical representations of the continents appeared frequently in European art beginning in the sixteenth century. Bartholdi’s combination of male and female figures to represent the continents in the Bruat monument is its principal innovation. One of its four continental allegories is a figure representing Africa. This is the only example of Bartholdi interpreting an allegory as a black man. Bartholdi’s Africa closely follows European conventions in that he is clothed in a grass skirt and placed on lion skin, his right arm supported by the stump of a palm tree. Luchs regards Africa’s solemn, powerful appearance as reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Times of Day; his majestic bearing, ancient depictions of river gods. Reduced replicas of Michelangelo’s figures appear in later photographs of Bartholdi’s studio. He may also have been influenced by the Dionysus (Hercules) from the east pediment of the Parthenon, a fifth century masterpiece celebrated in nineteenth century Europe.93

92 Marvin Trachtenberg, The Statue of Liberty. London: Penguin Books, 1976, p. 43. 93 Alison Luchs, “Allegory of Africa,” European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. Washington, D. C.: National Gallery of Art, in press. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 50

Africa’s facial features are unusually naturalistic. Extant artifacts, including the original statue’s head, clay models and a cast bronze reduction, strongly suggest that Bartholdi used a human model for this piece.94 According to Albert Schweitzer, who had a cast of the bust of this figure in his home near Colmar, a man from the Ivory Coast served as the sculptor’s model.95

Nineteenth century figures representing Africa typically appear sad or withdrawn, rarely muscular or powerful. Alison Luchs, Curator of Early European Sculpture at the National Gallery of Art, suggests that Bartholdi’s Africa may “have reflected Bartholdi’s feelings about Africans in general, with particular reference to their enslavement in the America.”96 Bartholdi biographer Pierre Vidal goes further:

Africa is symbolized by a black of impressive musculature. A slave, he is liberating himself from his chains. He lifts his head to consider himself a free man.97

These interpretations of Africa suggest the possibility of a recurrent anti-slavery theme in Bartholdi’s work that would support the claim that the Statue of Liberty was originally intended to depict a freed black slave. Unfortunately, the evidence does not support that conclusion.

Six months after the dedication of his monument to General Rapp, Bartholdi embarked for Egypt with several other young artists including the ethnographic painter Jean-Leon Gérôme. His 1855-56 travels in the region, including Abyssinia (Somaliland) and Yemen, are documented in drawings, watercolors, oils paintings, and photographs.98 While historians of the Statue of Liberty often note the impact of Egyptian colossi on his later work, they ignore the substantial body of work he produced during the journey.

Bartholdi traveled along trade and tourism routes that brought him into contact with a wide range of people living and working in the region. In Abyssinia, he completed a series of studies of “human types,” among others, Jeune nègre, côte d’Afrique; Dankali, côte d’Abyssinie; and Figure d’un Somali, de face. His full figure pieces, such as Somali, en pied, de face and Figure d’homme, en pied, vu de vos, show muscular black men standing in powerful poses. Several pieces portray armed Somali fighters and hunters. Some of his Egyptian and Yemenite drawings also depict black Africans.

94 The National Gallery of Art owns the only known bronze reduction of Africa. It was likely cast from a plaster model of the finished sculpture. The Musée Bartholdi in Colmar possesses terra-cotta statuettes inscribed 1862; plaster statuettes; sketches in clay; two tinted maquettes of the entire monument; as well as the sandstone heads of the original monument which was destroyed during World War II. 95 André Gschaedler, True Light on the Statue of Liberty and Its Creator. Narberth, PA: Livingston, 1966. 96 Ibid. 97 Pierre Vidal, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, 1834-1904: Par la Main, Par l’Esprit. Lyon: Creations du Pelican, 1994, p. 26. Translation by Joseph. 98 Cf. Au Yemen en 1856: Photographies et Dessins d’Auguste Bartholdi, Colmar: Musée Bartholdi, 1994; Dahabieh, Almees et Palmiers: Dessins du Premier Voyage en Orient 1885-56 d’Auguste Bartholdi, Colmar: Musée Bartholdi, 1998. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 51

During this trip, Bartholdi encountered slaves and the slave trade. His pencil sketch and charcoal drawing of a Hindu trader’s funeral procession in Aden, Yemen shows four slaves transporting the fabric-draped corpse. The painting that was probably based on these studies, Funérailles d’un banian à Aden, was one of 528 objects raffled by the French American Union to raise funds for the Statue of Liberty in 1879.99

Bartholdi received the Bruat fountain commission shortly after his return to Colmar in 1856. Although he worked on the design during the years that American slavery was becoming an increasingly an important issue for French liberals, he showed no particular interest in domestic politics or the abolitionists’ cause. The monument was a local project that drew little attention in Paris, the center of French abolitionist activities.

Commissioned to memorialize a native son’s success in advancing France’s colonial expansion, the Bruat monument visually depicts the superiority of white Europe over “continents” populated by other peoples in images and materials. The pink sandstone allegories, including the Africa figure, are posed in typically subservient positions below the triumphant, fully erect Admiral Bruat bronze.100 Africa incorporates no anti-slavery symbols, such as broken shackles or chains, that would have conveyed an alternative meaning to its provincial, mid-century audience.

Bartholdi’s Africa allegory reflects his interest in Africans as ethnographic subjects, rather than opposition to slavery. In a letter written from Cairo in April 1856 to the artist friends who preceded him to Aden, Bartholdi notes his preference for African men as models:

I am working as much as I can; as you told me the models are not well-disposed toward posing…When individuals (especially the feminine sex) agree to pose for you, they never stay in the same pose for an instant. It is the same here. However, I have found some men from the African coast who are superb, a few of whom put up with sitting still. …To sum it up, there is a vast open field for workers in this country, where you will find all species of individuals.101

The lasting influence of Bartholdi’s first trip to Egypt and environs is further evidenced in Champollion, introduced at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1867. A modified version was shown at the Salon of 1875 before being placed at the Collège de France in 1878. Like the Bruat monument, Champollion demonstrates that Bartholdi was neither a great artistic innovator or inclined to seriously question the political or social status quo. Again, the artist chose a pose common to 19th century sculpture. The design, proposed by Bartholdi and commissioned by the city of Figeac, depicts the famed French

99Dahabieh, Almees et Palmiers, p. 81. The painting was signed by Amilcar Hasenfratz, a pseudonym used by Auguste Bartholdi. 100 Asia and Oceania are represented as women; America as a “proud, but still savage young man” (Vidal, p. 11). 101 Au Yemen, pp. 32-33. Translation Rosenblatt and Joseph. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 52

Egyptologist leaning into his left foot which stands planted on the forehead of a huge head representing Egypt. Left elbow and right wrist resting on his raised knee, the self- assured Frenchman appears in full control of past and present.

One of the most important outcomes of his early travels was Egypte éclairant l’Orient (“Egypt Bringing Light to the Orient”), a gigantic lighthouse Bartholdi proposed to the Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, for the entrance of the new Suez Canal. The design, which he worked on from 1867-1869, centers on a “fellah,” a rural Egyptian woman in traditional dress, as the personification of Progress. It is the second example of the artist’s use of a black figure in an allegorical representation and closely resembles his earlier ethnographic studies of black Egyptian women, especially an untitled 1856 sketch inscribed “Assouan.”102 Musée Bartholdi curator Régis Hueber identifies Assouan as the “home of the fellah.”103

Nineteenth century European monuments were expected by their patrons and makers to embody noble ideals. Bartholdi’s Suez Canal project was no exception. Egypt Bringing Light to the Orient is also called “Egypt Bringing Progress to the Orient,” light and progress being closely linked in the sculptural iconography of the time. Provoyeur suggests that the fellah’s left hand is “grasping some fragmentary object, recalling the broken pitcher of traditional iconography” which Trachtenberg identifies as a symbol of confinement.104 In the first Statue of Liberty designs, this feature evolves into the broken shackle or chain that was soon replaced by the tablets of law inscribed, “July 4, 1776.”

Lemoine, among others, attributes Bartholdi’s Egypte design to the Khedive’s modernization campaign which included construction of the Suez Canal and, at least, intellectual opposition to slavery.105 During his 1867 trip to Paris for the Universal Exposition, Ismail Pasha surely saw Champollion displayed in the “Egyptian park” alongside an actual antiquity. He visited the French Emancipation Society, possibly

102 The statements on this page, at the beginning of this section (p. 48) and in the conclusion (p. 103) that identify fellah women (rural Egyptian peasants or farmers) as "black" have been questioned by NPS staff due to the absence of reference source material for this racial designation. Fellahin are descended from the Ancient Egyptians and are a blend of Caucasoid and indigenous African elements; their skin color varies from very fair to very dark (chocolate) brown. Coon distinguishes them from African Negroid populations that have no "readily visible" Caucasoid racial elements (Carleton S. Coon, The Living Races of Man, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970, pp. 119, 122-25). On this point, there is evidence that the artist himself made a distinction between Egyptians and other African people --- the artist based his figure for "Egypt Bringing Light to the Orient" on his drawings of fellah women, but he used the term 'negro' to refer to the figure he chose to symbolize the continent of Africa in the monument to Admiral Bruat (see letter from the artist to the Mayor of Colmar in Jean-Marie Schmitt, Bartholdi: une certaine idée de la liberte (1986), quoted in Interim Report III by Brooke Rosenblatt). 103 Régis Hueber, “Les Egypte de Monsieur Bartholdi,” Bartholdi Egyptien. Colmar: Centre Culturel Francais de Caire-Musee Bartholdi, 1991, p. 3. 104 Ibid, p. 88; Trachtenberg, op. cit., p. 62. 105 Bertrand Lemoine, La Statue de La Liberté. Brussels: Institut Français D’architecture, 1986. See also, Provoyeur, op. cit. [Added Notes: Lemoine states that fellahin were responsible for the construction of the Suez Canal. He also includes a description of a sketch of Bartholdi’s first maquette of the Statue of Liberty (circa 1870) in which the “left hand held the handle of a broken jug, symbolizing the break with servitude, as did the broken chain, which lay at the foot of the statue.” (Rosenblatt, Interim Report III for Black Liberty Project, summary of Lemoine’s La Statue de La Liberté)] Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 53 attending its anti-slavery conference which had as a primary goal convincing Egypt and other countries to abolish slavery. Bartholdi presented him with his lighthouse proposal, including a preliminary design. Ismail Pasha encouraged him to proceed, but the project never advanced beyond the most preliminary design or maquette stage.106

Despite Bartholdi’s vehement denials, scholars agree that the design for the Statue of Liberty evolved from his unrealized Egypt Bringing Light to the Orient.107 Bartholdi’s designs for the Suez Canal project were based on his studies of black Egyptian women. He might also have been influenced by contemporaneous allegorical images of Africa shown as a woman in similar dress. Did his design for Ismail Pasha also embody an abolitionist statement that was held over from or transferred to early designs for the Statue of Liberty? It is possible, but would have required the ambitious 31-year-old artist to present the Egyptian ruler with an image that may have embodied the Khedive’s ideals, but directly contradicted actual conditions in Egypt under his rule. It is hard to imagine Bartholdi, the inveterate entrepreneur, taking this kind of risk on his first major international commission - the modern Egyptian colossus of his dreams. Most likely, the broken object in the figure’s hand symbolized Egypt’s emergence from international isolation through its successful opening of a strategic geopolitical and trade route via the Suez Canal. The broken chain and shackle, symbol of liberation from slavery, that appears beneath the left foot in every Liberty model does not appear in any of the Egypte designs.

Opinions differ with regard to when Bartholdi began to adapt the Suez Canal designs, which model represents the first recognizable Liberty, and what prompted the changes between the earliest and the final Liberty images. In part, this is due conflicting accounts provided by Bartholdi himself. Evaluation of the various timelines and explanations is complicated by the fact that all of the scholarly analyses post-date the Statue of Liberty’s dedication and there is little original documentation beyond the models themselves.108 Most authors assume that Bartholdi’s 1865 dinner story is true and reconstruct events in ways that reinforce that belief.

Even in light of the evidence that the Statue of Liberty monument idea was conceived in late 1870 or 1871, a definitive determination of the point at which Bartholdi first began to revise his Suez Canal design specifically for the Statue of Liberty may not

106 Maquettes are the sculptor’s equivalent of the painter’s preliminary sketches. 107 [Added Note: Many authors including Lemoine, Provoyeur, Trachtenberg, Edward Kallop, Pierre Vidal, Jean-Marie Schmitt, and Régis Hueber admit that Egypt Giving Light to the Orient inspired, on some level, the State of Liberty. (Rosenblatt, Interim Report III for Black Liberty Project, p. 4)] 108 The first published histories of the Statue of Liberty after the dedication appeared in the 1940s following the fiftieth anniversary celebrations and concurrent with the rise of the statue’s association with European immigration. They include Rodman Gilder, The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, New York: The New York Trust Co., 1943; and Herta E. Pauli and E. B. Ashton, I Lift My Lamp: The Way of the Symbol, New York: Appleton Century Crofts, 1948. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 54 be possible. The available information suggests a somewhat different chronology of events than appears in other studies.109

After working for two years on plans and models for Egypte éclairant l’Orient, Bartholdi returned from the dedication of Suez Canal in the fall of 1869 extremely disappointed. The Khedive, who bankrupted the country building the canal, would not fund the project after all. Just as he would do with Champollion the following year, when the city of Figeac was unable to produce funding for the final bronze, the indefatigable sculptor sought other avenues for the realization of his colossus.

Transforming Egypte into Liberty required no great inspiration. The basic form of Egypt Bringing Light to the Orient, a robed woman with an upraised arm holding a flaming torch (often with a circle of rays forming a nimbus around the head) was quite common in allegorical works of the time. Names associated with the image in France include “Liberté,” “La République,” “La France,” and especially, “La France intelligente.” Visionary architect Hector Horeau’s proposed “statue colosal,” La France intelligente éclairant le monde, appears in an 1871 publication showing plans for improvements to the city of Paris. Its form bears striking resemblance to Bartholdi’s contemporaneous Liberty figures.110

The Musée Bartholdi in Colmar possesses five signed maquettes in unfired clay dated 1867 to 1869 illustrating variations in Bartholdi’s design for the Suez Canal project. The first recognizable Liberty figure, also owned by the Musée Bartholdi, is an unfired clay maquette incised with the artist’s initials and the date [18]70. The primary differences between this model and Bartholdi’s studies for Egypte are the change in headdress and the addition of a broken shackle and chain under the figure’s left foot. Exact replicas are on permanent display at the Statue of Liberty NM.

There are two documented casts of a no longer extant companion maquette signed “A. Bartholdi.” The design differs from the first maquette only in that the object in the left hand is better defined. It appears to be a broken shackle. These have no date, but are thought to have been made in 1870, as well.111 One is identified with Edouard Laboulaye and owned by his descendants. The other was donated to the Museum of the City of New York by Estelle Cameron Silo in memory of her late husband, a New York auctioneer, in 1931. The Museum’s cast is the one referred to as “the original model of the Statue of Liberty” in the Black Statue of Liberty texts’ “Documents of Proof.”112

109 Cf. Oscar Handlin, Statue of Liberty, New York: Newsweek, 1971, p. 26; Edward L. Kallop, Jr., Images of Liberty: Models and Reproductions of the Statue of Liberty 1867-1917, New York: Christie, Manson & Woods International, 1986, pp. 13-14; Provoyeur, op. cit., pp. 110 Kallop, ibid., esp. fn. 3. Scholars agree that this change was directed by Laboulaye. What is significant is how early it actually occurred in the design process. 111 Cf. Kallop and Provoyeur. The Museum of the City of New York also gives the date as c. 1870. It is possible that Bartholdi made them in Colmar in May 1871, but there was not enough time between his arrival in Paris and departure for United States to have made them in his Paris studio. 112 In some more recent versions of the rumor, a person claims to have seen the original Black Statue of Liberty in France. No specific information that could identify its form or location is included. We were unable to trace the source of this variation of the text. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 55

Bartholdi’s production of these maquettes and casts in 1870 (or 1871) coincides with the publication of Laboulaye’s three-volume Histoire de Etats-Unis in which the prominent republican historian reiterated that slavery caused the Civil War and that the Confederate constitution of 1863 was “the opposite of liberty.” Up to this point in his career, Bartholdi had shown no interest in the United States. It is possible that Laboulaye’s invitation to design a monument for the Americans led the artist to adapt his Suez Canal design beginning with the maquette dated [18]70. This would be consistent with information provided by Laboulaye’s granddaughter, Odile de Lavergne.

Bartholdi’s pattern of seeking prominent patrons to support the realization of his ideas suggests that he probably modified the Egypte design to suit his potential patron’s interests and then sought Laboulaye’s support as implied in his letter of May 8, 1871. His writings from his first trip to the United States demonstrate that he recognized the power of Laboulaye’s letters of introduction to give him access to a new group of wealthy potential patrons, not only for Liberté éclairant le Monde, but for an unlimited number of future projects.

The Broken Shackles

Scholars agree that Edouard Laboulaye instigated the first major change in the statue’s design, the replacement of the broken shackle in the left hand by stone tablets cradled in the left arm. Kallop reports and an interview with Gerard de Laboulaye further confirmed that:

According to Laboulaye family tradition, the design of the figure in this early version was first shown to Edouard de Laboulaye who indicated to Bartholdi that it symbolized not “liberty” but “liberation,” a transitory act with the more permanent concept of “liberty” better symbolized by a figure with physical attributes representing the law. With this advice, Bartholdi then produced a design with the left arm raised and holding an inscribed tablet.113

Due to the Franco-Prussian War, Laboulaye did not see Bartholdi’s first Liberty designs until they met in Paris shortly before the artist’s departure for the United States in June 1871.114 By the time Bartholdi created the first watercolor paintings of his design for Statue of Liberty on Bedloe’s Island in July, the statue’s left arm cradled stone tablets. An undated original at the Statue of Liberty NM may be one of these paintings.

Laboulaye’s preference for tablets inscribed “July 4, 1776” is usually attributed either to his background as a jurist or to an intention to commemorate French support for American independence. There is no reason to question either interpretation as a partial

113 Kallop, p. 14 fn. 7. Interview with Brooke Rosenblatt, April 2000. 114 In his 1885 pamphlet for the American Committee, Bartholdi indicates that Laboulaye did not see his designs for the Statue of Liberty until after his return from the United States. Like other parts of this account, this story is contradicted by other primary sources. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 56 explanation. He was also undoubtedly familiar with the American Anti-Slavery Society emblem from the 1850s in which Liberty and Religion stand next to one another. Religion holds similar “Mosaic” tablets inscribed with the words of John 8:32, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Laboulaye’s truth was not Christian, but republican, universal, and exemplified by American liberty.

Laboulaye’s role in this very early change in the statue’s design refutes the claim made in some versions of the Black Statue of Liberty rumor that the originators intended the statue solely as a monument to the abolition of American slavery. It leaves room for an interpretation of the statue as a monument honoring the ex-slaves themselves or black soldiers in the Civil War, but Laboulaye’s and Bartholdi’s writings do not support this interpretation. Comparisons with numerous monuments to emancipation and to Civil War soldiers in the 1870s and 1880s further reduce the likelihood that the Statue of Liberty was intended for either purpose.115

The claim that the statue’s original design was changed after Bartholdi came to the United States to appease potential white patrons’ concerns about a black representation of Liberty appears to be based on the belief that Bartholdi brought the cast, now owned by the Museum of the City of New York, to the United States with him in 1871.116 It is possible that Bartholdi carried the cast with him in his luggage but, if true, what the artist did with it is unknown. His diary and correspondence contain no references to his transporting or showing it to any of the many people with whom he discussed the proposed monument. The cast can not be linked to the setbacks he recorded.

Bartholdi’s writings include two relevant references involving his interactions with Colonel John W. Forney, publisher of the Philadelphia Press and Collector of the Port, that appear typical of his experiences during this first trip to promote the Liberty project.117 A prominent Radical Republican and Union League member, Forney had solicited and publicized Laboulaye’s 1868 letter in support of General Grant’s election to the U. S. presidency. A journal entry dated July 25, 1871 reveals that Bartholdi showed his drawings for the statue in confidence to Forney, but this must have occurred before their meeting with Grant, probably between July 9th and July 13th . On July 18, 1871, Bartholdi wrote in his journal of his meeting that day with Forney, Grant, and several

115 For a full treatment of the centrality and contradictions of racial representation in American public sculpture following the Civil War, see Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. 116 Provoyeur, op. cit., p. 94, incorrectly refers to the cast as “the next maquette.” See also Lemoine, p. 65. Neither cites the evidence for this assertion. We found no original sources confirming it. The Museum of the City of New York’s accession record contains no information on the cast’s history beyond the donor’s name and purpose for the gift. We were unable to obtain additional information from Provoyeur, the French art historian who served as general Commissioner of France’s exhibits for the statue’s centennial, or from June Hargrove, the co-editor of the book in which this essay appears. We learned only while finishing this report that Provoyeur is now a senior official for cultural and heritage affairs at the Elf Foundation in Paris. For the statement’s probable connection to the origins of the Black Statue of Liberty rumor, see the text of Leonard Jeffries, Jr.’s Albany speech in The Amsterdam News, August 31, 1991. 117 Forney’s office was located in the U. S. Customs House which is now home to the National Park Service’s Northeast Regional and Philadelphia Support Offices, among other government offices. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 57 others:

Very good reception. I show [President Grant] the project and he approves of it [and states] that the site will not be a problem, that it will be submitted to Congress.118

At a reception with New York businessmen later that day, Forney pressed Bartholdi to share the drawings with other guests whose cold response caused him to leave the gathering early.

