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John Brown Day - Kansas
OSAWATOMIE, KS - Abolitionists from Tulsa and Phoenix gathered in Osawatomie, Kansas, on May 8 for a celebration of John Brown's 199th birthday. The day opened with a showing of "John Brown in Kansas," a black-and-white 16mm film interview with Brown biographer Truman Nelson. In the film, Nelson talks extensively on the mindset of Brown during his Kansas days and touched on what he called Brown's "revolutionary morality." A short Q&A session with the film's producer, Dr. Fred Whitehead, followed. Next was a ham and bean feed at the John Brown State Park, the site where the Battle of Osawatomie occurred and the present site of the Adair Cabin where John Brown and many "fugitive" slaves found refuge. After the feed a local actor came as John Brown in period dress and read his final speech to the court. For a closing of the day, we gathered at the Old Stone Church, built by Samuel and Florella Adair. Marvin Robinson of Kansas City gave a presentation on the Quindaro Underground Railroad Site and the efforts over the last twelve years to turn it into a city dump and current efforts to make it a golf course. Robinson and company have successfully kept the money interest and local politicians from destroying this sacred site. (The first statue of John Brown was erected at the site in 1910. It had to be cast in Italy, after being turned down by every major foundry in America. On its shipment home, customs agents broke the rifle out of Brown's hands.) And lastly, I spoke with the twenty or so people gathered in the church on abolition in the twenty-first century and what is meant by abolishing the white race. We were invited back next year for Brown's 200th birthday and asked to help with the planning. From the looks of things, I am reminded of what Owen Brown wrote to his father on the conditions he and the other abolitionists found themselves while in Kansas: "Bring arms, for we need them more than bread." |
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