Rediscovering the Legacy of Overlooked Voices

What if the stories of our ancestors held the key to a richer understanding of our shared history?
 
Today's episode features a captivating discussion with me, Carmen Cauthen, a passionate historian committed to unearthing the forgotten narratives of Black history. I share my vibrant journey of illuminating the voices of those long overlooked, from my work on a book about Mount Hope Cemetery—a site brimming with unspoken tales since 1872—to an inspiring event honoring the unrecognized Black women of Raleigh, North Carolina. My dedication paints a vivid picture of how these histories, including those captured in WPA slave narratives, lay the foundation for many untold achievements.

We navigate the significance of preserving hidden family histories, with my personal mantra, "lions and tigers and bears," driving her mission to ensure all historical truths are acknowledged. Through my stories, I encourage listeners to actively record and question their own family histories, moving beyond the incomplete narratives often taught. 

We explore the untold contributions of Black individuals in the Revolutionary War and celebrate the legacy of Carter G. Woodson, the father of African American history. This episode promises to deepen your understanding of history and inspire you to become a steward of your own family's past.

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Carmen Wimberley Cauthen is an author, speaker, and lover of history, Black history in particular. As a truth teller, she delights in finding the hidden truths about the lives of people who made a difference - whether they were unknown icons or regular everyday people.

To Learn more of Carmen:
www.carmencauthen.com
www.researchandresource.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
unseen, unheard.
We've lived like that far toolong.
I'm carmen coffin and this isquiet.
No more lions and tigers andbears.
Oh my, oh my.

(00:24):
What am I going to work on now?
I finished a book, I have acontract for another one.
I'm speaking.
Do you know how many thingssuddenly are in my head to do?
There are like six books and anevent.
Books and an event.

(00:44):
And I thought, well, maybe,maybe I should go see a doctor
and see if I have ADHD, becauseI spin all over the place.
But I love all of it, I love it, I love it, I love it.
So I am working on a book aboutthe Black Cemetery in our town,

(01:10):
and it's a Black cemetery thatwas built by the city.
It was coordinated or actuallycame into being because it was
by statute of the legislature tobeing, because it was by
statute of the legislature and ablack legislator during

(01:31):
Reconstruction asked for it tobe built.
He introduced the bill and soMount Hope Cemetery was started
in 1872, or the first peoplewere buried there in 1872.
And people are still buriedthere today.
But the old section is justamazing.
It's a pastoral hilly withtrees and little streets going

(01:56):
through it.
But when you walk through andyou read the headstones, it's
like walking through the historyof our city.
It is such a legacy of who didwhat, who built.
Big names, little names, peoplewhose names are in the WPA

(02:19):
slave narratives that werewritten in the 1930s and told
their stories about living inslavery are buried there.
People whose families wereprominent in the community,
black doctors and lawyers andpoliticians and business people,
women who did amazing things.

(02:41):
My own grandparents andgreat-grandparents are buried
there, and so that is one of thebooks that I'm working on.
But one of the other thingsthat I'm working on is an event
that I'm so excited about.
You know, my mother was acommunity activist, and I've

(03:04):
recognized that she just did notyet recognize for the things
that she did, and so when I toldyou earlier that I wanted to
write a book about my mother andnot a book about the Black
neighborhoods of Raleigh, it'sbecause I wanted to be sure that
her legacy was written downsomewhere, and as I began to

(03:30):
think about that book, Irealized that she was just one
of any number of women whoselegacies haven't been written
down.
Just in our community, most ofthe women that she was friends
with or colleagues with.
They didn't get any recognitionfor the things that they did,

(03:53):
and I began to understand thatblack women, the work that they
did, undergirded the work thatthe men did.
In fact, there were times whenthe work that they did was more
than the men did, but the menwould get the credit.
But the men would get thecredit.
And so I'm very excited to beplanning an event with some folk

(04:16):
for next year honoring mymother and the women who were
women of substance around them,and I decided I was going to go
back as far as I could and tryto recognize just the women
black women in Raleigh, northCarolina, and so this event is

(04:39):
going to honor women from the1800s forward who did amazing
things for their time and whodidn't get any recognition.
Who didn't get any recognition.
And so right now there areabout 175 women on my list and
I'm searching for more every day.
But that's not all I'm doing.