In the absence of primary documents to explain them, the mixed responses Bartholdi encountered in the United States must be intuited from contextual information. Napoleon III’s support of the Confederacy during the Civil War and popular American support for the recent Prussian victory strained relations between France and the United States. However, Bartholdi’s principal contacts were with former abolitionists and staunch Republicans who received him warmly because of his connection with their “Great American,” Laboulaye. They were well-versed in Laboulaye’s transnational republicanism and would have recognized the proposed statue’s intent as a monument to America’s two-stage achievement of liberty. To them, Liberty retained its positive symbolic associations with the end of slavery, a cause they had fought hard for over many years.

Could the Americans who saw Bartholdi’s drawings (and possibly the 19” cast) have perceived the Liberty figure as black, an artifact of its previous incarnation as Egypte, and interpreted this as an unacceptable monument to American and French republican ideals? We found no evidence to support this hypothesis.

Bartholdi himself attributed the difficulties he experienced to Americans’ lack of imagination and interest in the arts, resolving to “find a few people who have a little enthusiasm for something other than the Almighty Dollar.”119 Unlike France, the tradition of publicly funded monuments was just beginning to develop in the United States. Americans had yet to embrace the European craze for colossal art. For these reasons, not the statue’s design, Bartholdi’s proposal must have seemed strange, even to some of his most welcoming hosts. Outside Republican circles, Liberty was still a controversial symbol. The commissions he received during the trip for a statue of Lafayette in New York and a church pediment in Boston were quite conventional in scope and size.

After his return to France in October, Bartholdi met with Laboulaye on December 3, 1871. He subsequently made a series changes to the statue’s design which increasingly distinguish it from Egypte. An inventory of Bartholdi’s house and studio in Paris, made in 1914 as an attachment to a document of donation by the sculptor’s widow giving the family home in Colmar to the city as a museum, lists a total of eighteen models

118 Translation by Janet Headly. See her “Voyage of Discovery,” Liberty: The French-American Statue in Art and History, Pierre Provoyeur and June Hargrove, eds., Cambridge: Harper & Row, 1986), p. 279 fn. 22. 119 Bartholdi letter to his mother, June 24, 1871. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 58 associated with the Statue of Liberty. At least one shows Liberty with a broken chain in her left hand. Of these, fourteen can be identified leaving a balance of four. These may have been study works made between 1870 and 1875. No trace of them can be found. Terra-cotta models cast from a no longer extant maquette of unknown date show the figure with basic attributes as it appears today. 120 One of these is at the Statue of Liberty NM.

Because there is so little original documentation related to Bartholdi’s work on the project during these years and the studies are not dated, it is impossible to determine the precise order and timing of the design changes that occurred between his return to France in October 1871 and 1875. The French-American Union accepted a design in 1874 shortly after its founding. In a letter to his mother in July 1875, he writes: “...when I will have finished the first model of the statue...” Bartholdi’s usage here distinguishes between the already existing maquettes, models akin to preliminary sketches, and the yet to be finished “first model,” a distinction emphasized by the term modele d’étude (“study model”), signifying for Bartholdi a definitive version for the design of all subsequent models.121 A plaster model approved by the French-American Committee in 1875 shows the tablets inscribed “July 4, 1776.” The face and crown are somewhat different from both the 1870 figures and the quarter model from which the design for the full size statue was cast. Terra-cotta and plaster casts sent to the U.S. between 1875 and 1879, when Bartholdi registered his design with the U.S. Patent Office, show relatively minor changes to the head, tablets, and gown.

By 1876, when Bartholdi attended the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia as a judge and exhibitor, the statue was already partially fabricated. Despite intense efforts by French and American supporters to use Bartholdi’s presence in the United States to raise funds for the statue’s pedestal, the subscription drive did not take off. Along with emu egg ornaments from South Australia, Japanese rock crystals, and Russian silver and gold vessels, Scientific American included the display of Liberty’s arm and torch among its “Curiosities of the Centennial.”122 Another commentator observed:

…the Stars and Stripes, the eagle, George Washington and the Goddess of Liberty compose a quartet which, no matter how artistically they may be combined, pall at the present time upon the general taste of the American public.123

Based on the display in the Exposition’s Memorial Hall, by 1876 most Americans preferred to see heroes and great events in United States history memorialized in stylized, but recognizably human forms.

Bartholdi most certainly saw the large number of sculptures inspired by the Civil

120 Kallop, op. cit., p. 7. 121 Ibid., p. 11. 122 “Curiosities of the Centennial,” Scientific American, December 2, 1876, pp. 355-56. 123 Jennie J. Young, “Ceramic Art of the Exhibition,” The Century: Its Fruits and Its Festival, Philadelphia:1877, p. 247 quoted in Kammen, Spheres of Liberty, p. 179. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 59

War at the Centennial Exposition, though he left no record of his impressions. Austrian sculptor Pezzicar’s The Emancipation of Slaves, drew especially large crowds. Abolitionists’ practice of representing emancipation as a standing black man predates the Civil War. Examples include, Alex Rippingile’s Immediate Emancipation in the West Indies, August 1, 1838 and John Rogers’ table sized Slave Auction (1859). Like its predecessors, Pezzicar’s central figure is a powerfully built black man unbound and unchained, stepping defiantly forward.124 In Pezzicar’s work, the life-sized free man holds the Emancipation Proclamation above his head. His right arm is outstretched with a broken shackle on the wrist. There is a broken shackle and chain at his feet. Typical of the time, the works representing Civil War soldiers and sailors depicted white men only.

The broken shackle and chains under Liberty’s left foot remain constant in Bartholdi’s design from the 1870 maquette and casts to the statue that we see today. In nineteenth century Europe and the United States these design elements were universally understood as symbols of freedom from slavery. In Liberty images, they were strongly associated with the American anti-slavery movement, as the following examples illustrate. Samuel Jennings created the first American abolitionist painting in 1792. It depicts the goddess Liberty with broken chains at her feet presenting the arts and sciences to enslaved blacks. By 1840, the American Anti-Slavery Society’s emblem includes a helmeted Liberty with broken whips, chains, and shackles beneath her feet. In the late 1840s and ‘50s, Hiram Powers’ The Greek Slave (1847) was the best known sculpture in the U.S., but his proposed America (Liberty) statue for the Capitol dome was rejected by the Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and Southern senators for use of abolitionist symbolism.125 The New York Times’ Paris correspondent wrote in 1856:

…chains are never used by artists but as a symbol of slavery…[America’s broken chain] can not apply to the slavery of our Slave States for the simple reason that this slavery has never been abolished…the colonists were never slaves to anybody.126

The persistence of the broken shackle and chains under the left foot of Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty demonstrates that while it was not exclusively a monument to the emancipation of American slaves, the abolition of slavery was central to its overall message. Together with the tablets, inscribed in the later models and actual statue “July 4, 1776,” the broken shackle and chains clearly represent Laboulaye’s conviction: “Twice, [America] has founded liberty: political liberty in 1776; civil liberty in 1864” (see Claim #2). That the relationship between these elements was familiar to many, if certainly not all Americans, is evidenced in popular art such as Columbia’s Noblest Sons, an 1865 lithograph depicting George Washington with the Declaration of Independence dated

124 Unlike Bartholdi, who never made such statements about the Statue of Liberty, Rogers remarked that his figure “would be a capital fellow in a Harpers ferry insurrection” (Savage, op. cit., p. 17). 125 Thomas Crawford received the Liberty commission in 1885. Davis rejected his second design which featured her wearing a liberty cap “on the grounds that it was inappropriate to represent freeborn Americans because the Roman liberty cap had been worn by freed slaves” (Pamela Scott, Temple of Liberty, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 100). 126 Quoted in Jean Fagan Yellin, “Caps and Chains: Hiram Powers’ Statue of Liberty,” American Quarterly 38(5), p. 813. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 60

‘1776’ to the right of Liberty with a broken shackle at her feet. Abraham Lincoln stands with the Emancipation Proclamation to her left.127

It was still powerful more than a decade later as demonstrated in Congressman Robert Winthrop’s speech at the City of Boston’s centennial celebration on July 4, 1876:

…and by His blessing, we present our country to the world this day without a slave, white or black, upon its soil! Thanks be to God that not only has our beloved Union been saved, but that it has been made both easier to save, and better worth saving, hereafter, by the final solution of a problem, before which all human wisdom had stood aghast and confounded for so many generations! Thanks be to God, and to Him be all the praise and the glory, we can read the great words of the Declaration [of Independence], on the Centennial Anniversary, without reservation or evasion: “We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The legend on that new colossal Pharos…may now indeed be “Liberty Enlightening the World.”128

The Face of the Statue

Who does the Statue of Liberty resemble? In the Black Statue of Liberty rumor and related commentaries, much is made of the appearance of the statue’s face and changes in its design observable over time. Given the nature of the sculptural design process, particularly the refinements and enlargements that typically occur from the first rough designs to a finished monument, it is not surprising that from the 1870 maquette to the actual statue, Liberty’s facial features changed markedly. The apparent number and extent of the modifications is amplified by changes in size and materials, as well as numerous drawings and reproductions produced by studios unconnected with Bartholdi or the Liberty project for the press and commercial purposes.

In the 1880s, people commonly assumed that Bartholdi used a living model for the Statue of Liberty. There was considerable speculation in France and the United States about her identity, some of which is humorous. On September 27, 1884, for example, the New Orleans Daily City mused: “The Bartholdi Statue must be modeled after some Ohio girl. The ears are three feet long.”129

According to one popular, but false rumor, Mrs. Isaac Merrit Singer, the widow of

127 Artist unknown, Kimmel & Foster Lithographers. Original owner by the New York Historical Society. In the 19th century, Columbia and Liberty were interchangeable symbols of the United States. Liberty images were often called “Columbia.” 128 Robert C. Winthrop, Oration on the Centennial anniversary of the Declaration of independence delivered at the Music Hall, at the request of the city government of Boston, 4 July 1876, Boston: J. Wilson & Son, 1876, pp. 50-51. 129 From the Bartholdi collection at the Conservatoire National des Artes et Metiers. Also cited in Provoyeur, op. cit., p. 279 fn 37. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 61 the sewing machine inventor who remarried and settled in Paris in 1878, was Bartholdi’s model. By the time she arrived there, construction of the face was already underway. It was completed that summer. The French author of La Bourgeois Absolu reported that Bartholdi hired an artist’s model named Céline.130

The most commonly accepted view is that the statue’s face belongs to Bartholdi’s mother. This is a legend similar to, if less symbolically powerful than the 1865 dinner party story. It is based on an anecdote first recounted by Senator Bozerain at a Paris banquet in Bartholdi’s honor on May 21, 1884. Characterizing the Statue of Liberty as an expression of “filial piety,” he recalls:

A few years ago I had the honor of making his aquaintance…Mr. Bartholdi said to me: ‘Come with me to the Opéra, you will see why we are going.’ I accepted, and entered a dark stage box. In a corner was lady of imposing appearance. Finding myself near Bartholdi, I said to him, ‘That’s the Statue of Liberty!” He pressed my hand, saying, ‘Yes, it is.’ Do you know who that lady was? It was Bartholdi’s mother!131

Bartholdi never confirmed or denied Bozerain’s tale. Allowing others to believe it was certainly in the artist’s interest. In addition to flattering his mother, it was another means of countering rumors already appearing in the French press that Bartholdi had sold his old Egypte design as Liberty.

Although there is a vague resemblance, it is unlikely that the story is true. Bartholdi was solicitous of his mother’s needs, but there is no record of her sitting for him. Though the 1914 inventory shows two painted portraits, there is no indication that he ever created a bust of her to use as a working model. It is also unlikely that he used Ary Scheffer’s portrait to which the statue’s face is often compared. These paintings would have required so much enlargement that Madame Bartholdi’s features would have been badly distorted. The comparison with Scheffer’s image was probably first made after the opera anecdote gained popularity.

There is no evidence that a black woman posed for Bartholdi in the United States or France for the Statue of Liberty. There is no speculation about a black model in the African American press, which covered the fundraising campaign and dedication extensively. Claims that white Southern newspapers, incensed by the prospect of a black Liberty, railed against the project in 1876 or 1878 are unsupported, as are assertions that the American Consul in Paris rejected the design in 1878 or 1884 to avoid offending

130 Blanchet and Dard, op. cit., p. 48. During this project, we received a tip from Canada that Paris Match had published an interview with the black granddaughter of Bartholdi’s rumored artist’s model in 1976. A thorough search of back issues from 1976-1986 found no interview or reference to a black artist’s model or descendant. 131 Liberty Englightening the World – Banquet Given by Mr. Henry F. Gillig in honor of M. Auguste Bartholdi, the Sculptor, Paris: Waterlow and Sons Limited, 1884, p. 19. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 62

Southern whites.132 Some texts associated with the Black Statue of Liberty rumor suggest that President Grant had a role in vetoing the “original” design. This is not supported by available evidence. It is also implausible due to Grant’s debt to Laboulaye, John Forney’s on-going role as intermediary between Grant, Laboulaye, and Bartholdi, and Grant’s direction to General Meade to secure Bedloe’s Island from the army for the lighthouse/statue.

There are a number of examples of sculptures with anti-slavery and emancipation themes in which a female slave or freedwoman appears with facial features akin to those used in classical Greek or Roman sculpture. Powers’ The Freed Slave is the best known. Edmonia Lewis’ Forever Free (1867) is a more contemporaneous example. Bartholdi’s writings and body of work do not support his using such a covert representation strategy for the Statue of Liberty.

Determining that an artwork or a living person looks “black” or “white” always requires subjective judgement, though it rests to some extent of shared notions of what markers differentiate racial categories. In American culture, the physical appearance of blackness or whiteness carries enormous implications for the viewer and society as a whole. Objectivity with regard to the Statue of Liberty’s racial identity based on the facial features is simply impossible. The evidence does not support claims that Bartholdi and Laboulaye intended to represent Liberty as a black woman. Still, some if not all images of the statue would likely appear black to large numbers of Americans, especially Bartholdi’s 1870 maquette and the 12” American Committee model. Such judgements are best left to individuals based on own their sensibilities.

132 In a fundraising speech made at a banquet at the Louvre in 1875, Laboulaye stresses in the presence of Forney and other Americans, “…I want to nothing to say against Americans of the South. But to divide this large continent made to be united, to condemn it to political divisions that are the curse of Europe…that would have been, I believe, a large misfortune…in France – all hearts were for the abolition of slavery….” Discours de MM. Henri Martin, E.-B. Washburne, Edouard Laboulaye, et. J. W. Forney, Paris: Biblioteque Charpentier, n.d., p. 36. Translation by Rosenblatt. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 63

PART III

AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE STATUE OF LIBERTY, 1876-1886

Thus far, this report has focused on the Statue of Liberty’s French initiators and their connections to a small group of Americans committed to republicanism and ending slavery. To fully appreciate the statue’s development, we must further consider the domestic context in which the American Committee was fundraising. The Compromise of 1877, which brought a formal end to Reconstruction, was followed by a period of increasing prejudice, legal discrimination and organized violence against African Americans, especially in the South. Numerous laws segregating education and transportation were passed. In 1890, Mississippi became the first state to amend a disenfranchisement provision to its state constitution.

African Americans had no input into the design process. They were excluded from the dedication ceremony on Bedloe’s Island, as well as from elite fundraising events. Nonetheless, the Statue of Liberty held significant individual and collective meanings to African Americans of the Civil War generation, their aging parents and children. African Americans’ active roles in the early history of the Statue of Liberty demonstrate how widely Americans understood the project as a monument to the end of slavery with relevance to contemporary debates and problems.

Few records exist documenting African Americans’ views of or involvement with the Statue of Liberty prior to 1885. By itself, this does not indicate African Americans’ disinterest in the project. It reflects the reality, not unique to this effort, that white “friends of the freedmen” as one monument association called itself, did not interest themselves in African Americans’ participation except as sources of project funds.

Americans’ first opportunity to experience the Statue of Liberty directly came at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. African Americans attended the event in substantial numbers. An engraving on the cover of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper during the exposition shows Pezzicar’s The Freed Slave surrounded by finely dressed African American adults and children.133 There are few extant photographs of the Liberty exhibit itself that show people. None appear to be African Americans. A photograph of the Bartholdi fountain, situated next to Liberty’s raised arm and torch, includes a seated figure that appears to be an African American man sitting on a bench in front of it.134 From its size, subject, and outdoor location adjacent to the Memorial Hall, where Pezzicar’s work and other Civil War sculpture were shown, it is hard to imagine that Bartholdi’s Liberty exhibit was not seen by most, if not all, African American visitors.

Coverage of the pedestal fundraising drive and dedication of the Statue of Liberty in the African American press provides the best direct source of information about

133 Leslie’s, August 5, 1876, p. 1. Also published in the French edition, L’Illustration, August 16, 1876 (original in the Bibliotèque Forney, Paris). 134 Original in the New York Public Library. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 64

African Americans’ connections to statue’s early history.135 Black newspapers in several states published editorials and news stories about the Statue of Liberty. They also ran solicitations from the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty for contributions for the pedestal fund. Other American Committee fundraising materials intended to reach national audiences include specific references linking the statue to African American liberty. One of these posters is on permanent display at the Statue of Liberty NM.

The American Committee for the Statue of Liberty was formed in 1876. By late 1884, the American Committee had raised $182,491.40, all but $10,000 from residents of New York.136 It is likely that black veterans organizations were among the local contributors. The 20th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops was sponsored by the Union League Club of New York in 1863-64. The club honored its surviving members with a banquet just a month before the Statue’s unveiling. They marched in the dedication parade on October 28, 1886.

Prior to the World’s adoption of the pedestal campaign in March 1885, there appears to have been no organized drive to solicit funds from African Americans in New York City or nationally. 137 Beginning in April 1885, the African American Cleveland Gazette ran a series of national advertisements placed by the American Committee. Those appearing in the April 25th, May 2nd, and July 4th editions offered contributors a 6” nickel plated miniature of the statue for a $1 donation and a 12” bronze replica for a $5 contribution. In January 1886, the American Committee placed new weekly ads in the Gazette announcing “More Money Needed.” In addition to the 6” and 12” replicas, these solicitations offered a 12” silver statue for a $10 donation.138

A news story published on July 4, 1885 by the Huntsville (AL) Gazette assumes readers’ awareness of the relationship between Bartholdi’s statue and the abolition of slavery. It focuses on the role of racial prejudice in the pedestal fundraising drive and exhorts readers to contribute. A first-person account by Philip Beers, a fund-raiser who was touring the country for the World soliciting funds for construction of the statue’s pedestal, underscores its authenticity. It is recounted as a parable, a form of communication commonly used at the time by African Americans in the South in public statements critical of white racism:

…among some [Americans] a strange prejudice seems to exist.

135 For this report, collections were reviewed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harvard University, and the Boston Public Library and a list was compiled of newspapers published between 1870 and 1886. As a result of inconsistent preservation, many volumes of these extremely valuable resources are missing or barely legible. It is quite possible that no longer extant volumes contained additional Statue of Liberty materials. 136 In early March 1885, less than $3,000 remained. 137 We were not able to identify specific African American donors to the pedestal fund, but believe this could be done if American Committee and Pulitzer’s World donor lists are still extant. 138 Of all of the designs associated with the Statue of Liberty project, the face of the 12” “American Committee model” perhaps most closely resembles a black woman. It is possible that the belief, expressed by Calvin Robinson, that there was an original black model that contemporary African Americans saw derives from this source. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 65

“Prejudice? What in particular?” “I have ever found that however meritorious a thing may be, thousands of people will inevitably be prejudiced against it. I have spent most of my life on the road and know the American people ‘like a book.’ In 1879, a personal misfortune illustrated this prevailing prejudice. I was very ill, had suffered for several years with headache, fickle appetite, dreadful backache, cramps, hot head, cold hands and feet and a general breakdown of the system. I dragged my self back to New York seeking the best professional treatment. It so happens that among my relatives is a distinguished physician who upbraided me roundly for preaching my so much about my own case. Finally, with some spirit, I remarked to him: “‘Sir, you know that much of your professional wisdom is pretense. You are controlled by your prejudice. You can not reach a case like mine and you know it, can you?’” “I had him; and he finally conceded the point for it was bright’s disease of the kidney’s which had prostrated me, and the [illegible] men admit they can not cure it. Having cured myself, however, in 1879, and not having seen a sick day since, my relative finally admitted that Warner’s safe care, which accomplished this result was really a wonderful preparation… I have found similar prejudices among all classes concerning even so laudable a scheme as this pedestal fund.”

