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January 2016 Volume 11, number 58

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS® Independent reporting on today’s Underground Railroad

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Islam, An Early American Religion on the Underground Railroad Free Press thanks Port of Harlem and its publisher, Wayne Young, for the bio- See our page 3 editorial on how two presidential graphical information below on Ayuba candidates have ignited a resurgence of religious Sulieman Diallo and Omar ibn Said. persecution and xenophobia in the , Visit portofharlem.net/ to subscribe. and why it's time for Americans to push back. appears to be the third religion to have arrived in North America af- ter Native American religions and , probably first arriving at In This Issue the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, Florida, in 1585 in the first known You wouldn't know it from certain shipment of enslaved Africans to politicians, but Islam has had a long North America. and honored place in American life. 1 By that time, much of West where most of the slave trade was of led to a series of events that originating was Muslim. Islam thus landed Diallo in England where he The public was stood up last year by entered the nascent fabric of life of was bought out of by public unconscionable bureaucracy. Maybe subscription, mixed with high socie- 2016 will be different. what was to become the United 1 States. ty, was inducted into the Gentleman's Society of Spalding, and wrote his Perhaps America's earliest notable memoirs. Man Cave Stuff: In 1854, the Under- Muslim was Ayuba Sulieman Diallo ground Railroad sprang up in Cali- In 1733 English portraitist William (1701-1773), also known as Job ben fornia when the Gold Spring Boys Solomon, a well-educated Senegalese Hoare painted Diallo's portrait swung into action for their neighbor. nobleman who at age 29 was cap- shown here which now hangs in the 2 National Portrait Gallery in London. tured, enslaved, and shipped to An- What a debut: The National Museum napolis, . After his four-year whirlwind in of African American History and Cul- ture will open this year. You can help. Diallo, shown here, was born into a America and Britain, Diallo in 1734 3 family of Muslim clerics in Bundu, sailed to The Gambia and made his , in 1701, was the son of a way back to Bundu. He had two High Priest, and was fluent in Arabic. wives, Sahmbo and Fatima, and sev- Our editorial: Donald Trump is an in- eral children. ternational embarrassment. Upon landing, Diallo was bought off the auction block by a Kent Island, Omar ibn Said (1770-1864) was a 3 Maryland, slave owner from whom writer and Islamic scholar born in he escaped, making his way to Penn- present-day Futa Toro, Senegal. Edu- sylvania with aid from others along Publicize your event at the Free Press cated in Bundu, he later made pil- Datebook. Get listed at Lynx. Submit the way. grimage to Mecca before being an article or letter to the editor. brought to the United States in 1807, A chance meeting with future Geor- Email us at [email protected]. gia Governor James Oglethorpe who one month before the importation of was impressed by Diallo's knowledge Please see Islam, page 2, column 1

After None in 2015, Maybe a 2016 Network to Freedom Conference To o often bureaucracy makes no sense. cellation just days before the conference was to get under way. After planning and publicizing its 2015 annual conference, the Miller tells Free Press that last year's conference theme, "Into the National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Free- Light: Striving for Freedom and an Equal Chance in the Battle of dom program had its conference torpedoed when the United Life, "will be reprised in 2016, and that "approval paperwork is States Department of the Interior initiated a last-minute review in progress." and didn't complete it on time to approve the conference. Department of the Interior, manage by exception and trust your Network to Freedom Manager Diane Miller got the chore to noti- program that knows most about the Underground Railroad to fy host institutions, presenters and conference goers of the can- run its own conferences. 4123