(05:03):
Next, I'm also researchingblacks in the military during
the Revolutionary War.
Growing up, we had a book at ourhouse.
It was a Brown book and it wascalled Negro Makers of History.
I didn't realize until aboutthree or four years ago that it

(05:28):
was a first edition of a bookthat was written by Carter G
Woodson, and Carter G Woodsonwas considered the father of
African American history.
Here's the reason why wecelebrate Black History Month.
He originally started it outwith Black History Week and
eventually it expanded to be amonth because he knew that there

(05:52):
was black history every day,365 days a year, and he had a
society that studiedAfrican-American history.
And he wrote this book calledNegro Makers of History, and
it's been in our library eversince I was a little girl, but I

(06:13):
didn't realize the value of it.
I don't mean the financialvalue, although there is some of
that, but I didn't realize thatthe history that was there wasn
was the fact that CrispusAttucks was the first American

(06:36):
to be killed during theRevolutionary War.
He was Black and he lived inBoston or outside of Boston, and
so I never heard about therebeing blacks from North Carolina
in the Revolutionary War untilI heard about John Chavis.
But lo and behold, as I dig, Ifind that there were blacks from

(07:01):
all over the 13 colonies thatwere part of the Revolutionary
War.
In fact, there was a gentlemanfrom Wake County who was
enslaved, and his enslaver wasin Wake County and left and took
his possessions, including hisslaves, and went to Georgia and

(07:24):
then he paid this gentleman togo and serve in the war for him.
That's how this black gentlemanin Georgia got land, because
one of the ways that what theycall pensioners got money for
serving or were paid for servingin the Revolutionary War, they

(07:47):
were given land, they were givendeeds to acres of land, and
this gentleman, who was fromWake County, which is where
Raleigh, north Carolina, is wasenslaved and paid by his master
or his enslaver to go and fightthe war for him, because that

(08:11):
white man did not want to gofight and so he received land
for that, as well as being paidby his enslaver.
And so we can go back throughrecords and find out where
people have served and how theywere paid, how much land they

(08:31):
received.
And when you consider howpeople who were enslaved, or
even people who weren't enslaved, free people of color, received
land, that's an amazing thing.
All of these things that I'mlearning, I don't want to just

(08:52):
teach them to adults, I wantyoung people to learn them as
well.
So the first book that I didabout the city of Raleigh and
its black neighborhoods, Icreated a workbook, coloring
book for young people, probablyfifth grade and up, and so it's
got games and it's gotinformation in it.

(09:15):
That's not in the first bookthat I did and I've decided to
continue doing that.
So I'm working on a book and anevent about my mom.
The book about my mom is alsogoing to include information
about her sisters and herbrother and recipes that they

(09:36):
either passed on from theirparents or recipes that they
excelled at making, like my AuntArnett's German chocolate cake
that I could literally eat everyday because it was just
wonderful.
We used to fight over herGerman chocolate cake.
We would cut a slice and hideit to make sure that we had a

(09:59):
piece at a family dinner, andthat recipe is going to go in
this book and I'm excited aboutthat.
That's one of the things I usedto talk to my doctor about was
that one recipe book, and sheloved my history book, but she

(10:19):
was like you need to hurry upand write the cookbook because
she wanted the recipes, and soshe passed a couple of years ago
, and so the book will not onlybe dedicated to the Grady girls,
but it will be dedicated to heras well, and I also am working
on other books about not justthe Revolutionary War, but as

(10:46):
part of the event that we'redoing next year, doing a book
about the women that we aregoing to be honoring.
You know, it is just importantfor us to write down the history
that we know.
We have learned history, but wehaven't learned all of what

(11:08):
there is to learn, and, ofcourse, we'll never learn all
that there is.
But one of the things that I doknow is that the history of
America was written by peoplewho could read and write, and
people who were doing thatreading and writing for economic
benefit.
They were doing it to keep upwith their money, and that was

(11:31):
white men.
And so women, whether they'reblack or white, indigenous,
native Americans, people whocame from other countries and
stayed here and became citizenswe all need to be writing our
history down.

(11:52):
It doesn't matter what yourfamily members did.
What's important is that theydid it, and if they hadn't done
it, that's a piece of ourhistory that would have been
missing, and so your piece isjust as important as any
president of the United States.
Your family's piece isimportant.

(12:15):
So those things that you thinkyou know when you're going
through things that are in thecloset or the attic.
Those things that your familykept.
Those were precious things, theland that your family was able
to purchase.
Don't get rid of it.
It's important that they wereable to do that and it's

(12:36):
important that you not only knowthe stories behind them, but
that you tell the stories.
It's part of the history of ourcountry that we need to be sure
is told, and so I'm telling whatI can.
But you know, there are partsthat are hidden in your house or

(12:56):
that are hidden in the storiesthat your parents and
grandparents know, that youhaven't shared and you might not
have paid attention when theywere telling you, because you
were a kid and it wasn'timportant to you then.
But it's important now.
You've got a phone.
Pull it out.
It's got a recording device onit.

(13:18):
Start asking questions and saycan I just take what you said?
Because we've got to make surethat all the parts of our
history are told and verifiedand that we no longer take for
granted that what we're beingtaught is all of the truth.
Those are the next things.

(13:41):
Those are my lions and tigersand bears.
Oh my, I have to keep tellingit.
I'm not going to be quietanymore.
You've been listening to Quietno More where I share my journey
.
So you can be quiet, let'sconnect at wwwcarmencoffincom.