Several references have already been made to 1879. The Compromise of 1877 that gave Republican Rutherford Hayes the presidency ended Reconstruction by ceding control of the South to the Democrats. Beers’ “personal ailment” is a direct reference to Congressional Democrats’ repeated efforts in 1879 to pass legislation that under the guise of preventing U. S. military interference in local elections would fully subordinate federal to state law, thereby allowing not only the full disenfranchisement of blacks, but also the reinstitution of slavery. Thomas Nast satirized the ploy, along with the reality of Democratic control of the South, in a full-page drawing titled, “Another Step Toward Civilization,” published on cover of Harper’s Weekly. A white man representing the South, called “Mr. Solid Brutus,” holds a black man by the wrist while saying, “Why Mr. Exode Caesar, you are a MAN and a BROTHER after all. So step into my parlor.” The flag flying from the building just behind the white man reads, “Southern Temple of Liberty.”139 Beers’ “distinguished physician among my relatives” refers to powerful Republicans in the North who provided little aid as conditions for blacks in the South deteriorated.

The Gazette writer goes on cite to Beers’ anecdote as proof that “physicians have no real power over such diseases” which “unmistakably indicate a fatal result if not promptly arrested.” The article closes with a statement by Beers that would surely have been read by the Gazette’s African American audience as a reference to them, rather than Americans in general:

139 Harper’s Weekly, May31, 1879, p. 1. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 66

“…every cent needed for the pedestal will be raised…it will be a great triumph for the World but would it not have been an eternal disgrace had our people failed to provide for this pedestal?”140

The veracity of the Gazette’s account of racial prejudice as an obstacle in the fundraising campaign is underscored by a popular Thomas Worth print issued by Currier & Ives in 1884. Titled “Brer Thuldi’s Statue Liberty Frightenin de World, To be stuck up on Bedbugs Island – Jarsey Flats opposit de United States,” it depicts Liberty as an alarmed-looking caricature of a black woman in work clothes wearing the American flag as an apron. The crown appears as her hair standing on end beneath a stovepipe hat. She holds a burning branch in her upraised right arm. Her left arm cradles a book marked “NY Port Charges,” an apparent double reference to the increasing number of immigrants and their exploitation by the Harbor Administration. A crowing rooster atop the pedestal represents the French sculptor, Bartholdi. The popularity of this image is indicated by a statement just under the title, “(Only Authorized Edition.)”141

A signed pencil and watercolor study for the print is even more revealing. The same figure is holding a book titled, “New York Directory,” a reference to the project’s wealthy, socially prominent white backers. The front, upper level of the pedestal is inscribed, “Liberty Frightening the World.” The adjacent side reads, “Post no bills,” referring to the American Committee’s struggling fundraising campaign. The title appears on the front lower level. However, the artist’s “name” is spelled “Barsqualldi,” emphasizing its allusion to “squall” created by the sculptor with this project. The original study is owned by the Statue of Liberty NM.142

Even before the American Committee appealed to them directly for donations, African American newspapers were following the statue’s story. One reason might have been anticipation of the strong statement the Statue of Liberty would make by its immense size and use of technology. Following the statue’s transfer from France to the United States in Paris in 1884, the Huntsville Gazette reported:

The Bartholdi statue will be when set up the largest statue of modern times, and larger than the most famous of antiquity; it could hold the “Bavaria” of Munich like a baby, and it is a giant compared with little Colossus of Rhodes. When its torch is lighted up with electricity it will make an imposing appearance.143

140 “Bartholdi’s Big Girl,” Huntsville Gazette, July 4, 1885. Italics added. For the use of parables in late 19th century African American communication to address white racism, see, for example, Willie Baber, Parables Exposed: Interpretations of Booker T. Washington National Monument, unpublished manuscript, 1998. On the use of “our people” in African American history narratives, see Rosenzweig and Thelen, op. cit. 141 An original is owned by the New York Historical Society. 142 Thomas Worth (1834-1917) sold his first comic sketch to Thomas Currier in 1855. He became one of Currier & Ives’ most popular artists. Many of his pieces, including this one, were reproduced as inexpensive lithographs sold to working class whites. Worth was best known for his overtly racist “Darktown” cartoon series. 143 “The Biggest of Statues,” Huntsville Gazette, August 3, 1884. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 67

The arrival of the French delegation for the statue’s unveiling was the Huntsville Gazette’s lead story on October 30, 1886. The Cleveland Gazette dedicated six columns to a detailed description of the dedication itself, including the parade down Fifth Avenue and ceremony on Bedloe’s Island. The article included facts, figures, and dates related to the statue’s history. It concluded with John G. Whittier’s poem, submitted for the unveiling ceremony and widely published in the national press, which African American readers and many other Americans would have understood as a commentary on the end of slavery. It reads in part:

Unlike the shapes on Egypt’s sands Uplifted by the toil-worn slave, On freedom’s soil with freemen’s hands We rear the symbol free hands gave…

Rise, stately symbol; holding forth Thy light and hope to all who sit In chains and darkness. Belt the earth with watch-fires from thy torch uplit.

Reveal the primal mandate still Which chaos heard and ceased to be. Trace on midair th’Eternal will In signs of fire: “Let man be free.”

Shine far, shine free, a guiding light To Reason’s way and Virtue’s aim, A lightning flash the wretch to smite Who shield’s his license with thy name.144

The New York Freeman, which had strongly criticized the World’s fundraising drive because of its sensational treatment of crime stories involving African Americans and competition with Charles Dana’s Sun, hailed the Statue of Liberty’s dedication as “one of the most auspicious events of this generation,” noting that “everyone and everything seemed to be in harmony” that day.145

Jose Martí described the presence and reception for the aging Union Army and militia veterans, including African Americans, as they passed the Fifth Avenue parade’s reviewing stand at Herald Square:

Head bared, the President salutes the tattered banners. As they pass in review, the companies dip their colors...You see the maimed,

144 Cleveland Gazette, October 30, 1886. 145 Dana served as Assistant Secretary of War under Stanton in the Civil War. As a New York publisher, he was one of Joseph Pulitzer’s harshest critics. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 68

frenetically cheered by spectators. You see the bullet torn flags. You see the wooden legs.

Twenty-one years after the end of the Civil War, Martí reported that from “two black sidewalks on each side” of the procession, cheers were “rising in the Park and flying from mouth to mouth.” Pauli refers to the event as the “Grand Army parade,” adding that the sight of the black veterans obscured what was happening to African Americans in the South. 146

The difference in approach taken by the Gazettes and the Freeman mirror debates among leading African Americans about how best to commemorate the end of slavery going back to the 1860s and reflect African Americans’ political diversity. Rather than cover the American Committee’s events, the Freeman wrote about an African American Liberty Day celebration at Colored Grammar School No. 1 in Brooklyn. In addition to listing the prominent public figures who attended, it noted the singing of “Columbia Free” and other appropriate songs, along with speeches, readings, and recitations. The school was decorated with French and American flags, plants, and buntings. In the center of the headmaster’s desk, on a platform in the room where the program was held, stood a large picture of Liberty Enlightening the World.147 An adjacent article described the opening reception for a new hotel, noting that one of the African American owners is a well-known local businessman and president of the Bartholdi Rifle Club.

Though it came only after he became President, Clover Cleveland’s support of the Statue of Liberty and participation in the dedication ceremony may have further increased his popularity with some African Americans. Editorials that appeared in several black newspapers in the fall of 1886 hailed Cleveland as “…our President, the true representative of American freedom.”148 The Kansas City Gate City Press explains:

Politicians who have made many broken promises with colored men will do well to read President Cleveland’s letter to T. McCants Stewart on the Matthews appointment. Mr. Cleveland said: “If a colored man is worthy a promise, he is absolutely entitled to its fulfillment by every honorable man.” To that sentiment every Negro would say Amen - no matter what he may think of the Democratic party.149

Coverage of the Statue of Liberty by the black press did not end with its dedication. The Huntsville Gazette ran a front page news story on the lighting of Liberty’s torch, focusing on the technology and pyrotechnics display. The Cleveland Gazette editorialized, “…the torch of the Bartholdi statue should not be lighted until this country becomes a free one in reality.”150

146 Quoted in Pauli, op. cit., p. 284-85. 147 “Liberty Day in Professor Dorsey’s School,” Freeman, November 6, 1886. 148 Huntsville (AL) Normal Index, September 1886. Cleveland, who had opposed allocating state money to the American Committee as governor of New York, changed his view of the project after being elected President with substantial help from Joseph Pulitzer. 149 Gate City Press, September 1886. 150 “Liberty’s Light,” Huntsville Gazette, November 6, 1886. Cleveland Gazette, November 27, 1886, 2:2. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 69

From the available evidence, it is clear that African American responses to the Statue of Liberty in the 1880s were informed by larger national debates. They are best understood in the context of 1) African Americans’ use of Liberty images in their struggle to end slavery, 2) the history of their involvement in efforts to commemorate emancipation in public monuments, and 3) their understanding of their active roles in ending slavery, especially on the battlefield.

The uses of the word ‘liberty’ and allegorical representations of Liberty by nineteenth century African Americans in their own interests are far too numerous and diverse to fully review here. A few examples are sufficient to show that upon hearing about it, Bartholdi’s colossal Liberty Enlightening the World, would have immediately invoked powerful images for African Americans of their past and continuing struggles for freedom and equlaity. Abolitionist David Ruggles, best known for assisting Frederick Douglass and more than thousand slaves through the Underground Railroad, established the first African American weekly magazine in 1838, Mirror of Liberty. In 1848, Henry Highland Garnet argued in one of his most famous anti-slavery speeches:

If you must bleed, let it all come at once – rather die freemen than live to be slaves….In the name of the merciful God, and by all that life is worth, let it no longer be a debatable question, whether it is better to choose liberty or death.151

Arriving at the Boston Court Hourt house on May 28, 1854 to protest the prosecution of Anthony Burns under the Fugitive Slave Act, a mixed group of 200 men, were cheered by onlookers. Their silk banner, which was seized by the Boston police, read on the front, “Worcester Freedom Club -- Warm Hearts and Fearless Souls -- True Union and Constitution.” On the reverse: “Freedom, National Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” above a figure of the goddess Liberty.152

During the Civil War, African American associations with “liberty” became increasingly tied to fighting slavery on the battlefield. Exhorting black men to volunteer, Frederick Douglass, echoing Garnet, declared in March 1863:

Liberty won by white men would lack half its lustre. Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Better even to die free than live as slaves. This is our golden opportunity.153

Liberty images appeared on battle flags, such as the 6th United States Colored Troops’, which shows a uniformed African American soldier holding eye contact with an

151 Henry Highland Garnet, Walker’s Appeal, with a Brief sketch of His Life, and also Garnet’s Address to the Slaves of the United States of America, New York, 1848. Quoted in Debra Newman Ham, ed., The African American Odyssey, Washington D. C.: Library of Congress, 1998, p. 36. 152 Boston Slave Riots and Trial of Anthony Burns, Boston: Fettridge and Company, 1854, pp. 42-43. 153 Ham, op. cit., p. 53. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 70 allegorical Liberty. Equal in stature, the figures are standing in front of a seated, applauding black woman under a banner that says, “Freedom for All.”154

Edmonia Lewis completed a number of medallions and busts of individuals associated with the abolitionist movement, including John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner and Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, and sculptures with emancipation themes. One of her best known works is the grouping Forever Free (1867). It is distinguished from the works of her white American contemporaries, such as Thomas Ball, by its portrayal of black man standing triumphant with the broken chains of slavery in his raised left arm rather than in a subservient, crouching position below a dignified white man, usually Abraham Lincoln.155 His right arm rests on the shoulder of a kneeling black woman. Originally called The Morning of Liberty, it was dedicated at the Tremont Temple on October 18, 1869.156

Beginning in the late 18th century, Liberty appeared numerous times in place names, especially in the South. At least one community, Liberty, Oklahoma, was a black township founded during Reconstruction on the principles of self-sufficiency and mutual aid.

Though little known today, African Americans’ active role in efforts to publicly memorialize the abolition of slavery beginning in 1865 was critical to the completion of a number of well-known Civil War monuments. By 1885, African American contributions to the Liberty pedestal fund continued a well-established pattern of black support for large-scale commemorative projects associated with freedom. Like the Statue of Liberty, most of these projects were controlled by prominent white politicians and businessmen.

The Freedmen’s Memorial to Abraham Lincoln was one of the first monuments intended to appeal beyond local and regional boundaries to a national audience. Funded entirely by African Americans, it was begun shortly after Lincoln’s death and completed in 1876. As recounted by art historian Kirk Savage:

The story begins after Lincoln’s assassination with a five-dollar donation entrusted by an ex-slave named Charlotte Scott to her ex- master for a monument to the martyr-president. The local newspaper in Marietta, Ohio, instantly published the act, and others took notice.

154 An original postcard of this flag is in the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. An 1864 collector’s card, also at the Library of Congress, from a packaged collection called “The Slave in 1863,” shows a black Union soldier driving his bayonet through the head of a white Confederate. The caption reads, “Make way for Liberty!” 155 Harriett Hosmer’s design for the Liberty Monument Association is an exception. Lewis and Hosmer knew one another as members of a small group of expatriate women artists from the United States working in Rome in the 1860s and shared a patron, Maria Lydia Child. 156 Jontyle Theresa Robinson, ed. Bearing Witness, Atlanta: Spelman College and Rizzoli International Publications, 1998. Art historians disagree about interpreting Lewis’ work, including this piece, as early expressions of African American feminism. In addition to Forever Free, she produced two sculptures, Hagar (1875) and Cleopatra (1876) that use Egyptian figures to possibly represent the status of black women in American society. Cleopatra was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 71

African Americans from the area apparently augmented Scott’s gift and began to create a real fund.157

Shortly thereafter, news of the effort reached a Union general who seized on the idea and arranged to have the Western Sanitary Commission, a freedmen’s relief agency in St. Louis, take over the project. African Americans, mostly soldiers, continued to contribute cash. There donations were collected by a self-designated group of white “friends of the freedmen” who would subsequently determine the statue’s design without the donors’ input. After raising $20,000, the Commissioners asked every freedman in the country to donate “one week’s free work, or its equivalent.”158 They recruited African American lawyer-activist John Mercer Langston to personally solicit contributions in the Midwest and South.159

At least two other monument campaigns competed with the Western Sanitary Commission for African Americans’ contributions. The Colored People’s Educational Monument Association, led by abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet, sought funds from black and white donors for a national freedmen’s school bearing Lincoln’s name. Based in Springfield, Illinois, the white-controlled National Lincoln Monument Association, sought funds for a monument at Lincoln’s burial site. At least one fundraising agent was specifically assigned to African American communities. Black soldiers contributed generously, but other African Americans preferred to support an effort in which their involvement would be clearly visible to the whole country.

In March 1867, shortly after passing the first Reconstruction Act, Congress passed a bill creating “the Lincoln Monument Association, for the purpose of erecting a monument in the city of Washington, commemorative of the great charter of emancipation and universal liberty in America.”160 The conception of this monument

157 Savage, op. cit., p. 91. 158 “Freedom’s Memorial,” National Freedman 1 (August 15, 1865), p. 231. Cited in Savage, op. cit., p. 92. The history of this monument shows that the young Auguste Bartholdi was not alone at this time in trying to enhance his career prospects by designing monuments to meet the needs of prominent patrons which were at odds with his personal views. The artist invited to submit a design for the monument was a 23-year- old, recent expatriate named Harriet Hosmer. Hosmer, a close family friend of Commission member and former slave owner Wayman Crow, held “a benevolent view” of slavery until years later. She worked on what she referred to as the “darkey monument” because she believed it was her best chance of securing a nationally visible Lincoln memorial commission. The stereophotograph of an 1868 design for the monument by Clark Mills, a Maryland foundry owner whose slaves helped cast Crawford’s Freedom (Liberty), describes the third stage of an elaborate emancipation cycle: The third…is the ransomed slave, redeemed from bondage by the blood of Liberty, who, having struck off his shackles, holds them triumphantly aloft. The slave is pictured gratefully bowing at her feet. The original is in the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Savage, citing contemporary art critic Henry Bellows, attributes the radical Republicans embrace of Mills’ patronizing design as a concession to popular taste rather than an endorsement of his views or talent. Bellows characterized Hosmer’s design as art, comparable to the best produced in Europe. 159 It is possible that Joseph Pulitzer first observed this fund raising strategy in St. Louis and later adapted it to solicit contributions from African Americans for the Statue of Liberty. 160 Congressional Globe, March 26, 1967, pp. 345-46. Cited in Savage, op. cit., p. 103. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 72 encompassed the radical Republican program of racial equality under the law encoded in the term “universal liberty,” an idea remarkably similar to statements made about the Statue of Liberty by Laboulaye and others closely associated with fundraising for it.161

The Lincoln Monument Association’s original fundraising appeal opened with a call to “the loyal people of the United States of all classes, without distinction as to race or color.”162 Frederick Douglass, who had been openly critical of Garnet’s effort, was a member of the association’s board of managers. While the extent of his involvement in the project is uncertain, by 1870 some of the publicity materials were being printed at the offices of his newspaper, the New National Era.

Funds collected by the Western Sanitary Commission were transferred to this new effort in 1869, but withdrawn in 1871 due to the Monument Association’s inability to complete the project. Congress agreed to pay for the pedestal and set aside land for the Commission’s sculpture on the eastern edge of Capitol Hill. When Thomas Ball’s Freedmen’s Memorial was dedicated in 1876, the ceremony was attended by the President, Congress and the Supreme Court. Noting that it was the first time that African Americans had erected a national monument, Frederick Douglass sharply reminded the audience that Lincoln “was preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men,” adding that when “it is attempted to scourge us beyond the range of human brotherhood…we may calmly point to the monument we have erected this day to Abraham Lincoln.”163

The origins of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial are similar to the Freedmen’s Memorial. Saint-Gaudens’ was a member of the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty when he was recruited for the Shaw project in 1882. The effort actually began in September 1865 when Joshua B. Smith, a former slave, pledged $500 for an equestrian monument to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw to be erected on the Boston Common, “as he last saw him at the head of his regiment on Beacon Street.”164 He raised several thousand dollars and 800 pledges from Boston’s African American community and sought support from white leaders, including Charles Sumner. The effort was covered in local newspapers, the Daily Advertiser and Evening Transcript. Due to Smith’s poor health, the campaign was short lived. By the time it was revived in 1870s, Sumner was in charge. Smith’s and the African American contributors’ roles had been fully erased.

Other subscription campaigns for Civil War-related national monuments in which African Americans led fundraising efforts and contributed substantially include the

161 Ibid. 162 National Lincoln Monument Association, Washington, D.C.: Great Republic Office, 1867, p. 3. Cited in Savage, op. cit., p. 103. 163 Inaugural Ceremonies of the Freedmen’s Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln, St. Louis: Levinson & Blythe, 1876, p. 19, 25-2. For a full and fascinating discussion of the development of the Freedmen’s Memorial and its design evolution, including the substitution of the liberty cap and use of photographs of Archer Alexander, an ex- slave, in Ball’s monument, its replication and critique by black scholars, see Savage, pp. 90-120. 164 Daily Advertiser, October 9, 1865. Cited in Savage, p. 196. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 73

General Grant National Memorial in New York City.165 Richard T. Greener, a personal friend of Grant’s, was elected Secretary of the Grant Monument Association at its first meeting on July 28, 1885. As the association’s principal spokesman and key administrative official, Greener raised funds for the project until his forced resignation in 1891. His status as an educator, diplomat, and first black graduate of Harvard University undoubtedly helped his efforts to raise funds in African American communities from Aiken, South Carolina to Monrovia, Liberia.166

A local African American effort that drew national attention was the Crispus Attucks monument in Boston. The project was strongly opposed by the Massachusetts Historical Society, the nation’s oldest, and other white elites who felt that Attucks was “not a fit candidate for monumental honors.” In their view, the “the famous mulatto was a rowdyish person killed while engaged in a defiance of law [at the Boston Massacre of 1770].”167 Finally dedicated in 1888, the allegorical statue depicts Liberty holding aloft the broken chains of slavery. By comparison, Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty presented a relatively conservative image emphasized by the tablets of law in her arm and broken shackle and chain at her feet.