Underground Railroad Free Press 2

The Western-most Freedom Seeker? Need to Promote? One of an Occasional Series on Underground Railroad People, Safehouses and Routes Would your site, program, event, con- There wasn't much Underground Rail- ference or book benefit from being road west of the Missouri River but occa- promoted to tens of thousands of Un- sionally, even as far as the west coast, derground Railroad enthusiasts? Free there were instances of freedom seekers, Press is read by more people in the or in the following case, a freedom pre- Underground Railroad community server, being aided in flight. Such was the than any other publication. case with Stephen Spencer Hill of the Si- erra mining town of Sonora, California. Ads are easy and affordable. For dis- play or line ad rates, visit urrfree- Hill had been brought to California from press.com/#Advertising. Arkansas by his enslaver, Wood Tucker. When Tucker returned to Arkansas in 1853, Hill purchased his freedom, remain- ing in the Sierra foothills. He bought 160 MORE you can do acres, grew wheat and barley, and con- The Gold Spring Boys, whites with atti- WITH Free Press tinued mining to supplement his income. tude, hired Hill an attorney and harvest- ed his crops so Rozier couldn't profit Once back in Arkansas, Tucker hired from them. After months lobbying for slave-catcher Owen Rozier who in 1854 their friend's freedom, the Gold Spring Click on links at urrFreePress.com tracked down Hill. Taking Rozier's lie at Boys went the extra measure to win the to do any of the following. face value that Tucker still owned Hill, fight for Hill's freedom. On the Septem- Subscribe the local sheriff jailed Hill. As an African ber night before Rozier and Hill were to American, Hill was deprived of the right sail from California, the Gold Spring Boys View or Add to Datebook to speak on his own behalf. Rozier had got Rozier drunk and Hill "disappeared" Send News, Letters, Articles or Ads the law on his side, and Hill lost his case from the dockside Urilda in San Francisco Join the Community or View Lynx in court and was re-enslaved. and then from California. Make a Free Press Prize Nomination But not for long as Hill was well liked by Hill and his wife Sallie both died April 6, Rate an Underground Railroad Site some very helpful neighbors. 1907, in Traverse City, Michigan. List an Underground Railroad Site Islam Read Underground Railroad Surveys slaves was outlawed, and sold in Charles- on dedications to Muhammad written in ton, , to a cruel owner his . While enslaved, Said wrote a from whom he escaped. Headed north, series of works on history, theology, his Said got as far as before autobiography in 1831, and 14 manu- being captured, re-enslaved and sold to a scripts in Arabic. Underground Railroad Free Press® local plantation owner. Independent Reporting on Said lived into his nineties—some ac- Today’s Underground Railroad counts say to 100—before his passing in Peter H. Michael, Publisher 1864, missing freedom by a year. The [email protected] University of North Carolina houses 301 | 874 | 0235

some of Said's writings, and Davidson Underground Railroad Free Press is a free newsletter College in North Carolina has archived published by Underground Railroad Free Press, 2455 his letters. Ballenger Creek Pike, Adamstown, Maryland, 21710. Back issues are available free at our website. Free Of the half million Africans who had ar- Press is distributed by email. Send email address rived in the United States by 1800, 15 to changes and new subscribers' email addresses to us at [email protected]. 30 percent are estimated to have been We welcome news articles and letters to the editor. Muslim. No fewer than 200,000 slaves All rights to submissions including emails and letters imported to North America came from will be treated as unconditionally assigned to Free areas in Africa where Islam was followed Press for publication and copyright purposes, and subject to our unrestricted right to edit and comment to some degree. editorially unless otherwise agreed with authors. When the legal importation of slaves was Free Press accepts tasteful nonpolitical advertising outlawed in 1808, so did most of the in- which we reserve the right to reject for any reason which in our sole judgment is not acceptable. Submit flux of Islam, though some illegal impor- advertising in pdf, jpg or text formats. Visit our web- tation continued. During the American site for rates and layout specifications. slavery era, many from Africa and their Contents of any Free Press issue are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in Although Said, shown here, converted to descendants adopted Christianity and its hopeful tenet of salvation, but some Afri- part for any reason without prior approval of the Christianity in 1820, he appears to have publisher. Underground Railroad Free Press is a regis- continued as a practicing Muslim based Please see Islam, page 3, column 2 tered trademark. 6125

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Editorial Home Stretch for the National Museum You're un-American, Mr. Trump. of African American History and Culture

