Celebrating Black History Month
Honoring TOBIAS AND ELIZABETH CARTER,
Ancestors of THE LATE CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS
Our Letter to the Late Congressman-Written but not Delivered.
Dear Congressman Lewis,
My housing civil rights colleagues and I were moved in our hearts while viewing the "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates" segment that featured your ancestral roots. highlighting the lives of Tobias and Elizabeth Carter, your great grandparents. In viewing the Gates program, we were so inspired and learned so much to admire and respect about the Carters. Within the context of fair housing, their story is unique.
The first civil rights act, passed in 1866, is the genesis of our modern mission to ensure equal access to housing regardless of race, color, religion national origin, sex, disability, familial status and a host of other state-enacted "protected" characteristics. Remarkably, Tobias and Elizabeth accomplished three things that Blacks, under the system of slavery, could not do. Your great -grandfather, Tobias, had been a slave until ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865- freeing Tobias and Elizabeth Carter to marry-"jump the broom".
Three years after the 1866 Act, in 1869, the Carters actually did what the first civil rights law provided -- purchased, owned and subsequently sold property. Moreover, during that same period, Tobias and Elizabeth Carter actually stepped forward, showed courage (as you did until the last minute of your life ) and registered to vote/ voted. Their historical achievements and their legacy completely embody the crux of fair housing work and their story should be told as often as is possible.
Congressman Lewis, you life and your civil rights legacy, leave us with this conclusion, embodied your ancestral roots. --A family tie is like a tree, it can bend but it cannot break--African Proverb.
An Apple as magnificent as your bloodline does not fall far from the tree.
Anonymous Advocates for Fair Housing
My housing civil rights colleagues and I were moved in our hearts while viewing the "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates" segment that featured your ancestral roots. highlighting the lives of Tobias and Elizabeth Carter, your great grandparents. In viewing the Gates program, we were so inspired and learned so much to admire and respect about the Carters. Within the context of fair housing, their story is unique.
The first civil rights act, passed in 1866, is the genesis of our modern mission to ensure equal access to housing regardless of race, color, religion national origin, sex, disability, familial status and a host of other state-enacted "protected" characteristics. Remarkably, Tobias and Elizabeth accomplished three things that Blacks, under the system of slavery, could not do. Your great -grandfather, Tobias, had been a slave until ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865- freeing Tobias and Elizabeth Carter to marry-"jump the broom".
Three years after the 1866 Act, in 1869, the Carters actually did what the first civil rights law provided -- purchased, owned and subsequently sold property. Moreover, during that same period, Tobias and Elizabeth Carter actually stepped forward, showed courage (as you did until the last minute of your life ) and registered to vote/ voted. Their historical achievements and their legacy completely embody the crux of fair housing work and their story should be told as often as is possible.
Congressman Lewis, you life and your civil rights legacy, leave us with this conclusion, embodied your ancestral roots. --A family tie is like a tree, it can bend but it cannot break--African Proverb.
An Apple as magnificent as your bloodline does not fall far from the tree.
Anonymous Advocates for Fair Housing