African Americans were not merely passive subjects of Bartholdi’s colossal sculpture. Though their interests often differed from white supporters and donors to the Statue of Liberty, blacks participated actively in its completion, especially in 1885-1886. As early as 1876, they began to establish a distinctive symbolic relationship and interpretive tradition based on collective experiences, beliefs, and understandings about themselves as Americans.

165 In one, possibly unique, documented instance, African Americans in Terry, Mississippi donated funds to a monument to Robert E. Lee in 1870. The circumstances of these contributions were not recorded. 166 Evidence of the enduring association between the allegorical Liberty and the Union includes an 1896 print on the cover of a program for the dedication of Grant’s Tomb showing Grant flanked by Liberty (on permanent display at General Grant NM). 167 New York Times, November 15, 1888, p. 4; Dennis P. Ryan, “The Crispus Attucks Monument Controversy of 1887,” Negro History Bulletin 40 (1977), 656-57. Quoted in Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory, p. 123. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 74

DOESN’T THE STATUE OF LIBERTY CELEBRATE IMMIGRANTS?

Claim #4:

By the time of its dedication in 1886, European immigration to the United States had increased so substantially that earlier meanings associated with the statue were eclipsed. Emma Lazarus’ poem, “The New Colossus,” represents the predominant understanding of the statue’s meaning from then until now.

Finding:

Immigrants entering the United States have long been moved by the sight of the Statue of Liberty towering above New York Harbor. Still, the preeminence of the “Mother of Exiles” theme is a twentieth century development. In its early years, European immigration played a minor role in public opinion regarding the statue’s merit, along with other contemporary issues, such as women’s and worker’s rights. Emma Lazarus’ famous poem, written for an 1883 fundraiser, quickly faded into obscurity. Immigrants did not actually see the Statue of Liberty in large numbers until after its unveiling in October 1886. In contrast, references to the Civil War and abolition of slavery occur repeatedly from its first introduction to the United States in 1871 up until and during dedication celebrations in 1886.

Initiated in 1885, the New York World’s fund drive was instrumental in reviving the American Committee of the Statue of Liberty’s stalled efforts to complete the pedestal project. Joseph Pulitzer’s early experiences in the United States and views on racial injustices toward African Americans strongly influenced his work on behalf of the American Committee. Though the World actively courted immigrant readers, his editorial policies and successful campaign to prevent a federal immigration station from being built on Bedloe’s Island after the statue’s dedication are indicative of his generally negative views of the Europeans entering the U.S. during this period.

In the early twentieth century, the statue became a popular symbol for nativists and white supremacists. Official use of the Statue of Liberty’s image to directly address immigrants began with efforts to Americanize immigrant children and the government’s advertising campaign for World War I bonds. Immigration only became the predominant interpretive theme at the monument after World War II. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 75

Regardless of whether their own families entered the United States through New York harbor, Americans associate the Statue of Liberty with the arrival of millions of immigrants and refugees, especially from Europe, and their subsequent successes as they entered the mainstream of American society. Since the 1930s, Emma Lazarus’ poem, “The New Colossus,” has provided the standard introduction to both the Statue of Liberty and immigration history in classrooms throughout the country reinforcing the popular idea that the statue has always been known as a monument to immigrants.

Amid celebrations not unlike its those marking its centennial in 1986, the Statue of Liberty was finally dedicated on October 28, 1886. While little mention was made of immigrants or immigration at the unveiling ceremony or in related official publications, references to the Civil War and the end of slavery were woven throughout the proceedings. In the presentation address, American Committee Chairman William A. Evarts explained the French motivation for the project:

In the conflict which agitated and divided the people of the United States, and aroused the loyalty and the patriotism of the country to the maintenance of our constituted liberties, the liberty-loving people felt an intense and solicitous interest. When the issue of the struggle upheld and confirmed the Government, maintained its unbroken unity, and has made all its people equal and free, the liberty loving people of France hailed the triumph with immense and avid enthusiasm. Nor was this enthusiasm to be satisfied but by some adequate and permanent expansion of their sympathy in our fiery trial, and congratulations at the absolute supremacy of the principles and institutions which had been put in peril and had come out from it without the smell of fire upon their garments.168

Along with other prominent participants, Evarts shared Laboulaye’s view that the Civil War and abolition of slavery completed the vision of the American Revolution. Addressing the friendship rooted in the Revolutionary War, he most passionately ties the interest of the French in the American struggle to making “all its people equal and free.”

Chauncey DePew, a prominent industrialist and anti-slavery speaker, delivered the keynote address at the unveiling ceremony. He repeatedly alludes to the relationship between liberty, the Civil War, freedom and political enfranchisement for former slaves. For example:

The spirit of liberty embraces all races in common brotherhood…

…Our Great Civil Strife, with all its expenditure of blood and treasure, was a terrible sacrifice for freedom. The results are so immeasurably great that by comparison the cost is insignificant. The development of liberty was impossible while she was shackled to the slave. The divine thought which entrusted to the conquered the full measure of home

168 Presentation Address by Hon. William A. Evarts, October 26, 1886., paragraph 3. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 76

rule, and accorded to them an equal share of imperial power, was the inspiration of God. With sublime trust it left to liberty the elevation of the freedmen to political rights. 169

Much of Depew’s speech recounts the history of relations between France and America. Recalling Laboulaye’s 1865 appeal for funds to help the freedmen, his discussion of the bond between Washington and Lafayette and the contribution of Lafayette and the French role in the victory over the British is also best understood as a metaphor for the statue’s French and American promoters’ shared views on slavery and the American Revolution. Depew’s meaning becomes explicit when he refers to Lafayette’s return to France:

…the fight for America was won. [Liberty’s] future here was threatened with but one danger—the slavery of the Negro. The soul of Lafayette, purified by battle and suffering saw the inconsistency and the peril, and he returned to this country to plead with the state legislatures and with Congress for the liberation of what he termed ‘my brothers, the blacks’.170

Many professional and amateur poets composed inspirational pieces for the fundraising campaign and dedication. Samuel Miller Hageman’s poem, read at the unveiling ceremony, echoed the principal speakers’ themes. Excerpts include:

Thou art as one from out of the heavens whom God himself have sent— To seal forever slavery’s tomb as Freedom’s monument…171

The light that quickens the soul, that fires eager face, inspires the hope, kindles the truth that thrills from race to race…172

The laws that hold the world in leash, the laws that set men free. For, save through knowledge of her laws, there is no liberty. Freedom for every living man that stands upon the earth. For all that be black or white, belongs to him by birth…173

On states that know no North, no South, whatever fate befall, One truth, one law, one heart, one flag, one Union for us all.174

Beyond the American Committee’s control, the statue’s image was being used and interpreted in a variety of ways not necessarily intended by its creators and principal

169 Chauncey DePew. Liberty Enlightening the World: Oration at the Unveiling of the Statue Of Liberty Enlightening the World, New York Harbor, October 28th, 1886. 170 Ibid. 171 Samuel Miller Hageman. Liberty as delivered by the Goddess at her Unveiling in the harbor of New York, Brooklyn, 1886, p.14 172 Ibid., p. 17. 173 Ibid., p. 21. 174 Ibid., p. 32. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 77 advocates. Early uses of the Statue of Liberty image for commercial purposes and, to a lesser extent, in support of women’s rights are well known and will not be repeated here.175 Period sources provide other associations, many of which continue today. For example, Cuban patriot José Martí attended the dedication celebrations in New York and reported at length in a letter published in Argentina’s La Nación. Martí interprets the statue’s meaning in light of worldwide colonial and industrial oppression. Notably, he quotes verbatim keynote speaker Chauncey Depew’s comment on Lafayette’s anti- slavery views. His account mentions immigrants’ participation in the public festivities, but notes that they know nothing about the Statue’s intended meaning or history.176

The Augusta (GA) Herald questioned the appropriateness of “the pagan divinity, so unseemly in a Christian land.”177 On the day of the dedication, The Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times, which supported the French gift, editorialized:

…the Christian spectator who in years to come looks at the colossal figure holding aloft its torch at our gates, will wish that both the people who gave it and the people who received the magnificent emblem might understand what true liberty is and how to attain the liberty alone that can enlighten the world…That liberty which gives light and life to the world, is that which is enjoyed by the individual soul that has realized the truth of Christ’s words, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32).178

“The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus’ now famous poem, offers an another example of how the Statue of Liberty was used by people unaffiliated with the French or American Committees to address contemporary concerns. Lazarus, an affluent, highly assimilated writer descended from early Sephardic settlers, was disturbed by the outbreak of pogroms in Russia in 1881 and the sight of the first Jewish refugees arriving in New York. Along with other prominent New Yorkers, she contributed to an art exhibit sponsored by the American Committee in 1883. Her sonnet was read by William Evarts at the opening and sold along with other art works that evening. Lazarus’ work continued to champion Jewish history and culture, but she took no further interest in the Statue of Liberty, “The New Colossus” fell into obscurity. It was not mentioned in her obituaries in 1887, nor was it included in her collected poems published in 1889.179

175 See, among others, Christian Blanchet and Bertrand Dard, The Statue of Liberty: The First Hundred Years, New York: American Heritage Press, 1985; Dillon and Kotler, op. cit.; Eliza Archard, The Bartholdi Statue, New York Times, May 29, 1885. 176 José Martí, Dedication of the Statue of Liberty, Elinor Randall, tr. The Massachusetts Review, Fall- Winter 1986, pp.423-441. 177 Quoted in Jacques M. Betz, Germaine Vivien, Frederic Secretan, Claude Ducourtial -Rey, and Oscar Lievain, Une Statue Pour La Liberté. Paris: Musée des artes décoratifs, 1986, p. 229. Given the original source, this may be a barely hidden reference to the statue’s association with the end of slavery. 178 The Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times, October 28, 1886, p. 675. There is a certain unintended irony here. The symbol of the American Anti-Slavery Society was a figure of Liberty standing with Religion who held tablets inscribed with the same biblical verse. 179 John Higham, Send These to Me. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 78

By 1886, a strong movement to restrict immigration had taken hold in the United States. There was considerable alarm about the huddled masses pouring through the “golden door.”180 Responding to the American Committee’s fundraising drive, Saum Song Bo wrote:

The word liberty makes me think of the fact that this country is the land of liberty for all nations except the Chinese. I consider it as an insult to us Chinese to call on us to contribute toward building in this land a pedestal for a statue of Liberty. That statue represents Liberty holding a torch which lights the passage of those of all nations who come into this country. But are the Chinese allowed to come? As for the Chinese who are here, are they allowed to enjoy liberty as men of all other nationalities enjoy it? Are they allowed to go about everywhere free from the insults, abuses, assaults, wrongs, and injuries from which men of other nationalities are free?…Whether the [Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882] or the statue to Liberty will be the more lasting monument to tell future ages of the liberty and greatness of this country will be known only to future generations.181

The situation of the Chinese actually had more in common with African Americans than European immigrants, as illustrated by Thomas Nast in an 1879 political cartoon titled, “Every Dog (No Distinction of Color) Has His Day.”182

If anyone associated with the Statue of Liberty’s early history is likely to have championed its significance to European immigrants, it would have been immigrant publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer is widely credited with saving the Statue of Liberty project by raising desperately needed funds for the pedestal through a massive publicity campaign in his New York newspaper, the World beginning in 1885. Pulitzer considered the Statue of Liberty effort among his greatest accomplishments. In addition to boosting sales of his newly acquired newspaper and substantially increasing his own visibility, the statue embodied Pulitzer’s most cherished personal ideals, including democracy, self- determination, and justice.

Joseph Pulitzer was born in Mako, Hungary in 1847. Reliable accounts of his life prior to 1868 are sparse, but it is clear that he came from an affluent Jewish family. His early experiences in the United States left a lasting impression. Pulitzer was well educated prior to joining the Union Army in Hamburg, Germany in 1864 at the age of seventeen.183 Stories about his enlistment in the First New York Lincoln Cavalry indicate

180 Higham, p.74. 181 Saum Sung Bo, “A Chinese View of the Statue of Liberty,” American Missionary, October 1885. Quoted in Rudolf J.Vecoli, “, The Lady and the Huddled Masses,” Making a Universal Symbol: The Statue of Liberty Revisited. Wilton S. Dillon and Neil G. Kotler, eds. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Press, 1994, p. 45. 182 Published by Harper and Brothers. The Statue of Liberty NM has an original. 183 First person accounts indicate that Joseph Pulitzer was evasive about his early life. He frequently denied or lied about his personal history in order to distance himself from his Jewish origins. Pulitzer married Kate Davis, a distant relation of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Despite their Episcopal affiliation, Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 79 that he admired President Abraham Lincoln before coming to the United States. Unpopular in the largely German regiment, he was rescued by Major Richard J. Hinton, one of John Brown’s men, whom he served as a personal aide until near the end of the war.

Returning to New York as a young veteran and immigrant, Pulitzer found few opportunities. Following an unsuccessful attempt to sign on to a whaling ship in New Bedford, MA, he traveled west to St. Louis in October 1865 where he held a number of short-term jobs before entering journalism and politics. Missouri was a border state torn in allegiances to the Union and Confederacy during the war. African Americans comprised about 20% of the population in 1860, increasing their numbers, especially in the thriving city of St. Louis once it ended. Pulitzer worked side-by-side with blacks as a roustabout and stevedore on the river docks and recording charters for Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in rural counties in the Ozarks, where many white settlers refused to believe the Civil War had ended. The drowning death of his African American partner and guide while fording a river during one of his trips for the railroad company made a lasting impression. It was one of the few stories about his earlier life that he told friends and colleagues after becoming a New York power broker.184

From his early years in St. Louis until his death in 1911, Pulitzer was a brilliant entrepreneur with liberal social views and a penchant for politics. His public statements about racial issues evolved over time becoming bolder as his success and power increased/ Pulitzer entered political life as a Republican, but switched parties out of disillusionment with radical Reconstructionism. Campaigning in Missouri in the 1876 presidential election against the Republicans’ record under General Grant, he delivered a mixed message:

When the South was wrong I did not hesitate to enlist against it…The Southern people belong to us, and we belong to them. Their interests are our interests; their rights should be our rights; their wrongs should be our wrongs…. 185

Upon becoming publisher of the Post-Dispatch in 1878, Pulitzer adopted an editorial policy that reflected conservative, middle class biases in a border city dependent on river traffic for its economic well-being. In its first week of publication, the paper stated:

Pulitzer was the target of anti-Semitic attacks in competitors’ newspapers, especially Charles Dana’s. His children also experienced virulent anti-Semitism in their elite prep schools. 184 Pulitzer had at least one other close relationship with a black man. His lifelong association with Eugene Stewart, an African American employee, also began in St. Louis. Stewart relocated with the Pulitzer family to New York in 1883. After 1900, he developed a friendship with Booker T. Washington who Pulitzer’s hosted at his summer home on Mt. Desert Island, ME. 185 Don C. Seitz, Joseph Pulitzer: His Life and Letters. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1924, pp. 88-89. Emphasis added. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 80

The real issue is not whether elections in the South are covered fairly and peaceably, but whether each State, South and North, shall be allowed to decide whether its elections, carried on under its laws and controlled by its officials, are valid…in more than one Southern State elections are habitually decided by intimidation—is it not a lesser evil to endure local terrorism than invite centralized despotism?186

At the same time, Pulitzer recognized that the end of Reconstruction introduced a new era of white supremacy with dire consequences for southern blacks. Regarding post- war African American migration from the Delta states up the Mississippi river to St. Louis and across Missouri into Kansas, he editorialized:

…it certainly points to a bad state of affairs in the home they are leaving and to an unfortunate relation between the planter and the Negroes. The great majority of the planters no doubt treat the Negroes fairly, but there is no getting over the fact that the Negroes are in a state of dependence which is irksome to them, and which has grown odious in proportion as it has grown hopeless. The mere freedom of the slave has not wiped out traces of…slavery…. The instinct which sends the Negro to another land in which he will be his own master, till his own soil, raise his own crop and own his own home, is not only a natural one, but a laudable one… Certainly no one will urge that the Negro be kept in the South for the convenience of anybody. The convenience of the whole nation demands that the Negro shall cease to be a shiftless, dependent inferior, and that whatsoever faculties he may have shall have room for the utmost development.187

Several months later, the editorial page censured the St. Louis police “for wantonly shooting down a Negro on Pine Street” for resisting arrest, although he “had not committed any offense at all.”188 This was an extraordinary stand for a St. Louis newspaper to take in August 1879.

The Post-Dispatch focused on urban news, becoming known for covering social conditions, union meetings and strikes. Its fraternal society column was particularly successful. News stories involving African Americans paralleled its editorial conflicts. For example, it gave generous attention to a downtown parade of black militiamen which was ignored by the other morning dailies, but exploited the suffering of poor blacks in the city’s Clabber Alley neighborhood in stories intended to shock or appeal to the sympathies of white middle class readers.189

186 Post and Dispatch, December 13, 1878. 187 Ibid., April 15, 1879. Also quoted in Julian Rammelkamp, Pultizer’s Post-Dispatch, 1878-1883. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967, pp. 120-121. 188 Ibid., August. 6-7, 1879, also in Rammelkamp, p. 85. 189 See Rammelkamp, pp. 186-187. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 81

It was in New York, as publisher of the World, that Joseph Pulitzer achieved fame and fortune. After purchasing the struggling newspaper in 1883, he competed for circulation against some of the most entrenched and prestigious journals in the country. He was so successful that by the turn of the century the World was the most widely read daily in the Western Hemisphere. From 15,000 copies daily in 1883, the World reached almost 1,500,000 readers daily by 1898.190

The World differed in many respects from the Post-Dispatch. It openly embraced sensationalism and pioneered the use of pictures to illustrate the news. However, its approach to race-related topics continued the policies of Pulitzer’s earlier enterprise. Its core readership was working class and substantially comprised of German and Irish immigrants. Although it claimed that “no distinction of race or creed are…made in presenting the news,” the World’s coverage of stories about African Americans appealed to its principal customers’ prejudices. The newspaper followed journalistic convention by identifying the race of lawbreakers who were not white. Headlines such as ASSAULTED BY A NEGRO (May 23, 1884, p.5), ATTACKED BY A NEGRO (July 25, 1884, p.8), NEGRO FIEND CONFESSES (Sept. 7, 1884, p.3)…HUNTING A NEGRO FIEND (Dec. 6, 1884, p. 2) were common, especially in the early years of Pulitzer’s ownership.191

Notably, Pulitzer’s editorial vitriol was not directed at African Americans, but at other European ethnic groups. For example, in an editorial that appeared on February 15, 1885, Pulitzer wrote “the modern Greek is a treacherous, drunken creature…To call a man a ‘Greek’ is equivalent to branding him a liar and a cheater.” In response to a letter from a reader named Nicolaides objecting to this characterization, he retorted a week later that, “no race in Europe shows such marked degeneracy and such bad traits…For four hundred years Greece was under the heel of the cruel Moslem. Some of the worst national traits may be the result of the long years of depression and degradation to which they were subjected by their haughty conquerors.” In his disdain for more recent immigrants, Pulitzer was typical of his generation. What sets him apart from many of his contemporaries is Pulitzer’s understanding of consequences of racial oppression. These statements, despite their overt prejudice, also recall Pulitzer’s Post-Dispatch pieces on the circumstances of formerly enslaved African Americans.

In 1885-86, Pulitzer was hard at work transforming the World into a journalistic powerhouse by following the strategy he developed as publisher of the St. Louis Post- Dispatch, “You must go for your million circulation, and, when you have got it, turn the minds and votes of your readers one way or the other at critical moments.”192 The World’s fundraising campaign for the American Committee of the Statue of Liberty provided the ideal vehicle for increasing circulation. Its appeal, which emphasized the statue’s status as gift from the common people of France to the common people of the United States who cherished freedom, resonated with both immigrants and African

190 George Jeurgens, Joseph Pulitzer and The New York World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966, p.vii. 191 Ibid., p. 262n. 192 St. Louis Dispatch, April 6, 1997. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 82

Americans. While the World made no direct mention of African Americans’ struggle for liberty, neither did it link the statue’s meaning with European immigrants’ aspirations. A man of strong opinions and passionate crusades, Pulitzer surely knew of, and at least partially shared the other American Committee members’ politics and chose this project in large part because of these views.

On the day of the statue’s dedication, the World published Charles C. Leigh’s welcome address to French delegation at a reception held by the Society of Old Brooklynites:

Gentlemen: The Society of Old Brooklynites, number 180, all of whom have resided in the city of Brooklyn a half a century, join with our fellow-citizens in thanking you for the attachment you have shown to liberty and free institutions in crossing the seas to unite with our people in unveiling the Statue of Liberty with a flaming torch, the handiwork of the gifted Bartholdi, whose presence we do most heartily welcome, as well as each and every one of the public, patriotic members of the municipality and republic of France. …Though Lafayette lies entombed with his forefathers, his noble sprit still survived in the sons of France. When our late rebellion broke out in war and the Republic was in great danger and the Powers in the Old World were taking council together against us in favor of giving aid to rebel hosts, Napoleon II, had taken Mexico by his tool Maximillian and was looking forward to seize up Louisiana and the mouth of the great Mississippi. At this time the mantle of Lafayette rested upon the shoulders of the accomplished scholar and patriotic Laboulaye, who drew large crowds every day in the city of Paris to listen to his array of facts and arguments in favor of the cause of liberty, showing that the struggle would end in the downfall of slavery and the great Republic would come out of the conflict stronger than ever. The press took up his speeches and they were scattered broadcast across France. Napoleon, under the power of Laboulaye’s pen, hesitated, then feared and failed in his purpose. Again, when 4,000,000 slaves were emancipated and suddenly acquired all the rights and privileges of American citizens, his keen intellect saw that they required material aid in ascending the difficult road from slavery to liberty, and he was among the first to come to their assistance. He presided at a large meeting in La Salle Herz Mall, in Paris, November 3, 1865, and in there in words and thoughts inspired, he pleaded the cause of the poor ex-slaves….193

The World continued to champion Liberty’s cause in its news and editorial pages for years after its dedication in October 1886. Like Bartholdi, Pulitzer wished to see

193 The World, October 28, 1886. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 83

Liberty (Bedloe’s) Island developed and opened to the public as a commemorative park.194

In early 1890, Pulitzer’s pen was largely responsible for the relocation of a proposed federal immigration station from Bedloe’s to Ellis Island.195 Following Secretary of Treasury Windham’s announcement that the successor to Castle Garden would be built adjacent to the Statue of Liberty, the World immediately mounted a campaign against what it called “An Order to Desecrate” arguing “what was to have been made into a beautiful park as a fit setting for a beautiful state,” “is now to be converted instead into a Babel.”196

Over time, Pulitzer became more outspoken about racial injustice. In 1901, at the height of his influence, The World was the only major newspaper to castigate racist public opinion in the controversy that erupted when President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to lunch at the White House. Invoking Lady Liberty directly, Pulitzer caustically editorialized:

An American named Washington, one of the most learned, most eloquent, most brilliant men of the day—the President of a college—is asked to dinner by President Roosevelt and because the pigment of his skin is some shades darker than that of others a large part of the United States is convulsed with shame and rage. The man is a Negro. Therefore in eating with him the President is charged with having insulted the South. This man may cast a ballot but he may not break bread. He may represent us in the Senate Chamber, but he may not “join us at the breakfast-table.” He may educate us, but he may not eat with us; preach our gospel, but not be our guest…die for us, but not dine with us. Truly Liberty must smile at such broad-minded logic, such enlightened tolerance. Or should she weep?197

194 Interview with the Paris correspondent for the World, Bartholdi stated: I always hoped that Americans would see the splendid use that is to be made of that island as I see it…the American race has a poetry of its own, which few, the Americans least of all, see—poetry in the cohesion of one mighty mass of elements so widely diverse, poetry in the work they have achieved in the creation of a nation—a work unparalleled in the history of the world…Liberty island is obviously destined to be made into a pleasure ground for the soul of the American people, a place of pilgrimage for citizens of the whole nation, a National museum for the glories and memories of the United States…. March 20, 1890, p.1. 195 Walter Hugins, Statue of Liberty National Monument: Its Origin, Development, and Administration. New York: National Park Service, 1958. 196 See The World March 1, 1890, pp. 4, 12; March 7, 1890, p.5); also March 2-5, 8, 11-14, 22, 25, 27. Other New York newspapers were silent except the Daily Tribune (March 17, 1990, p. 6) which supported Windham. 197 The World, October 20, 1901, see also W. A. Swanberg, Pulitzer. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1967. p. 283. Emphasis added. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 84

Angered at President Taft’s announcement in 1909 that no African Americans would be appointed to federal positions in the South against the wishes of whites, Pulitzer ordered an editorial, calling the President’s position “a nullification of the XV amendment” adding “we cannot agree in drawing such a skin color or race line.” His acerbic response to the editor’s piece stated: “ ‘Dropping the Negro’ is wonderfully timid. I really admire the amazing moderation and toning down to uttermost minimum of my convictions -- life-long convictions, if you please.”198

How was the Statue of Liberty transformed into a symbol of welcome to immigrants? The potential for the statue to become an immigrant icon can be traced to several sources. A view of the United States as a nation of immigrants and refuge from European oppression is deeply rooted American culture. Jefferson, Emerson, and Lowell, among others, voiced its continuing appeal.199 Following the display of the Statue of Liberty’s raised arm at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, an American magazine represented Auguste Bartholdi as a product of three countries - Italy, Germany, and France - commenting:

He is therefore more peculiarly fitted by descent to be the builder of a statue for America than if he were of less mixed parentage; for what are Americans but the result of a fusing together of the diverse nationalities of Europe?200

The immigrants themselves were another critical factor. In the years after the statue was erected, the vast majority of immigrants entered the United States through New York Harbor. Not knowing the Statue of Liberty’s history, millions viewed its raised arm and stance facing Europe as a symbol of welcome to people like themselves. This association was not lost on the American press. Within a year of its dedication, Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, a leading news magazine published a large drawing of immigrants gazing joyfully at the statue from the steerage deck of an incoming ship.201 Three years later, Edward A. Steiner, an immigrant writer who was unfamiliar with Emma Lazarus’ poem, predicted that a great poet would someday put into words the inspiring emotions that millions of immigrants felt on encountering “This new divinity into whose keeping they now entrust themselves.”202

Pulitzer took more than a passing interest in Washington’s work, hosting him at Chatwold, his summer home in Bar Harbor, ME; sending him a Christmas gift in 1905; and paying the expenses of several students at Tuskegee Institute. 198 Swanberg, op. cit., p. 376. Emphasis added. 199 Higham, op. cit. , p. 74. 200 “France to America,” Scribner’s Monthly XIV(2), June 1877, p. 136. Bartholdi, who fought against the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War only to see his native Alsace occupied by the enemy, would not have liked this characterization. 201 Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, LXIV (1887), pp. 324-25. 202 Ibid, p. 75. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 85

The idea of the seeing Statue of Liberty upon arrival in the United States held at least as strong an allure as the actual experience. The best documented example is in the 1931 autobiography of the anarchist Emma Goldman, Living My Life:

…enraptured by the sight of harbor and the Statue of Liberty, suddenly emerging from the mist…

…Ah, there she was, the symbol of hope, of freedom, of opportunity! She held her torch high to light the way to the free country, the asylum of the oppressed of the lands….Our spirits were high, our eyes filled with tears.203

Goldman, who arrived in New York on December 29, 1885, could not have seen the Statue of Liberty as her ship entered New York Harbor. Six months later, in July 1886, Gustave Eiffel’s skeleton was just completed.

In the years following its dedication, immigrants were not the only ones appropriating the Statue of Liberty’s meaning. While they interpreted the statue as a symbol of welcome, nativists and white supremacists were doing just the opposite. For example, Thomas Bailey Aldrich published Unguarded Gates and Other Poems in 1895. A well-known writer and Boston socialite, Aldrich served as editor of Atlantic Monthly during the 1880s. In a letter to a friend, he described “Unguarded Gates” as a “misanthropic poem…in which I mildly protest against America becoming the cesspool of Europe…” adding, “These brutes are the spawn and natural result of the French Revolution…My Americanism goes clean beyond yours I believe in America for Americans.”204 In part, the poem reads:

O Liberty, white Goddess! Is it well To leave the gates unguarded? On thy breast Fold sorrow’s children, soothe the hurts of fate Lift the down-trodden, but with hand of steel Stay those who to thy sacred portals come….205

These sentiments were still alive and well in 1924 when Ralph Barton Perry wrote in Century Magazine:

It should not stand upon the Atlantic seaboard, looking meaningfully at Europe and inviting attention to our national perfection. It should not be compelled to enlighten the world. It should be removed to the interior, there to stir the aspiration of Americans. It should preside

203 Quoted in Werner Sollors, “National Identity and Ethnic Diversity: “Of Plymouth Rock and Jamestown and Ellis Island”; or; Ethnic literature and Some Redefinitions of “America.” In Genevieve Fabre and Robert O’Meally, History and Memory in African American Culture, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 99-100. 204 Ferris Greenslet, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Boston: Houghtom-Mifflin, 1908, p. 168. 205 Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Unguarded Gates and Other Poems, New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1895, p. 16. One of Aldrich’s best-known quotes is “A man is known by the company his mind keeps.” Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 86

over our domestic life and not over our foreign relations. Thus placed, it would symbolize not liberty attained before an envious and admiring world, but that liberty which is our goal.…206

The Light-House Board and the War Department administered the statue successively prior to its transfer to the National Park Service in 1933, but made no attempt to interpret it to the public. In 1903, Georgina Schuyler, a New York aristocrat, privately arranged to have a bronze plaque with “The New Colossus” hung on an interior wall on the second story of the statue’s pedestal as a memorial to her late friend. There was no formal ceremony or press coverage. The first official recognition of the meaning of the Statue of Liberty to immigrants began during World War I when the Treasury Department used the statue’s image as the centerpiece of its “Liberty Bonds” campaign to support the American alliance with France. By then, more than a third of the U. S. population consisted of immigrants and their children. Promotional efforts emphasized the newcomers’ debt of gratitude and loyalty and included posters addressed to specific immigrant groups in their native languages. African Americans were also targeted. Immigration historian Rudolf J. Vecoli notes:

World War I fostered the “One Hundred Per Cent Americanization” crusade, which increased pressures upon the foreign-born to assimilate and become citizens. It also triggered an ugly nativism, which expressed itself in public and vigilante actions against “hyphenates,” especially German Americans and radicals.207

Ironically, it was the termination of mass immigration and the assimilation of the immigrants’ children that made the ascendancy of the statue’s meaning as a symbol of refuge for Europe’s oppressed in the United States possible. Mass immigration ceased with passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, the same year that the Statue of Liberty was declared a national monument by President Calvin Coolidge. As part of their Americanization mission, schools and textbooks increased their use of the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of the immigrants’ love for America. By the 1930’s, the country needed to renew its old self-image as a bastion against persecution in order to prepare for the war against Hitler. In 1934, Louis Adamic, a journalist of Slavic descent, launched a crusade to raise immigrants’ status by recognizing their contributions to the country and American identity. By 1938, he was quoting Emma Lazarus’ sonnet in nearly everything he wrote and said.208

The popularization of Lazarus’ “The New Colossus” and the immigrant-inspired symbolism, generally, in magazines, reference books, and children’s stories fueled public recognition of the Statue of Liberty as a national icon and increased visitation

206 Ralph Barton Perry, “Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty,” Century Magazine, 107 (February 1924), pp. 608-614. 207 Vecoli, op. cit., pp. 53-54. 208 Ibid., pp. 76-78. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 87 dramatically. In 1941, the New York Times called it “our No. 1 symbol.”209 In 1945, Georgina Schuyler’s memorial plaque was moved to the pedestal’s main entrance.

Through the convergence of culture, demographics and politics, by mid-century, the story of the Statue of Liberty’s roots in the abolition of slavery and development during the national upheaval that followed was eclipsed by a celebratory immigration and Americanization story. The original never disappeared completely, as evidenced by the continued retelling of the myth of origin, the dinner party at the home of anti-slavery activist Edouard Laboulaye in 1865.210

209 “Our No. 1 Symbol,” New York Times Magazine, June 22, 1941, p. 13, quoted in Higham, p. 79. 210 See, for example, Benjamin Levine and Isabel F. Story, Statue of Liberty National Monument, Washington, D.C.: National Park Service: 1954, pp. 2-3; “Saga of a Lady of Liberty,” New York Times Magazine, July 5, 1959, p. 12; Barbara Blumberg, An Administrative History of the Statue of Liberty National Monument 1952-1982, Boston: National Park Service, 1985, p. 2. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 88

AMERICAN RACE RELATIONS: AN ENDURING THEME

After the 1886 unveiling, American race relations constitute an enduring theme in the history of the Statue of Liberty. While a full exploration of this theme is well beyond the scope of this study, a few examples suggest the possible outlines of a more in-depth treatment.

In her 1897 “Ode to the Chicago Exposition,” African American poet Mary Weston Fordham optimistically wrote:

Columbia, all hail! May thy banner ne’er be furled Till Liberty, with her beauteous rays, Enlighten all the world. Columbia, to thee From every clime we come, To lay our trophies at thy feet— Our subright, glorious home.211

The imposition of disenfranchisement, harsher segregation laws and the rise of racial violence against Africans Americans near the turn of the twentieth century were more frequently reflected in uses of the Statue of Liberty image far removed from Fordham’s triumphal vision. For example, in 1892, the New York Gazette published a full-page drawing by Thomas Nast in support of Republican efforts in Congress to ensure free elections in the South. It depicts a black Statue of Liberty holding tablets inscribed “Force Bill.”212

Since the mid-19th century, African American writers have challenged dominant interpretations of American symbols by confronting them with the nation’s history of slavery and segregation. Along with Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, the Statue of Liberty was a particular target in the counternarratives of twentieth century statesmen, novelists and poets, including W. E. B. DuBois, Melvin B. Tolson, and Richard Wright.213

Possibly the most infamous use of the statue’s image occurred in Springfield, Missouri in 1906 not long after the publication of Thomas Dixon’s The Clansmen, one of the novels on which D. W. Griffith based his three-hour film Birth of a Nation. Notably, unfounded rumors alleging the rape of a white woman fueled the anti-black violence that followed. A white mob raided the local jail where two young black men were being held. As police and city officials looked on, leaders of the mob took the men out of the jail to the light tower. A large replica of the Statue of Liberty was perched above the tower. By the time the men were hung and burned, one may have already been murdered. Later,

211 Mary Weston Fordham, Magnolia Leaves, Charlotte (SC): Walker, Evans & Cogswell, 1897, p. 31. 212 The New York Gazette, August 13, 1892. 213 See Sollors, op. cit, pp. 111-115. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 89 another African American man who was unable to escape from his cell was met with the same fate. The following day was Easter. In the morning, more white residents came to the site. Some took pictures to sell as souvenirs. Although several men were brought to trial, none were convicted. Africans Americans fled Springfield by the hundreds.214

On April 17, 1906, the Pulitzer family’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a cartoon commenting on the Springfield lynchings. It shows the Statue of Liberty as a ghoul with the three victims hanging from the torch bearing arm which is out-stretched. The caption read, “O Liberty, What Crimes are Committed in Your Name!” A 1946 cartoon by Walt Partymiller depicts the Statue of Liberty with a black eye inscribed, “Lynch Law.”215

The Statue of Liberty’s fiftieth anniversary in 1936 prompted commemorative celebrations, including national and international contests. The Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars received more than 100,000 essays on the subject “What the Statue of Liberty Means to the American People” from high school students hoping to win a trip to the re-dedication ceremonies and a guided tour of France. The National Life Conservation Society sponsored a poetry contest open to “anyone, regardless of age, race, or sex.” A panel of nationally recognized writers judged the more than 1000 entries and awarded three cash prizes. The winning poems, along with one selection from each of the 48 states, were published as Golden Jubilee Poems of the Statue of Liberty. Several alluded to or directly raised issues of racial injustice, such as the entry from West Virginia which read, in part:

Turn home the torch, bright goddess, in whose name A nation came to being. Are no weak Downtrodden in its cities? Is your flame Undimmed by racial injustice? Do none seek Redress from wrong by making greater wrong, Or lift themselves by crushing others out? Raise high the torch, and teach all men the worth Of freedom under law, till none may doubt; And may your light gleam on, forever strong, Eternal as the power that gave it birth!216

In the Foreward [sic] to Golden Jubilee Poems of the Statue of Liberty, National Park Service Director Arno B. Cammerer wrote:

All the world recognizes the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty enlightening the world. Perhaps it is the best beloved as well as the most familiar statue on earth. It has become the universal symbol of freedom and opportunity…

214 Katherine Lederer, “And Then They Sang a Sabbath Song,” Springfield!, April & June 1918. 215 Dani Aguila, Taking Liberty with the Lady, Nashville: Eagle Nest, 1986, p. 56. 216 Pauline Shortridge, “The Statue of Liberty: It Significance After Fifty Years, ” Golden Jubilee Poems of the Statue of Liberty, Anita Browne, ed., New York: The Poet’s Press, 1936, p. 53. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 90

[These poems] have recaptured the ardor and faith that animated the alien hosts guided to these shores from afar by that holy light. Sons of such immigrants are we all, save those in whose veins flows the blood of our aboriginal Indians.217

Cammerer’s characterization of the Statue of Liberty not only normalizes its meaning as a monument for descendants of mostly European immigrants, but places American Indians as a race apart from “the universal symbol of freedom and opportunity.” African Americans have been removed from the American family altogether. In the coming decades, including African Americans in the Statue of Liberty narrative by casting them as “reluctant immigrants” would prove an impossible challenge.

The American Museum of Immigration

The American Museum of Immigration was first proposed in 1951 by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. Intended for Castle Clinton, it would “renew our faith and strengthen America’s role in the worldwide struggle for men’s minds and aspirations.”218 The “worldwide struggle” was the fight against communism. The National Park Service supported the proposal, but preferred to place the museum at the Statue of Liberty for symbolic and architectural reasons. This plan was endorsed by President Eisenhower in 1954. The American Museum of Immigration (AMI) incorporated in 1955 with retired Major General Ulysses S. Grant, III as its chair.

Thomas Pitkin’s 1955 draft prospectus for the American Museum of Immigration treats African American history in a section on colonial America. Subtitled, “Negroes,” Africans are treated as one of several immigrant ethnic groups, including Irish Catholics, Germans, and Jews. The discussion focuses on slavery in the plantation system with references to indentured servitude and loss of cultural heritage.

Despite political support and good press, the American Museum of Immigration had difficulty raising funds to realize the project. It held numerous fund raisers including two National Unity Days in 1955 and 1956. Around the same time, the Baltimore Sun published a political cartoon by Richard Yardley titles “States’ Rights?” It showed an angry Statue of Liberty looking over a burning cutout of the state of Mississippi. In the flames was written, “Violence to Fellow Citizens of the U.S.A.”219

At the second National Unity Day, contralto Louise Parker, a two time winner of the Marian Anderson award sang the national anthem and “America the Beautiful.” The National Urban League participated in the event along with representatives of 36 ethnic fraternal organizations. A press release issued that day by museum begins:

217 Ibid. 218 Barbara Blumberg, An Administrative History of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, 1952-1982, Boston: National Park Service, 1985, p. 28. This volume contains a detailed history of the American Immigration Museum’s development. 219 Aguila, op. cit., p. 57. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 91

With a fateful contest underway between liberty and slavery, the American ideals of “freedom and promise, justice and compassion” are more binding and important than ever before, Brigadier General David Sarnoff, honorary chairman of the American Museum of Immigration’s New York Committee stated in an address today…at the statue of Liberty… “It is the unique glory of our country that it neither demands nor imposes an artificial uniformity. Our strength lies in our unity which is quite a different concept…Enemies who counted on divisive influences because of our history of mass immigration have always been disappointed.”220

Sarnoff’s words project an image of the Statue of Liberty as an anti-communist icon protected by the descendants of immigrants for the good of the world. Thirty years later, President Ronald Reagan rallied support for his political agenda by reinvigorating the very same image. In both instances, African Americans’ experiences and reactions proved problematic.

Two series of events that occurred in 1965 brought the significance of the Statue of Liberty for African Americans into national view for the first time perhaps since its unveiling in 1886. They show that African Americans actively engaged with the Statue of Liberty in different ways, but also how blacks’ issues were recast by whites to fit their understandings of the statue’s symbolism.

On February 16, 1965, four people were arrested for planning to blow up the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument. Two of the men, Walter Bowe and Khaleel Sayyed, were members of a small radical group known as the Black Liberation Front. Michelle DuClos, a French Canadian woman, was connected with the Quebec separatist movement. The group’s leader, Robert Steele Collier, had been questioned by the FBI the previous summer after returning from a trip to Cuba He told them he would be willing to talk when the United States redressed “150 years of bondage for the Negro race.”221

The group planned to break into the statue’s torch-bearing arm and plant enough dynamite to render “the damned old bitch” headless and torchless.222 The plot was foiled by a black undercover New York City police officer, Raymond Wood, who was immediately promoted to second-grade lieutenant. At trial several months later, Collier, Bowe, and Sayyed were sentenced to prison terms of ten years each, later reduced to five. Duclos was deported following suspension of her five year sentence.