It is hard to think of anything more 's bible. The handsewn You can help. American than immigration, as every dress that Rosa Parks held on her lap the A few weeks ago, Mr. Bunch announced American is either an immigrant or the day she refused to move to the back of creation of the Museum's North Star Soci- descendant of one, including Native the bus. An segregated railroad car from ety, a new tier of giving designed to at- Americans whose immigrant ancestors the Jim Crow era. A restored plane used tract widest possible attraction of new walked across the frozen Bering Strait to by the Tuskegee Airmen. Political memo- members who will commit to make small get here, perhaps the ultimate immigra- rabilia from President Obama's historic monthly gifts by credit card to ensure that tion story. campaign. And a growing treasure trove the Museum continues moving forward. With his xenophobic calls singling out of more than 33,800 paintings, sculptures, specific immigrant groups for exclusion costumes, music, films, African American As Bunch says, "For as little as $8 a month based on religion or region of origin, works of art, and other items. charged to your credit card, you can pro- vide ongoing funding the Museum needs presidential candidate Donald Trump For more than a dozen years, the staff of to complete our building, add to our taints the American ideal of welcoming the National Museum of African Ameri- growing collection, create thought-prov- inclusion of all peoples. can History and Culture has been assem- oking exhibitions, and provide a lens into bling the unsurpassed collection of Afri- But Mr. Trump is following in the foot- an inspiring story that unites us all." steps of angry fringe predecessors who can Americana which will make its debut throughout United States history have in September when the Museum, located Or give more in the North Star Society or repeatedly had their ugly xenophobia on the National Mall in Washington, DC, other donation programs. Whatever your thwarted. In early colonial days, Catholics will be officially opened and dedicated. level of support, you will become a Mu- seum member. Click on (or copy and were welcome only in Maryland. Later, But the work isn't done. Under the widely paste into your browser address bar) Scots-Irish newcomers were so disdained praised leadership of Founding Director http://s.si.edu/1P3eP0X. by British colonists that they elected to Lonnie Bunch, the Museum has raised 84 keep going all the way to the Appalachi- percent of its $270 million budget to Underground Railroad Free Press is a Char- ans, at the almost entirely unsettled. launch itself and needs to close the gap. ter Member of the Museum. German immigrants arriving in the late 100th Anniversary colonial era encountered a less than wel- coming attitude from British Americans. Islam In the mid-1800s, it was common to see can Americans retained Islam, passing it "No Irish need apply" signs in Boston. A down even into the 21st century. Thus century ago, Italians and eastern Europe- many Underground Railroad travelers in ans took their lumps. Chinese Americans, addition to Ayuba Sulieman Diallo and after building the Transcontinental Rail- Omar ibn Said were Muslim. road, were slapped with the Chinese Ex- The first foreign nation to recognize the clusion Act in 1882. Japanese Americans, United States diplomatically was the not a one of whom was ever convicted of Muslim Kingdom of Morocco in 1787. a seditious act, were corralled into con- centration camps in World War II. Migration of free Muslims to America, mainly from Yemen and Turkey, began in Now Mr. Trump wants to deal with ille- the 1840s, with immigration slowly grow- gal immigration by creating the spectacle ing until the Ottoman Empire's dissolu- of one of the most massive involuntary tion following World War I significantly The list of Muslim Americans occupying migrations in world history, and deal increased the numbers of Muslims arriv- prominent positions is long and includes with a few rogue Muslims by banning the ing in the United States. Members of Congress, scientists, Fortune 99+ percent of them who are peaceful and 500 CEOs, philanthropists, writers, enter- law-abiding. What you have already cre- During the 20th century Islam, Judaism tainers, professional athletes and artists. ated, Mr. Trump, is quaking fear in mil- and Buddhism established themselves as Some American Muslims who have be- lions of American homes and, according mainline religions alongside Christianity come especially distinguished are Repre- to polls, profound disgust with you in a in the United States. The 1960s saw splits sentatives Keith Ellison and Andre Car- majority of the rest. within American Islam, with factions headed by Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm son, Newsweek International Editor Fareed The American way, Mr. Trump, is to fight X drawing the disapproval of many tradi- Zakaria, jazz musicians Ahmad Jamal, your kind of fringe bigotry as our country tional American Muslims. Art Blakey and Yusef Lateef, at least 20 has done successfully, if sometimes too NBA and NFL players including all-time slowly, for over 200 years, and never to The distribution of origins of American basketball scoring leader Kareem Abdul- foster it. Only your brown-shirt roughs Muslims is as in the chart here. Of Ameri- Jabbar, heavyweight boxing champions are ready for your moral bankruptcy. cans who convert to Islam, nearly two- Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, six oth- America will never be. And the same thirds are African American, and more er boxing champions, supermodel Iman goes for you, Senator Cruz. than a quarter are white. and PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian.