By Kimyatta Newby,
Special to the AFRO
In efforts to sustain the legacy of Harriet Tubman, the legendary abolitionist’s great-great-great grandniece Enerstine Tina Wyatt has made it her personal mission to spread the true history of her aunt.
Wyatt is a co-founder of the Harriet Tubman Day Washington District of Columbia (HTDWDC). After four years of hosting, Wyatt had developed a partnership with the National Archives to host an event officially but public lockdown restrictions of COVID-19 moved the event to a virtual setting. By 2021 and 2022, Wyatt was invited to public events honoring elder Tubman. By 2023, she was able to host the event in person.
This year, on March 2, Wyatt hosted the annual Harriet Tubman Day celebrations at Westminster Presbyterian Church for the second time. This event included refreshments, special guest speakers such as Caleb Camara, the associate director of the Mayor’s Office of African American Affairs and performances.
Wyatt stated the purpose of Harriet Tubman Day events is to interact with alternative learning, a “Celebrate to Educate” ceremony is how she referred to it.
“Some states are changing their curriculum to not talk about our history, Black history,” said Wyatt. “We’re losing funding in schools and programs and people aren’t going to churches to learn history, it feels like we’re being written out. We need to share our history, share our culture. ‘Celebrate to Educate’ gives another way to understand history.”
However, Wyatt stated that there aren’t many youths who attend these events because of its timing.
“We previously hosted in the evening but, with it being Saturday, I’m hoping more young people can attend because they don’t have school,” Wyatt said.
There were over 60 attendees that filled the chairs of the church, including young children. Most attendees were seniors who ranged from members of the church, strangers who heard from others or seen flyers, even peers of those involved with the event.
The ceremony opened with a prayer connecting not only where the event took place, a church, but also Tubman’s faith in God.
Wyatt then introduced the Harriet Tubman event and the mistress of ceremony Jessica Faith, Storm Team 4 meteorologist, the first Black woman meteorologist on TV for WPXI-TV, Pittsburgh 11.
“It’s wonderful that we started the second day of Women’s History Month with such a revolutionary that is Harriet Tubman. We need Black women to be appreciated and highlighted properly in history because Black women are often dismissed or mis-remembered,” stated Faith.
After Faith provided a few words to honor Tubman’s legacy, there was a Presentation of Colors to honor Tubman’s service in the Civil War, along with the American National Anthem and the Black National Anthem,“Lift Every Voice and Sing.” To her service, Lt. Gen. (LTG) Scott Dingle, retired as of March 1, provided more insight on Tubman’s character and her work citing her as an inspiration that remained unconquerable and undefeated.
“In this time and age, we need to all remember Harriet Tubman’s character and remain invictus,” Dingle said. “Harriet Tubman said she had the right to two things: ‘liberty or death’ and she fought for freedom, as should the rest of us. Let her inspire.”
The Washington Revels Jubilee Singers, an ensemble who performs to preserve Black history through music, poetry and dance, performed two songs and engaged with the crowd teaching ring shout, similar to a call and response technique. Poems were then performed by guests within the church.
Edda Fields-Black, history professor at Carnegie Mellon University spoke last. Fields-Black is a descendant of Africans enslaved on rice plantations in Colleton County, S.C. She learned this due to her great-great-great grandfather’s participation in the Combahee River Raid of June 2, 1863. Rice history in the diaspora is one of her most extensively studied topics.
At this ceremony, Fields-Black introduced her book “COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War,” which was published in February. The book has thorough research, including primary sources of letters, maps, and written documents. It depicts Tubman’s involvement in the Combahee River Raid, destroying rice plantations and notes the raid as one of the largest slave rebellions in the U.S.
“Hariet Tubman and the members of the River Raid freed 756 enslaved people and destroyed 7 rice plantations,” stated Field-Black. “This was the largest US slave rebellion, only second to the Haitian Revolution.”Camara presented Wyatt with a proclamation that officially declares March 10 as Harriet Tubman Day in Washington, D.C. Wyatt hopes to continue to tell the full story of her aunt beyond Tubman’s role as conductor of the Underground Railroad and focus more on her civil rights history as a spy.