220 American Museum of Immigration press release, June 28, 1956. 221 “Search for Others in Plot on Monuments Pressed,” New York Times, February 18, 1965. Sayyed’s father, whose grandparents were Libyan immigrants, identified the family as Arab. 222 Blumberg, op. cit. p. 13. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 92

The conspirators’ activities were framed for the general public in relation to the popular understanding of the Statue of Liberty as an anti-communist symbol through rumors started by the police and reported as fact by the mainstream press. For example, in a press conference following their arrest New York City Police Commissioner Michael Murphy stated, “These men are pro-Castro…and pro-Chinese Communists.” The New York Times and others reported Collier’s trip to Cuba and Bowe’s identification by the police as a “supporter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee,” an organization that had been defunct since 1963.223 In a 1998 interview, Bowe reiterated that the group’s purpose was to draw attention to the continuing oppression of African Americans. He was inspired, he said, by a visit to the Statue of Liberty NM.224

By the summer of 1965, planning for an immigration museum at the Statue of Liberty had been underway for a decade. George Svejda, a relatively new National Park Service historian, was in charge of developing the permanent exhibit. On July 14th, he responded to a question conveyed by the AMI’s West Indian administrative assistant, Viola S. Thomas, from the Caribbean League of America. The organization was sufficiently upset by the response to complain to Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. Svejda’s letter stated:

…We will not have anything on the West Indian immigration except individual examples, as in the case of Alexander Hamilton. Most of the West Indians are not actually immigrants at all, since most of them are Puerto Ricans and as you know the Puerto Ricans came here after they became citizens… As far as the Negro immigration is concerned, it will be presented in an exhibit called “The Uprooted” which will show these involuntary immigrants from Africa. This story will be shown by a scale model of a slave ship with some slave specimens as for example a slave shackle, leg irons, neck irons, a whip, and a lock, through which we plan to show the unbearable conditions which these people suffered. In addition we will show examples of early Negro craftsmanship, as for example musical instruments, craft items, etc. Most of these items are very difficult to get, although they are in existence in various Southern museums. The difficulty is that these museums do not want to dispose of any of these items…225

Powell responded with a letter to Interior Secretary Stewart Udall demanding Svejda’s resignation for advancing “pre-Civil War views” making “Uncle Tom’s Cabin sound like a 20th Century novel.” He also objected to the absence of the “fantastic cultural contributions of Negroes in this country.” Svejda’s continued employment, he

223 New York Times, February 18, 1965. This was the first of several attempts by radical groups in the 1960s and ‘70s to bomb the Statue of Liberty. The only successful bombing, which occurred in June 1980, was carried out by Croatians. Ironically, the first widely covered act of civil disobedience at the Statue of Liberty occurred in August 1957 when Cuban supporters of Fidel Castro hung a rebel flag from the statue’s crown. 224 Untitled video documentary by Carolyn Kinebrew, 1998. 225 Letter from George J. Svejda to Viola S. Thomas, July 14, 1965. NPS file copy. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 93 warned, would be “an unfortunate insult by the Federal Government to America’s 20 million Negroes.”226 The story, which made national headlines, was followed by an “altercation” at the Statue of Liberty NM between Svejda and Powell “over the proposed diorama depicting the arrival of slaves from Africa and their contributions.”227 In November 1965, Svejda left the National Park Service.

The diorama that Powell objected to shows the cross-section of the hold of a slave ship. Ten muscular African men are shown nearly nude, lying with their backs to the viewer shackled and chained to the ship’s fixtures. An undated publicity photograph issued by the Park Service states that it is “[part] of a larger display in the American Museum of Immigration depicting the plight of African slaves during their enforced migration to the United States.” 228

Two and a half years later, in June 1968, the AMI Historians Committee met to review the latest revision to the exhibit plan, now under contract with a professional design firm. The plan now included “cultural contributions” by members of various groups. African Americans were represented by Ralph Bunche, Leontyne Price, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Louis Armstrong. An unnamed member of the committee, probably Howard University professor Elsie M. Lewis, suggested that “research should be done regarding the contributions Negroes made in the period of slavery, not only in the development of cotton, but also in the culture, like Harriet Chapman and Ira Aldrich.”229 The design firm’s representative indicated that the exhibit design was flexible enough to accommodate changes. Later in the meeting, another committee member, Alfred Horowitz, raised the issues of lack of representation of immigration and contributions by free blacks before the Civil War and African Americans’ cultural contributions throughout U. S. history again.

Sometime thereafter, Lewis submitted a research report to the Committee that began, “The projected presentation of the Negro American is inadequate.” Her second point was, “The Negroes from West Africa were not savages.”230 The two-part study included information intended to fill the major gaps in the exhibit plan and recommendations of artifacts and text to improve the exhibit design.

On March 27, 1969, Horowitz submitted a report to the National Park Service on behalf of the committee that stated, “The exhibit plan for the American Museum of immigration…cannot be approved without revision.” It was most critical of the section

226 “Fire Park Aide, Powell Demands,” The Washington Post, September 26, 1965, p. A8. Manhattan Borough President Constance Baker Motley met with New York City Group Superintendent Townsley about the controversy in October. 227 “Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Trustees,” American Museum of Immigration, November 9, 1965, p. 4. 228 The caption also states that the museum is located in the base of the Statue of Liberty, suggesting that the photograph was issued after it opened in 1972. 229 “Minutes of the Historians Committee of the American Museum of Immigration,” June 21, 1968, p. 5. Lewis was recommended by John Hope Franklin who declined an NPS request to review the exhibit plan. 230 Elsie M. Lewis, Part I; Memorandum with Comment and Presentation for Negro American, American Museum of Immigration, n.d. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 94 on African Americans and again called on the NPS contractor to address the neglect of their historical contributions.231

In 1972, seventeen years after its prospectus was completed, the American Museum of Immigration finally opened in the base of Statue of Liberty. Shortly thereafter, the National Park Service invited a group of well-known museum professionals to tour and comment on its exhibits.232 Charles Guggenheim expressed disappointment in the sections that treated “the Blacks, the Japanese, and the Jews” because “the work done on these groups is not well conceived and executed.” The National Gallery of Art’s David Scott described “the African interlude” as “confusing in that the sequence Colonies-Revolution (which establishes the historic axis) does not become clear till [sic] the African story reaches the XXth [century].”233

Paul Perrot, Assistant Secretary for Museum Programs at the Smithsonian Institution also critiqued “The Reluctant Immigrant:”

…The date of arrival of the first slave is not mentioned. A few chains and other repressive instruments are shown, but I did not detect any feeling for the drama of this forced migration, an estimate of the number who died in the trade, nor any evaluation of contemporary opinion on this traffic. Without any transition, one passes from slavery to the Civil War, to Fort Wagner, and on to World War I. The lapse of time has become encapsulated into a design conceit. The same applies to the adjoining passageway, where back-lit photographs and labels describing various historical personalities are shown in a clever montage, which, however, becomes a design gimmick when one finds that they also cover the ceiling. 234

While none of the reviewers praised “The Reluctant Immigrant,” no one questioned the appropriateness of representing African Americans as a group as immigrants, either. In retrospect, the idea of transforming slavery into pseudo-voluntary immigration to show African Americans’ contributions to the United States seems strange at best.

Images of the Statue in African American Art

231 Blumberg, op. cit, p. 66. 232 Letter from Charles Guggenheim to Jerry D. Wagers, January 3, 1973. 233 David W. Scott, “Comments on Exhibits,” December 18, 1972, p. 1. 234 Paul N. Perrot, Report on visit to the Statue of Liberty National Monument-American Museum of Immigration, December 14, 1972, pp. 3, 7. With regard to the AMI exhibits overall, he stated: “One cannot escape the feeling that a cohesive historical focus was lacking in the planning; that when compromise was called for, it was the script that gave; and that the designers were more conscious of texture…and of visual appeal than the philosophical, political, economic, and spiritual impact of the extraordinary story they were presenting.” Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 95

Aaron Douglas’ Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers, painted in oil on a 9’ x 9’ canvas in 1934 may be the first use of the Statue of Liberty in a work by a major African American artist. Commissioned for the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library, its subject, as explained by the artist, links the statue, depicted in the far distance, to contemporary issues:

A great migration, away from the clutching hand of serfdom in the South to the urban industrialized life in America, began during the First World War. And with it there was born the creative self- expression which quickly grew into the New Negro Movement in the 1920s. At its peak, the Depression brought confusion, dejection, and frustration.235

From the 1960s to the present, the uses of the Statue of Liberty in art with African American themes provide additional evidence of the continuing salience of race in the statue’s interpretation in the United States and abroad. Folon’s 1966 india ink drawing, Prison, depicts the Statue of Liberty’s crown, eyes, and mouth as barred cells holding agitated African Americans. Jean Lagarigues’ Angela Davis (1972) is an acrylic and oil painting of the activist as the Statue of Liberty. More recent interpretations of the Statue of Liberty as a black woman include Fisk University professor LiFran E. Fort’s The Other Freedom (1985) and Ronald Blodgett’s Juneteenth (1997). Faith Ringgold’s story quilt, We Came to America (1997), shows a black Statue of Liberty cradling a small child in her left arm. In the water behind her are dozens of joyous African women and men stretching to the horizon where a slave ship appears to be sinking. Other works that show African Americans in proximity to the Statue of Liberty include Loren J. Munk’s Ms. Liberty (1986) and an untitled piece by Paul Weathers.

Political cartoon art shows the breadth of the association outside the United States. A 1960s drawing by German artist Rainer Hachfeld shows an African American of indeterminate gender as the Statue of Liberty with a raised fist and machine gun. In a 1968 piece by Canadian Peter Kuch, the Statue of Liberty cradles the lifeless body of Martin Luther King, Jr. Cartoons from Mexico, Cuba, and the Philippines use the Statue of Liberty to convey explicitly anti-Ku Klux Klan messages. Drawings published by American newspapers include John Fischetti’s distressed Liberty wearing a crown of thorns labeled “Chicago’s White Racists” (1964); Jack McLeod’s (1975) image of the Statue of Liberty gaping at the new headline on her tablets, “Tax Break for Racist Private Schools,” and Clifford “Baldy” Baldowski’s “On the Other Hand We Shouldn’t All Get Carried Away With It!” (1980). A 1980 drawing by Draper Hill honors Rosa Parks by showing a seated Statue of Liberty with the date December 5, 1955 engraved on her tablets.236

235 From printed handouts written by Aaron Douglas, quoted in Richard J. Powell, “Art History and Black Memory: Toward a Blues Aesthetic.” In Fabre and O’Meally, op. cit., 238. Originals in the Manuscript Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library. Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers, Arts and Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center. 236 These examples and others appear in Aguila, op. cit. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 96

As part of this study, we interviewed three African American artists who have used a Statue of Liberty image in their work and one who created a sculpture that has been called the Black Statue of Liberty by others. None had heard the Black Statue of Liberty rumors before creating their poem, print, story, or sculpture, though the continuity of themes is unmistakable. Jessica Care Moore wrote one of her best-known poems, “Black Statue of Liberty,” in 1993:

Originally, I think I was in Detroit, I was at my girl’s house and I remember wanting to write a poem that stood for liberty and for freedom and so I said what is like the ultimate, you know, monument that represents that. I just started thinking and I couldn’t think of anything. I said, well, I guess the Statue of Liberty is supposed to be that and I started thinking about the Statue of Liberty and I said, okay, she’s green and she looks like a man. She looks like a green man with a little crown on her head. So I guess I was having issues identifying with her in general and I didn’t do a lot of history. It wasn’t until I started thinking about where she should have been. I think black women, in general, we represent the greatest oppression of this country. This country was built on our backs and our people helped build [it]. We’re the most American Americans.237

John Edgar Wideman, commenting on his 1987 short story “Statue of Liberty”:

…For me the story is about appearance versus reality and how hard it is to get through appearance to what people actually see. And more specifically, it’s about how difficult it is for black and white people to see one another. For men to see women, women to see men. We all bring stereotypes and myths and self-interested views of what we see. So for me, the Statue of Liberty is a kind of archetypal symbol that everybody sees in their own way. Everybody brings a lot of baggage to it …some people use it to glorify democracy and some people see it as very ironic symbol… The irony is that for many people the Statue of Liberty represents a chance for a new start - for freedom, but in fact for lots of folks this country has been hell. The aspirations, their dreams have floundered on racism, or sexism or prejudice against foreigners. So we have the American dream on one hand and the American reality on the other…the Statue of Liberty is somewhere in the middle pointing towards both. So it’s ironic that the symbol for freedom and the symbol for liberty can also be the symbol of oppression.238

237 Audiotaped interview with Carolyn Kinebrew, 1999. Moore, who has performed “Black Statue of Liberty” in many venues including “Showtime at the Apollo,” first heard the rumor from an audience member after a performance in Detroit. 238 Interview with Carolyn Kinebrew, 1999. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 97

The tension between the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of freedom and a symbol of oppression runs throughout its history. Since this report covers people, places, and events over a period of more than 150 years, we developed a timeline tracing the statue’s history through the evolution of American race relations.

American Race Relations Chronology for the Statue of Liberty

1792 Samuel Jennings creates the first abolitionist painting in United States, the goddess Liberty with broken chains at her feet presenting the arts and sciences to enslaved blacks.

1840 American Anti-Slavery Society Emblem includes a helmeted Liberty with broken whips, chains, and shackles beneath her feet.

1847-50s Hiram Powers’ The Greek Slave (1847) is the best known sculpture in the U.S.; six replicas made due to demand from collectors.

1848-56 Power’s America (Liberty) statue for the Capitol dome rejected for use of abolitionist symbolism. Thomas Crawford (1855) is commissioned to do the job (original design later revised at the insistence of Jefferson Davis). The New York Daily Times writes (1856): “…chains are never used by artists but as a symbol of slavery…[America’s broken chain] can not apply to the slavery of our Slave States for the simple reason that this slavery has never been abolished…the colonists were never slaves to anybody.”

1855-56 Frederic Auguste Bartholdi travels in Egypt, Yemen, and Abyssinia. His drawings and photographs include “Jeune negre - Cote d’Afrique” (1856).

1862 Edouard de Laboulaye publishes Les Etats-Unis et La France, described by Charles Sumner as a “masterpiece” on the causes of the Civil War.

1863 President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. A. A. Lamb’s oil on canvas, Emancipation Proclamation.

1864 Bartholdi’s Bruat Fountain including his Africa allegory is completed. Joseph Pulitzer joins the Union Army and serves as personal aide to Major Richard J. Hinton.

1865 LINCOLN ASSASSINATED. RATIFICATION OF THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT. Laboulaye becomes president of the Comité Francais d’Emancipation.

1866 Congress passes the Fourteenth Amendment. Victor Hugo, representing Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 98

French citizens, forwards a gold medal to President Lincoln’s widow.

1869 Bartholdi’s 2nd trip to Egypt results in the Khedive’s rejection of his Suez Canal project, Egypt Giving Light to the Orient.

1870 Fifteenth Amendment ratified.

1871-75 Laboulaye raises funds for a memorial medal presented to John Brown’s widow. Bartholdi’s first trip to the United States (1871). Evolution of the design for “Liberty Enlightening the World” (Statue of Liberty). L’Illustration writes (1875): “The statue is depicted trampling under foot the broken shackles of slavery.”

1876 Bartholdi serves on the jury of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The Statue of Liberty’s arm and torch draw crowds, as does Pezzicar’s The Freed Slave.

1877 End of Reconstruction. Federal troops withdraw from the South. General Grant visits Bartholdi’s construction site in Paris.

1879 Bartholdi’s Funerailless d’un banian a Aden (c. 1856) auctioned by the Franco-American Committee to raise funds for the Statue of Liberty.

1883 Deaths of Edouard de Laboulaye and Henri Martin.

1884 Currier and Ives issues Thomas Worth’s Barsqualdi’s Statue Liberty Frightening the World. Bedbug’s Island, N.Y. Harbor depicting the Statue of Liberty as a caricature from his ‘Darktown’ series. Victor Hugo visits the construction site in Paris.

1885 Joseph Pulitzer launches fundraising campaign in the New York World. American Committee places fundraising ads in African American newspapers, such as the Cleveland Gazette.

Sept. 1886 Union League Club of NY honors the 20th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops which it sponsored in 1863-64.

Oct. 28, 1886 The Statue of Liberty is unveiled with national coverage in the black press. African American veterans participate in Bartholdi Day parade. Chauncey Depew begins his speech: “The spirit of liberty embraces all races in common brotherhood….” African Americans hold their own celebrations.

Nov. 1886 Cleveland Gazette editorializes: “…the torch of the Bartholdi statue should not be lighted until this country becomes a free one in reality.” Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 99

1888 Crispus Attucks monument depicting Liberty holding broken chains dedicated in Boston, MA.

1890 “C’est idiot…” Bartholdi again denies the rumored design link between the Suez Canal project and the Statue of Liberty.

1892 Political cartoon by Thomas Nast is published in the New York Gazette showing a black Statue of Liberty holding a tablet inscribed, “Home Rule,” a reference to Republican efforts in Congress to use federal troops to ensure free elections in the South.

1894 First anti-lynching demonstration held by the American Liberty Defence League, Providence, Rhode Island.

1895 Thomas Bailey Aldrich publishes Unguarded Gates referring to the Statue of Liberty as “white Goddess!”

1897 Mary Weston Fordham’s Chicago Exposition Ode begins: “Columbia, all hail! May thy banner ne’er be furled Till Liberty with her beauteous rays, Enlighten all the world….”

1906 In Springfield, MO, three black men are lynched, hung from a light tower and burned beneath a replica of the Statue of Liberty as a crowd of thousands of white onlookers cheer.

1917 World War I Liberty Bond campaign makes appeal to African Americans.

1933 National Park Service assumes administration of the Statue of Liberty.

1934 Aaron Douglas paints Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers for the New York Public Library.

1936 Golden Jubilee Poems about the Statue of Liberty includes works addressing racial injustice.

1942 Melvin B. Tolson publishes “Rendezvous with America.”

1945 Emma Lazarus commemorative plaque (1903) moved to the Statue of Liberty’s main entrance from the second floor landing.

1946 Walt Partymiller’s cartoon of the Statue of Liberty with a black eye labeled “Lynch Law,” appears in The Gazette & Daily.

1948 Richard Wright publishes “I Choose Exile.” Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 100

1955 Thomas Pitkin’s draft interpretive prospectus for the American Immigration Museum (AMI) at the Statue of Liberty addresses the “importation of Negro slaves from Africa.”

1956 Contralto Louise Parker sings The Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful at the second National Unity Day sponsored by the American Museum of Immigration.

1961 Arthur Herzog writes in the New York Times Magazine: “…there is a shackle on the ankle which she has broken as she steps forward with the torch. (Nobody, actually, is quite sure of the full story the sculptor, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, intended to portray).”

1964 California Real Estate Association magazine cover celebrating repeal of the ban on racial discrimination in housing sales showing the Statue of Liberty superimposed on suburban homes.

1965 Robert Steele Collier, Walter Bowe, and Khaleel Sayyed plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell and Washington Monument foiled by New York police detective Raymond Wood. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell and African American organizations in New York protest AMI plans for The Uprooted, an exhibit to feature a scale model of a slave ship and slavery artifacts such as shackles, neck and leg irons.

1967 AMI exhibit plan submitted by Walter Dorwin Teague Associates features The Reluctant Immigrant (The American Negro).

1968 AMI Historians Committee reviews new exhibit plans by Quorum 5 to include “cultural contributors,” such as Ralph Bunche, Leontyne Price, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, and Lewis Armstrong. Elsie M. Lewis’ fifteen page response begins: “ The projected presentation of the Negro American is inadequate….”

1970 Michel Gure-Vakas’ Liberté Canon.

1972 Jean Larrigue’s Angela Davis.

1978 The NPS pre-visit kit for schools includes Statue of Liberty: Constructing America’s Great Lady; photo inset shows former Superintendent standing behind the chain and shackle with the caption: “Rarely seen by visitors because of its position near her feet, the broken shackle symbolizes Liberty’s freedom from bondage.”

1980 Protestors hang “Free Geronimo Pratt” banner from the Statue of Liberty. The Detroit News publishes Draper Hill’s interpretation of the Statue of Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 101

Liberty commemorating the 25th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, AL.

1985 LiFran Fort’s The Other Freedom.

1986 Statue of Liberty centennial celebration. John Hope Franklin states: “It’s a celebration for immigrants and that has nothing to do with me.” Jim Haskins’ “The Statue of Liberty: An All-American Vision” published in American Visions. Jack Felder’s “This Miss Liberty was Modeled on Racism” published in The Black American. Eddie L. Howard’s letter from a Mississippi prison published in Dear Miss Liberty: Letters to the Statue of Liberty.

1987 The Journey of the Songhai People published by the Pan African Organization.

1991 Leonard Jeffries Jr.,’s “Albany” speech.

1997 Black Statue of Liberty text appears on the Internet. Faith Ringgold’s We Came to America (The American Collection: #1); Jessica Care Moore publishes Black Statue of Liberty.

1998 The Amsterdam News, Los Angeles Sentinel, and Rap Pages, among others, publish Black Statue of Liberty stories. The Tom Joyner Morning Show features it in a “Little Known Black History Facts” segment. Museum of the City of New York issues a formal statement and establishes a dedicated phone line. NPS study begins.

1999 National McDonalds Black Operators Association commissions a commercial based on information in Lady Sala S. Shabazz’ Little Known Black History Facts. Jim Haskins posts disclaimer on the Internet.

Winter 2000 Boston Globe’s “A New Face for Liberty?” Subsequent coverage by AP, national and international news media. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 102

CONCLUSIONS

We have not attempted nor was this project intended to produce a comprehensive history of the Statue of Liberty. It is assumed that readers are familiar with some of the well-known histories, current National Park Service interpretation of the Statue of Liberty or both.

This report has two principle goals. First, to answer three historical questions raised by the Black Statue of Liberty rumor and related texts:

 Was the original model for the Statue of Liberty a black woman?  Is the Statue of Liberty a monument to the end of slavery in the United States?  What roles do African Americans have in the Statue of Liberty’s history?

Equally important, we want to better understand how the Black Statue of Liberty rumor arises from and contributes to the evolving national historical narrative.

The Black Statue of Liberty rumor and its related texts make specific claims about the statue’s history. Our findings with regard to these content questions lead to the following conclusions:

 Was the original model for the Statue of Liberty a black woman?

Assigning a racial category to every body, even an inanimate one like Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty, is deeply rooted in American culture, law, and history. Historically, racial labeling has been used to justify and reinforce exploitation and exclusion of large groups of people, particularly African Americans, by people defined at the time as white. African American counternarratives, including rumors, are partially a response to this situation.

The question of the Statue of Liberty’s race can not be avoided once the question of an original black model is raised. Many whites, seeking to be inclusive or simply avoid the issue, quip that the statue is “raceless” because it is green. For many African Americans, this response reinforces the belief that whites can not face the truth if it does not support their cultural hegemony.

In his 1986 essay, “Getting to the Top,” Geno Rodriquez expressed what we often heard from African Americans about the Statue of Liberty’s appearance while conducting this research: Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 103

There was nothing kind or familiar about her looks, her eyes, her nose, her hair. Damn! Except for her lips which were too full to be European ideal lips, she looked just like one of them.239

While many Americans employ similar judgments and will continue to cite them as concrete evidence of one or another versions of the statue’s history, we have deliberately resisted evaluating the Statue of Liberty’s physical features. The issues related to racial marking of bodies are so problematic and deeply embedded in America’s collective psyche, that proposing an evaluation of the Statue of Liberty’s face without corroborating documentation in the historical record would only contribute to the larger problem.

The texts that most versions of the Black Statue of Liberty rumor derive from cite a cast (c. 1870) of a no longer extant maquette owned by the Museum of the City of New York as proof that “the original model” for the Statue of Liberty was a black woman. This led us to investigate Auguste Bartholdi’s background and the statue’s design history.

Bartholdi adamantly denied any connection between the Statue of Liberty’s form and his unrealized design for a lighthouse at the entry of the Suez Canal, projects he worked on consecutively in the 1860’s and ‘70s. Scholars strongly disagree. There is no clear design break between the late models for one and the earliest model and casts for the other. For the Suez Canal project, Bartholdi represented Progress with an Egyptian fellah based on ethnographic drawings he made during his travels in the region in 1856. Using American concepts of race, these women would be identified as black in the 1860s and today.

Between 1870 and 1875, Bartholdi produced a number of mostly undated study models for the Statue of Liberty. At least three of these maquettes have been identified as the original or first model at some time in the statue’s history. The evolution of the statue’s design demonstrates clear differences over time between Bartholdi’s design for the Statue of Liberty and it predecessor, “Egypt Bringing Light to the Orient.” The period of aesthetic overlap between the two projects and the preliminary nature of study models makes it impossible to rule out an 1870-71 Liberty model that has design origins in Bartholdi’s drawings of black Egyptian women in 1856.

We found no corroborating evidence that Edouard Laboulaye or Auguste Bartholdi intended to depict Liberty as a black woman or, more specifically, a freed American slave. Laboulaye’s intent was to present a monument that would commemorate the fulfillment of America’s commitment to universal liberty established by the Declaration of Independence. Like other republicans, he believed that the end of slavery in the United States made universal liberty possible and would set an example for other nations, especially France, where liberty was still limited to a ruling elite. Liberty

239 Geno Rodriguez, “Getting to the Top,” Liberty and Justice, New York: Alternative Museum, 1986, p. 21. Interestingly, Rodriguez makes this statement in the context of an essay about his experiences as a child of immigrants. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 104 depicted as a freedwoman would have represented his strong anti-slavery convictions, but not fulfilled his broader vision.

Apart from the size of his works, Auguste Bartholdi was a competent, but not particularly innovative artist. He was capable of producing allegorical and ethnographic representations of people of African descent, but followed period conventions for the treatment of his subjects. He shared the then popular European interest in the different physical features of the peoples of the Middle East and East African coast as demonstrated in the body of work he produced while traveling in the region in 1856. His views on race appear to have evolved somewhat as a result of his 1871 visit to the United States, but he never questioned contemporary white Europeans’ belief in their biological superiority to other human populations. Depicting Liberty as a black freedwoman would have required an unprecedented break with European and American aesthetic traditions and trends that even African American artists, such as Edmonia Lewis, were not making at the time. Such innovation would have been entirely out of character with the prolific Bartholdi’s body of work and detrimental to his efforts to achieve lasting fame.

Based on the evidence, the connection between the images presented in Bartholdi’s Egyptian work and his early Liberty model(s) are undeniable, but coincidental to the development of the Statue of Liberty under Laboulaye’ patronage.

The specific source(s) of Bartholdi’s final design for the Statue of Liberty’s physique can not be determined with certainty. Though the most accepted view is that statue’s face is the artist’s mother, Bartholdi’s models show several different conceptions of the facial features and evidence supporting this claim is quite weak. It is unclear whether any part of the statue was actually based on a living person. We found no concrete evidence that Bartholdi hired an artist’s model at any stage of the project.

There is no evidence that Laboulaye’s or Bartholdi’s American associates or the American government advised or demanded that the statue’s design be changed in any way as some versions of the rumor claim.

 Is the Statue of Liberty a monument to the end of slavery in the United States?

Laboulaye, Evarts, DePew and others used Lafayette’s aid to Washington during the American Revolution to emphasize the historical depth of the relationship between France in the United States in rejecting tyrannical regimes. It was also their time-honored metaphor for the French liberals’ support of American efforts to end slavery and extend political enfranchisement to blacks. The centennial of the American Revolution was Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 105 significant to the French sponsors because the Civil War ended slavery and preserved the Union at a time when the France’s future was still uncertain. For the American republicans, it was a timely opportunity to erect a monument to their efforts and worldview.

Apart from the use of the Liberty image for commercial purposes and its appeal to immigrant readers of Pulitzer’s World, the Statue of Liberty literature is strangely silent on how the project was understood in the United States in its early years (1871-1886). Members of the French-American Union and American Committee for the Statue of Liberty were not the only ones who saw in the statue’s design references to recent events in American history. Except for the newest immigrants, Americans were long familiar with the use of Liberty as an abolitionist allegory and the use of broken shackles and chains to symbolize emancipation. Along with the familiar design elements, the close association of Bartholdi’s statue with prominent Republicans and concurrent Civil War memorial fund drives reinforced public perceptions of the Statue of Liberty as a monument to the end of slavery.

Perhaps more so than any other group outside the core promoters, African Americans recognized in Bartholdi’s colossus a representation of American history that confirmed their own ideals, if not their experiences. Almost from its first introduction to the United States in 1871, the Statue of Liberty gave liberal white Americans an opportunity to forget what was currently happening to African Americans, especially in the South, in favor of a congratulatory monument to past achievements.

The Statue of Liberty was not intended entirely as a monument to the end of slavery. Laboulaye and his French colleagues also wished to send a political message back to France, but this aspect of the Statue of Liberty project was never publicized in the United States and remained unknown outside of a small group of American Francophiles. Bartholdi cast the project in the broadest terms, hoping, as always, to encourage additional commissions.

After the Statue of Liberty’s dedication in 1886, the convergence of demographics, culture, and politics obscured the central role that the end of slavery played in its early history. Were it not for the tenacity of the origin myth, which places the birth of the project at Laboulaye’s home shortly after the death of Abraham Lincoln, this critical element of the statue’s history might have disappeared altogether.

 What roles do African Americans have in the Statue of Liberty’s history?

The Statue of Liberty was inspired by the Union victory in the Civil War and intended, in part, to commemorate its major achievement, the abolition of slavery and the subsequent enfranchisement of black men. The black press championed the French- American project; African Americans contributed to the pedestal fund. They participated in the public celebrations for its unveiling in New York City and conducted their own. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 106

Blacks were among the immigrants whose first sight of the United States was the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. In the early 20th century, African Americans died because of the perverse appropriation of the statue’s symbolism by white racists. They were targeted by and responded to the government’s Liberty bond campaign during World War I.

Racial justice, particularly for African Americans, has been a recurrent theme ever since the Statue of Liberty’s inception as evidenced by political cartoons, poems written for the 50th anniversary, debates over the content of the American Museum of Immigration’s exhibits, and acts of civil disobedience in the 1960s and ‘70s. Along with recent work by African American artists, the Black Statue of Liberty rumor extends this tradition of active engagement with this American icon.

Still, there are several ways to answer the question, “What roles do African Americans take in the Statue of Liberty’s history?” While all represent supportable options, they entail very different judgements about what is important, how it should be remembered and presented to the public.

If inquiries about the Statue of Liberty’s history are limited to the actions and intents of the principle European and American actors - Laboulaye, Bartholdi, Evarts, Pulitzer, et. al. - between 1871 and 1886, African Americans appear mostly as passive spectators and subjects of a group of powerful, liberal white men’s interests. They receive a minor, active role from the American Committee as donors to the pedestal fund only in 1885, near the project’s completion. This approach best preserves the long dominant American history narrative of strong whites and dependent minorities.

If the Statue of Liberty monument is placed at the center of the inquiry, African Americans appear to be one of many minor “interest groups,” along with women, labor organizers, xenophobes, and anti-government protesters, whose causes have become associated with the Statue of Liberty since the 1870s. From this perspective, African Americans take more active roles as donors, commentators, celebrants and organizers, but remain peripheral to the central story. Popular beliefs about the statue’s primary significance to European immigrants and their descendants remain firmly intact reinforcing the American history narrative that champions the “Americanization,” that is assimilation, of diverse groups into the dominant culture.

The Black Statue of Liberty rumors constitute a counternarrative to both of these American history stories. It places African Americans at the center, not only as active participants in the Statue of Liberty’s history, but as definers of American memory and the symbols that represent it. This makes many others, particularly whites, anxious. As American legal scholars Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic observed several years ago:

…Recent scholarship shows that the dominant narrative changes very slowly and resists alteration. We interpret new stories in light of the old. Ones that deviate too markedly from our pre-existing stock are dismissed as extreme, coercive, political, and wrong. The only stories Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 107

about race we are prepared to condemn, then, are the old ones giving voice to the racism of an earlier age, ones that society has already begun to reject.240

The Black Statue of Liberty rumor challenges the dominant narrative about the Statue of Liberty that emerged in the 1930s and ‘40s and was forcefully reiterated in the 1980s at the time of the centennial restoration. Focusing on the rumor and related texts’ content as strictly historical questions avoids the greater challenge of how to address the situation that produced them and sustains their appeal. The content would be less problematic if the story were further removed in time.

240 Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, “Images of the Outsider in American Law and Culture,” Critical White Studies, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, eds. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997, p. 177; reprinted from Cornell Law Review 1258 (1992). Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 108

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

This study asked questions about the history of the Statue of Liberty and its meanings that have not been systematically analyzed by scholars elsewhere. The materials raised new questions and revealed some mysteries that are likely to remain unsolved. As funding becomes available, our recommendations for future research are:

1. A detailed re-examination of the sequence of the Statue of Liberty’s early design evolution, including further research in France to determine more precisely who introduced the idea and when. This study should take into account evidence in this report that the project was first conceived in 1870 or 1871, not 1865.

2. Identification and demographic analysis of extant donor records and other evidence to name African American contributors to the American Committee’s pedestal fund drive, if possible.

3. A comprehensive study of the symbolic use of the Statue of Liberty in the continuous American dialogue on race relations from its dedication to the present. This study has only scratched the surface of an interpretive theme that should rightfully stand alongside immigration in public understanding of the statue’s history and meaning.

4. An immigration theme study focusing on how, when, and why European immigration became the predominant interpretive theme at the Statue of Liberty NM, as well as how it has evolved over time. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 109

APPENDIX A

Research Methods

In November 1998, a query from Miami University (Ohio) appeared on H-Net’s Humanities and Social Sciences On-line women’s history list:

I was looking through a book the other day when I came across a photograph of an original study for the Statue of Liberty. She had African features and a broken chain of slavery hanging from her upheld arm. The caption said that this was the way Bartholdi originally designed her, but he was persuaded by the U.S. to change her appearance. There was no citation information in the book anywhere. Can anyone give me a place where I can find and document this?241

Within several days, the author received responses from academic colleagues across the country with institutional affiliations as diverse as New School University, University of Central Arkansas, and Case Western Reserve University. The respondents included graduate students in history and sociology and professors of anthropology and art history. The discussion was cross-posted on another H-Net list sponsored by the Society of Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE).

Surprisingly, none of the respondents had much information. Without attribution, one passed on a section of the rumor text. Another reported hearing that there is a plaque at the Statue of Liberty NM confirming the story. A third suggested she contact the “the library at Strasbourg” since the sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi, was from Alsace. The remaining correspondents commented on the similarities between Bartholdi’s designs for Statue of Liberty and his unrealized Suez Canal project and on the resemblance of the Statue’s face to the artist’s mother’s. Only one corrected an obvious error, that is Edouard de Laboulaye, who died in 1883, could not possibly have written an article published in the New York Times in 1986. None cited a reliable, published source.

This study is the only known systematic investigation of the history of the Statue of Liberty specifically undertaken to determine the validity of claims associating its origin and design with the abolition of slavery in the United States.

It is also the only known study to focus on how the Bartholdi’s Liberté éclairant le Monde was understood in the United States from its introduction in 1871 to its unveiling in 1886.

241 Based on the query’s content, the book the author refers to appears to be Lady Sala S. Shabazz’ first edition of Little Known Black History Facts: “The French artist Bartholdi originally designed the Statue of Liberty as France’s tribute to the emancipation of U.S. slaves. The statue had Negroid features and the broken chains of slavery hanging from her arm. He was “encouraged” to alter the image.” Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 110

The project began in July 1998. The first phase, completed in October, focused on verifying the sources of the claims made in the rumors’ “core text.” The findings were inconclusive with regard to claims’ validity.242 A full research investigation was launched that took more than a year to complete.

A serious study of any relatively unexplored aspect of the history of the Statue of Liberty is no small task. The literature is voluminous, particularly if popular treatments are considered. Much of the content is redundant and adheres closely to the themes emphasized in official narratives. Sources are often difficult to trace. Myth unintentionally plays as much a role as reality in historical treatments, both popular and scholarly.

To address these challenges, we placed greatest emphasis on primary documents and other original artifacts. Relevant theoretical publications in the fields of art history, anthropology, folklore, and history were also consulted, as were distinguished scholars and other knowledgeable individuals.

It was clear from the beginning that the claims we were investigating would require analysis of images, as well as text. In addition to documents, we studied drawings, paintings, sculpture, political cartoons, and graphic images to clarify the evolution of Bartholdi’s design, understand its relationship to contemporaneous work by other artists, and determine how the Statue of Liberty has been used to communicate messages about race to the public over time.

The investigation’s major components are summarized below:

1. Review of materials in U.S. government collections.

The National Park Service maintains extensive records for the Statue of Liberty. The study began with a comprehensive survey of the exhibits and collections at the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Systematic reviews of archival collections at the New England Cultural Resources Center in Lowell, MA and the Harper’s Ferry Center in Harper’s Ferry, WV followed. Longfellow National Historic Site and General Grant National Memorial provided useful contextual information.

A thorough evaluation of related holdings at the Library of Congress, including original and secondary documents, photographs and prints was completed in June 1999. The National Gallery of Art provided information on a Bartholdi work in its collections.

2. Review of materials in other U.S. collections.

The New York Public Library has an extensive collection of Statue of Liberty materials, including critical documents such as Bartholdi’s 1871 travel journal. Research

242 See Appendix B. Also Rebecca Joseph, “Why Does the Statue of Liberty Have the Face of a Black Woman?”: Results of a Preliminary Inquiry into the Widely Circulating Text, National Park Service, 1998, unpublished. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 111 was conducted at the Humanities-General Library, Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Office of Special Collections.

Harvard University’s libraries hold various materials, including a number of French language sources and original letters between prominent figures in the Statue of Liberty’s early history.

The Museum of the City of New York owns an original maquette, a zinc cast model of the Statue of Liberty, and an Edward Moran painting, as well as a small, eclectic collection of related documents.

The Brookline (MA) Public Library secured numerous books through inter-library loan.

3. Review of materials in French collections.

French materials were critical to the overall success of this research. Much is currently available in the United States through the collecting efforts of researchers involved in projects associated with the Statue of Liberty’s centennial restoration. Additional information was obtained through correspondence with the Bartholdi Museum, Colmar, France. A Paris-based research associate conducted archival research at the Pompidou Center and interviewed members of the Laboulaye family, who provided several key publications by French scholars.243

The Musée des Artes et Métiers in Paris, which has a Bartholdi collection, was closed to the public, but some of its materials were accessed via the Internet.

English translations of primary and secondary sources were consulted, if available, but the French originals were treated as the documents of record.

The French Embassy in Washington, D. C. provided the brief official history of the Statue of Liberty in English that it sends in response to public requests for information.

4. Collection and analysis of rumor texts.

Rumors are fascinating and frustrating research subjects. Their origins are elusive. Once they become widely disseminated, they can not be fully tracked. As they pass from one person to another, location to location, they change in numerous ways. The Statue of Liberty rumors addressed in this report are no exception.

Collecting rumor-related texts from the Internet, e-mail, newspapers and other sources demonstrated that:

243 No government funds were used to travel to French collections. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 112

 Several versions of the rumor are in circulation.  An adequate analysis must address variations as well as the “core text.”  These rumors share a common structure with others that are or were well- known to African Americans, but largely unknown outside of black communities.

Appendix A lists more than 30 web sites where the Statue of Liberty rumors have been posted since March 1997, along with partial lists of other “sitings” in e-mail and newspapers, on radio and television prior to the first “mainstream” media coverage in February 2000.

5. Electronic data collection.

On-line research is a relatively new development. Other than tracking the rumors on the World Wide Web, primary research on-line was limited to collecting related e- mail posts to public discussions or interest group lists that maintain Web-based archives. No attempt was made to contact the individuals who contributed, although sometimes their locations could be identified from their e-mail addresses. For example, a message sent from “hsph.harvard.edu” is from the Harvard School of Public Health. A few people included full contact information in their posts or directed readers to a personal website. African Americans were more likely than others to identify their racial identities, but most participants gave no information. To protect confidentiality, all personal identifying data has been removed wherever any of this material appears in this report.

Computer search capabilities were used to save time and limit expenses. For example, we mined library catalogues in Paris, New York, Washington, D.C., from a desktop computer in the Boston Support Office. Using e-mail, we were able to quickly share new information among team members from diverse sources.

6. Interviews.

This study focused on researching texts and images. Interviews in French and English ranging from a few minutes to more than an hour in length were used to:

 Collect information from institutions that receive inquiries about the rumors.  Verify information about individuals named in the rumors and related texts.  Better understand contemporary African American artists’ interpretations of the Statue of Liberty in literary and visual arts.

A complete list of people interviewed for this report is included in a separate, confidential report submitted to the Superintendent, Statue of Liberty National Monument. Copies of signed release forms are attached, if applicable. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 113

7. Information volunteered by the public.

By design, the project proceeded quietly from July 1998 until February 2000. When inquiries were received, the National Park Service acknowledged that a study to investigate rumors about the Statue of Liberty’s early history was underway. Additional information was provided on a “need to know” basis; for example, to gain access to an archival collection. The information received from the public during this time consisted of versions of the rumor forwarded by e-mail and an occasional newspaper clipping.

Following the Boston Globe and Associated Press stories in February 2000, new information was volunteered by researchers, collectors, and other individuals in support of the project’s goals. While none of these materials changed the research findings, they often provided useful details. For example, a former romance language professor sent an article she published in 1977 linking the French promoters and design for the Statue of Liberty to contemporaneous leaders and images in French poetry and religious sects.244

244 Graber, op. cit., pp. 6-7. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 114

APPENDIX B

Research Results for the Rumor’s Proof Statements

This material originally appeared in “Why Does the Statue of Liberty Have the Face of a Black Woman?” Results of a Preliminary Inquiry into the Widely Circulating Text, a preliminary report for this project completed in 1998. It has been updated and edited for this report.

The Black Statue of Liberty rumor almost always includes statements of proof, originally called “Documents or Proof” in Jack Felder’s 1986 article in The Black American. The most frequently cited version is taken from The Journey of the Songhai People:

PROOF OF DOCUMENTS 1. You may go and see the original model of the Statue of Liberty with the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand. Go to the Museum of the City of New York, Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street (212-534-1672). 2. Check with the New York Times magazine, part II - May 18, 1986. Read the article by Laboulaye. 3. The dark original face of the Statue of Liberty can be seen in The New York Post. June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the broken chains at her feet. 4. Finally, you may check with the French Mission at the United Nations and ask for some original French material on the Statue of Liberty, including the Bartholdi original model.

Jim Haskins and Suzanne Nakasian are identified as additional sources. Just as many interested member of the public have done, we attempted to confirm each one. Our research yielded the following results:

1. You may go and see the original model of the Statue of Liberty with the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand. Go to the Museum of the City of New York, Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street (212-534-1672).

The Museum of the City of New York appears to have received the largest number of inquiries related to the Black Statue of Liberty rumor. Peter Simmons, Deputy Director for Collections, Access, and Publications has received up to ten calls per day since October 1997. In an interview on September 24, 1998, he reported “almost everyone identifies themselves by their professional affiliation.” He estimates that one- third of the calls come from university campuses. Some are from international locations. Other divisions at the museum have also experienced high call volumes. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 115

The “original model of the Statue of Liberty, with the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand” is one of two casts owned by the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). It is one of two known, 19” terra-cotta casts made by the Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi from a no longer extant maquette in 1870 or 1871. It is one of a series of working models for the Suez Canal and Statue of Liberty projects crafted by Bartholdi between 1867 and 1875. The differences in detail reflect evolution of the design of a work in progress.

The second, larger cast is zinc with copper electroplate circa 1884. It represents the statue’s final design. Both casts are on display in the “Marine Room” on the museum’s second floor, along with Edward Moran’s 1886 oil painting, The Unveiling of the Statue of Liberty. A replica of the terra-cotta cast is also on display at the Statue of Liberty NM.

Jan Ramirez, former Deputy Director for Interpretation and Curator of Sculpture and Paintings at the Museum of the City of New York stated in a telephone interview on October 1, 1998 that both models have been on continuous display since 1986. While often displayed together for comparative purposes, one or the other has been moved from time to time to other exhibits or briefly removed from display to accommodate special events at the museum.

The volume of inquiries has placed a substantial burden on MCNY resources. Initially the museum responded individually with a package of materials including copies of photographs of the models and references to several relevant publications:

Pete Hamill, “Our Liberty a Story to Remember,” New York Magazine, May 12, 1986. Jim Haskins, “The Statue of Liberty: An All-American Vision,” American Visions, July/August 1986. Abiola Sinclair, “The Statue of Liberty was Supposed to be Black,” The New York Amsterdam News, September 14, 1991.

In February 1998, the museum issued a formal statement in letter form and as a recording attached to a dedicated voice mailbox (212/534-5974 ext.265) linked to Peter Simmons’ voice mail:

The Museum’s name and phone number have been released without our knowledge as a source of documentation on the origin of the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, the Museum cannot substantiate any of the information you may have heard. If you are interested in the limited information we have on the study model used during the design of the statue, please visit our world wide web site at www.mcny.org. Due to the tremendous volume of requests resulting from this false publicity, the museum is unable to mail, fax, or otherwise accommodate individual requests for information. Thank you for your interest and understanding. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 116

The MCNY web site offers photographs of the terra-cotta and zinc casts along with the following information:

Before Fredrick-Auguste [sic] Bartholdi undertook the famous figure of Liberty Enlightening the World in colossal scale, he produced a number of miniaturized working models. Fired in 1870, this terra-cotta cast is one of Bartholdi’s earliest three-dimensional studies for the Statue of Liberty…. For further information about the Statue of Liberty, contact your local library, or the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

The museum does not currently provide information on how to contact the park.

2. Check with the New York Times magazine, part II - May 18, 1986. Read the article by Laboulaye.

On May 18, 1986, the New York Times published a special issue of its Sunday magazine entitled, “The World of New York: The Statue of Liberty - A Centennial Preview.” There are no posthumous articles by Edouard de Laboulaye. The Times’ Paris bureau chief, Richard Bernstein, wrote in an article entitled, “Mlle. Liberté:”

The idea of the statue was first broached in 1865 at a dinner party at the country home, near Versailles, of Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, an internationally renowned jurist and the author of a three volume history of the United States. Laboulaye was an impassioned advocate of the republican form of government and an admirer of Abraham Lincoln. In this he was typical of liberals of the Second Empire who, as Maurice Agulhon, professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris, notes, “were fascinated by the United States, especially the United States that, victorious in the Civil War, had liberated the slaves.” (p. 66)

3. The dark original face of the Statue of Liberty can be seen in The New York Post. June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the broken chains at her feet.

From June 16-28, 1986, the New York Post ran an eleven part series about the Statue of Liberty by Eric Fettmann entitled, “Birth of a Dream.” The opening paragraphs state:

…She was intended as a specific political gesture to one country - but has come to be adopted by all political parties in another… It took more than two decades for the Statue to make its way from a political vision, inspired during a post-dinner conversation at the close of the Civil War, to a living reality. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 117

In 1865, just months after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a group of French intellectuals active in the republican movement sat around after dinner at a country estate in Glatigny, near Versailles. Their host was Edouard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, an internationally famed jurist, popular lecturer, and outspoken advocate of republicanism. Author of a comprehensive three-volume “History of the United States,” he was France’s leading expert on America and its history. He was also a passionate defender of the Union cause, particularly after President Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves (and especially since the dictatorial Emperor Napoleon III was pro-Confederate)… Striking a reunited bond with America was not that difficult a task. Lincoln’s assassination on April 14 had produced a massive outpouring of grief and sympathy among French citizens, as recorded by John Bigelow, a former New York Post editor then serving as U.S. Minister in Paris…. (6/16/86, p. 22-23)

Fettmann goes on to recount the story of the memorial medal presented to Mrs. Lincoln.

Adding to the confusion, the June 16, 1986 issue of the Post also contains an advertisement for the Statue of Liberty Gallery (525 Hudson St., New York City) with the following text:

Did you known what American President’s death led to the Creation of the Statue of Liberty? Lincoln’s Assassination in 1865 initiated French sentiment. A medal given to Mrs. Lincoln in 1866 set a precedent for the ideas of Liberty. See, learn, and purchase a part of the Statue’s rich history…. (formatting in the original).

The Post printed Part 2 of the series on Tuesday, June 17, 1986. Page 29 contains a photograph of a casting of the statue’s face that is visibly darker in the black-on-white printed format than the images on either side of it, along with the caption: “Bartholdi modeled the face of Lady Liberty on his mother Charlotte (above). An 1884 casting of the statue’s face (near right) was refined and strengthened to reach its final form (right).” If the darker color of the center image were attributed to physical characteristics of an unnamed model, the words “refined and strengthened” interpreted to mean ‘whitened’ (i.e. given so-called Caucasian features and coloring.

In a column printed in The Post on February 9, 2000, Fettmann stated in response to rumor texts:

As for the photo of the supposed “African” face, featured in The Post, the picture is not—as incorrectly captioned -- an early model, but Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 118

shows the actual face that now stands over New York Harbor. The photo, as shown in Marvin Trachtenberg’s marvelous 1976 architectural history of the statue shows Liberty’s head during construction on what was then Bedloe’s Island shortly before its dedication in1886. It appears “black” for a simple reason: the copper statue’s original color was not the familiar green we see today – the patina that naturally occurs over the course of exposure to the elements – but a much darker orange-red bronze.

4. Finally, you may check with the French Mission at the United Nations and ask for some original French material on the Statue of Liberty, including the Bartholdi original model.

The French Mission to the United Nations refers inquiries about the Statue of Liberty to the cultural affairs department of the French Consulate, 972 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY (212/439-1400) which in turn refers them to the French Embassy, 4101 Reservoir Road, Washington, D. C. where they are handled by the Press Information Desk. The phone line (202/944-6060) is staffed from Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. At other times, callers can leave a voice mail message.

The volume of requests for information about the Statue of Liberty received by the French Embassy also increased dramatically after 1987. A four page fact sheet is mailed or faxed in response to public inquiries. It covers the following topics from the French government’s perspective: Her Birth, Her Meaning; Crafting a Colossus: Concept and Construction; Fundraising: Collecting a Monumental Sum; The American Embrace: Pulitzer, the Pedestal and the Proliferation of an Image. Though it describes the Statue of Liberty as “the national symbol of America,” the Embassy’s fact sheet makes no mention of the abolition of slavery or the Civil War, nor does it identify the model for the statue’s face.

Additional Sources

Jim Haskins, a consultant to this project, is Professor of English at the University of Florida-Gainesville and author of more than 100 books, including the award-winning March on Washington and Outward Dreams: Black Inventors and Their Inventions. Haskins was a member of the National Education Advisory Committee of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, his only formal involvement with the Statue of Liberty NM prior to this project.

Haskins’ publications include “The Statue of Liberty: An All-American Vision,” in American Visions (July/August 1986, pp. 12-19), the magazine of African American arts and culture, and The Statue of Liberty: America’s Proud Lady (Lerner Publications), a book for young people.

In the American Visions article, Haskins states: Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 119

A common saying among blacks is that the Statue of Liberty has always had her back to us. Indeed, the majority of black Americans’ forefathers had arrived on American shores long before the statue was unveiled… No statue holding a beacon of liberty greeted them on their arrival; they faced more chains. So why should their descendants care whether the Lady falls apart or not? “She belongs to the Americans whose ancestors immigrated from Western and Eastern Europe, not to us.” “She promised them liberty, and they climbed the ladder to the American dream--on our backs.” “ The Statue of Liberty has nothing to do with us.” That’s what many blacks think-- and some say. Yet that conventional “wisdom” betrays a lack of knowledge of the real history behind the Statue of Liberty, a lack of knowledge that we black Americans share with the majority of Americans of whatever color. Lost in the mist of invisibility that have long shrouded black history in America is the fact that the Lady’s very existence is in some measure due to us. Her association with European immigration came much later, though her power as a symbol of America as an open-door country overwhelmed and all but obliterated her true origins. Part of the inspiration for the Statue was the emancipation of the slaves in the 1860s. It was not just the United States’ impending one-hundredth birthday, but this giant step toward maturity that the people of France wished to celebrate by presenting the gift of “Liberty Enlightening the World.” (p.13)

Haskins goes on to describe the views of French liberals, including Laboulaye, toward the United States:

Another staunch abolitionist and chairman of the French Anti- Slavery Society was Edouard-Rene de Lefebvre de Laboulaye, and in his commitment and activities we can discern the seeds of the idea for the Statue. (p. 13)

The idea for the Statue of Liberty is then linked to the memorial coins presented by French liberals to the widows of John Brown and Abraham Lincoln, the latter bearing the inscription “La Statue de La Liberte” with two black men standing to right of the of Liberty image.

The author presents similar information in The Statue of Liberty: America’s Proud Lady (1986), adding a discussion of the Statue’s design:

The people who believe that the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of opportunity for all now even include Americans who did not come as immigrants. The ancestors of most black Americans did not come to Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 120

America because they were seeking greater opportunity. They were brought here against their will as slaves. They did not enter the United States through the immigration station at Ellis Island, near Liberty Island; instead, they came by way of the slave markets in New Orleans, Louisiana, Savannah, Georgia, and other places. Slavery had been abolished in the United States when Liberty Enlightening the World was dedicated in New York Harbor in 1886, but blacks did not enjoy equal rights as citizens. Still in a hundred years since the statue was dedicated, blacks have gained the same legal rights as other Americans. And it was the sons and daughters of the white immigrants who helped to ensure that blacks, too, would have an opportunity to share in the promise of America. Most people do not realize that one of the reasons the statue was given by the people of France to the people of the United States was to honor America for abolishing slavery (even though it took a Civil War to do it) and still preserving the Union. In the eyes of the French people, the United States was living up to the wonderful ideas of liberty set forth in the Declaration of Independence… (pp. 11-12) …[Bartholdi] decided early on that the statue would be the figure of a woman in long flowing robes. In one hand held high, she would carry a torch, the torch of liberty. At first, he had the torch in her left hand; later he changed it to the right hand. At first, she was a very defiant figure. Later, he made her more remote, removed from the everyday affairs of man. At first, she held a broken chain in her other hand to symbolize the broken chains of bondage. Later, Bartholdi decided that she would hold a tablet and that on it would be inscribed the date July IV, MDCCLXXVI…One thing which did not change was the face, for which Bartholdi used his own mother as a model.” (p. 21)

Haskins was not consulted by the authors of The Journey of the Songhai People. Neither of his publications reports “that what stimulated the idea for the creation of the statue initially was the part Black soldiers played in the ending of African bondage in the United States,” the position attributed to him in many of the rumor texts.

Finally, Suzanne Nakasian was employed during the restoration fund drive as the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation’s national liaison to ethnic Americans. In a telephone interview on August 20, 1998, Nakasian stated that her goal at the foundation was “to involve as many ethnic groups as possible,” including African Americans, American Indians, and new immigrants, such as Southeast Asian refugees. In appealing for contributions from African American organizations, she noted that the broken shackles at the Statue’s feet were relevant to African American history and suggested further research was needed. She firmly believes that any meanings attached to the Statue’s design which associate it directly with the end of American slavery are “latent” rather than “manifest” and stated unequivocally, “I never heard anything like [the rumor’s claims] during the project.” Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 121

APPENDIX C

Chronology of Internet & Major Media Dissemination

The following lists are comprehensive to the best of our knowledge.

Dissemination of the black Statue of Liberty Rumor Via the Internet

March 1997 Tulane University www.tulane.edu/~oma/Mar97.html

September 1997 Minority Health Issues List (via Harvard) persephone.hampshire.edu/~lists/minhlth/msg00875.html

Ronald Blodgett’s web site (via e-mail) www.artistshowcase.org/junteenth.html

October 1997 Newark, NJ Clarion www.newcommunity.org/clarion/oct97/articles/p7-1.html

New Community Corporation www.newcommunity.org/clarion/oct97/articles/p7-1.html

University of Colorado-Denver (via Clemson University) www.cudenver.edu/cgi- bin/lwgate/SG…rchives/log971101.Z/article-196.html

February 1998 University of California-Los Angeles (personal page) www.agsm.ucla.edu/zone/exchange/archive/ february17_98/liberty.htm

Eso Won Books* esowon.com/wwwboard/messages/47.html

April 1998 BlackStory soulmatesworldwide.com/blkstry.htm

JusticeNYC (personal page) members.aol.com/justicenyc/liberty.html

August 1998 Urban-Leaders List (via Merck) www.nul.org/mlists/urban-leaders/199808/msg00071.html

September 1998 The National Minority & Women’s Business Directory www.mbpages.com.forum/news/002.html Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 122

Black Websites Weekly Newsletter ods.fnal.gov/ols/webmaster-repository/0358.html

November 1998 History Net * h-net2.msu.du/~women/bibs/bibl-blackliberty. Html

July 1999 African Ancestored Geneaology List * www.msstate.edu/listarchives/afrigeneas/ 19907/msg00682.html

August 1999 Bianca: The Alternative On-Line Community* www.bianca.com/interests/religion/bbs/ posts.1999_Aug_17/2034/2034.html

October 1999 Konformist Newswire www.egroups.com/group/konformist/772.html

November 1999 Great Buildings Online www.designcommunity.com/discussion/798.html

Lambda Publications’ Blacklines www.suba.com/-outlines/leath1199b.html

Post date unknown: c. 1997 Black Inventions Museum www.robinson-solutions.com/bim/bim/ history101.history101.htm c. 1998 Michigan State University (personal page) www.egr.msu.edu/~simsnick/3.0/history.html

On Point www.nationtime.con/onpoint/statue.html c. 1999 Barry’s Heritage Page www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Bay/7593/heritage.html

Charlotte Country Day School www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/vaughn/Diversity/statue.htm

Sim & Rose Garrison Family Web Site www.sim.garrison.org/fftpage/htm

Sistahspace Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 123

www.sistahspace.com/truths/liberty.html

Tag Mag www.discussions.net/spammsg.31.html

Urban Legends Reference Pages www.snopes.com/spoons/fracture/liberty.html

Web World of John E. Pinto www.angelfire.com/ma/SxyBrnMn/statue.html

* Indicates multiple postings. Record reflects earliest date.

Major Media Coverage of the Black Statue of Liberty Rumor

February 1999 McDonalds Black History Month commercial

1st News Story: Boston Globe, February 4, 2000

February 2000 abcNEWS.com Associated Press* Australian Broadcast Corporation CNN Discovery Channel.com Entertainment Weekly MSNBC New York Post Ottawa Citizen “Politically Incorrect” WBZ-TV (Boston) WEUP (Huntsville, AL)

March 2000 Die Welt (in German) German Public Radio U. S. News & World Report

May 2000 VIBE

Postponed “60 Minutes” until findings “All Things Considered” (NPR) are released: BBC Canadian Broadcast Corporation Harvard University London Times “The Early Show” (CBS) Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 124

“World News Tonight” (ABC)

*The Associated Press story was carried by newspapers across the country and abroad (e.g. England, Australia, Germany and Singapore). Many then posted the story on their websites.

A few, such as abcNEWS.com, allowed the public to post related messages. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 125

APPENDIX D

Additional Reading

The Statue of Liberty National Monument suggests the following scholarly articles and books for more information about some of the topics discussed in this report. These sources are listed alphabetically, by author.

Boime, Albert. "Hollow Icons: The Politics of Sculpture in Nineteenth Century France." Kent, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1987. Includes an essay on Liberty's origins in the context of French art and political culture in nineteenth- century Paris.

Gshaedler, Andre. "True Light on the Statue of Liberty and Its Creator." Narbeth, Pennsylvania: Livingston Publishing Co., 1966. Heavily favors Bartholdi as the creator of the monument; it also emphasizes the Alsatian influence.

Hargrove and Provoyeur (editors). "Liberty: The French American Statue in Art and History." New York: Harper and Row, 1986. Excellent studies by fifteen scholars.

Moreno, Barry. "The Statue of Liberty Encyclopedia." New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Summarizes many of the earlier findings, but also emphasizes Roman and abolitionist origins of the monument.

Pauli, Hertha and E.B. Ashton. "I Lift My Lamp: The Way of a Symbol." New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1948. Covers the French and American political and social context in the 19th century.

Trachtenberg, Marvin. "The Statue of Liberty." New York: Viking, 1976. Revised 1986. A first-rate art historical study of the monument. Black Statue of Liberty Rumor - 126

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

When I received the first phone call from the Statue of Liberty NM in April 1998, I thought that my role in this study would be limited to providing the sort of project development and management assistance that I had provided on several previous occasions. Within several months, I agreed to do the necessary research myself. I had no idea what I was getting into.

This project would never have succeeded without the support and resources provided by the National Park Service, especially Superintendent Diane H. Dayson and her staff at the Statue of Liberty NM; Stewardship and Partnerships Team Leader Larry Gall, the professional and support staff at Boston Support Office and New England Cultural Resources Center; Chief Historian Dwight Pitcaithley; and Northeast Region Public Affairs Officer Edie Shean-Hammond. I am especially grateful to the senior officials who stood solidly behind this project despite its “controversial” subject and numerous extensions.

From the beginning, the research for this report required outside assistance. I recruited Brooke Rosenblatt and Carolyn Kinebrew in 1999 as summer interns based on independent student projects involving African Americans and the Statue of Liberty. Both accomplished more than I ever imagined and worked long beyond their initial contracts.

Remarkably, no one ever refused a request for help. The Laboulaye family, Bartholdi Museum, Museum of the City of New York, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harvard University and many individuals gave their time generously so that we could review as many relevant sources as possible in their original forms. Tatsha Robertson wrote a well-researched article for the Boston Globe. Following its publication, we received inquiries and new materials from around the world.

Outside advice was also critical. Jim Haskins, University of Florida-Gainesville, and Seymour Drescher, University of Pittsburgh, helped shape the overall direction of the research and provided insightful comments on early drafts. Reviewers David Blight, Amherst College; Alan M. Kraut, American University; and Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., National Gallery of Art are responsible for improvements in the final report.

My friends and family heard more about the history of the Statue of Liberty than they ever wanted to know. I am deeply indebted to Bernadette Williams, Ronnie Brown, Fran Morrill-Schlitt, Constance Dinges, Maurice Karpman, and Meg Joseph for keeping me on course when I thought I couldn’t take another step and to Katy, who runs a mean microfiche machine and makes all hard work worthwhile.