THE NATION'S LARGEST AFRICAN AMERICAN ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVE June 22, 2018 - Vol. 1, Issue 38

Children Separated From Parents: The Black Experience

Reverend France A. Davis Asa Hilliard, III Artis Hampshire-Cowan

Following the adoption of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “zero-tolerance policy” in April, over 2,300 migrant children were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. 2 The paradox of the policy--which was reversed on Wednesday--was not lost among many Americans, who were reminded of past traumas, including the forced separation of black families by white slaveholders. 3 During slavery, the routine separation of children from their parents rendered black families both illegitimate and unrecognizable. 4 In his interview, Reverend France A. Davis spoke of his maternal family history, where his grandfather and great-uncle were sold to different families as children. As a result, the brothers took on different names: “His brother and he were separated, and that’s the last name--Cooper is the master’s name for my grandfather, whose name was July. His brother’s last name was Cummings because he was sold to a Cummings.” 5 [Reverend France A. Davis, THMDA 1.1.3] . In the modern day detention facilities, siblings of different genders are unable to stay together. 6 Amid the concerns over the current administration's policy reversal is the issue of reuniting children with their families. Educational psychology professor Asa Hilliard, III ’s enslaved ancestor, Jim Shankle, escaped from a plantation in Mississippi to locate his wife, who had been sold to a family in Texas: “He was able to swim across the Mississippi River and walk four hundred miles barefoot and find his wife with these people, and reunited…or else I wouldn’t be here, because my mother wouldn’t have been here.” 7 [Asa Hilliard, III, THMDA 1.1.3] . Less triumphant than Hilliard's story, Artis Hampshire-Cowan 's paternal ancestors after emancipation had traveled south from Virginia in search of their daughter: “They traveled south because they’d had a child who had been sold into slavery into New Orleans…they ended up in Mobile along the gulf because there was a cost to get the ferry…they didn’t have the resources to get across the bridge, so they essentially ended up in the area my family settled in.” 8 [Artis Hampshire-Cowan, THMDA 1.1.5] . Scholars acknowledge the ongoing effects of slavery, despite legalized abolition. I n his scholarship on the subject, Orlando Patterson delineated the “anatomy of power” and domination that is inherent to slavery. In Slavery and Social Death he wrote: “By the idiom of power I mean the principal way in which power is immediately interpreted in socially and cognitively acceptable terms. It is the way in which power is most meaningfully presented to, and understood by, those who wield it and by the members of their community.” 9 The power structure necessary to maintain systems like slavery belies both humanity and social responsibility. Furthermore, the effects of child-parent separation are especially stark. A recent petition by Child’s World America underscored the severity: “To pretend that separated children do not grow up with the shrapnel of this traumatic experience embedded in their minds is to disregard everything we know about child development, the brain, and trauma.” 10 As such, it is imperative that the country addresses--sooner rather than later--the consequences of the recent administrative action.

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NOTES:

1. BANNER PHOTO: Image of a slave auction sale. Courtesy of The Milwaukee Independent. Accessed June 22, 2018. http://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/slaveauctionsale.jpg 2. Camila Domonoske and Richard Gonzales, “What We Know: Family Separation and ‘Zero Tolerance’ at the Border,” NPR.org. June 19, 2018. Accessed June 22, 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/06/19/621065383/what-we-know-family-separation-and-zero-tolerance-at-the-border. 3. Russell Contreras, “Other times in history when the U.S. separated families.” The Chicago Tribune, June 20, 2018. Accessed June 22, 2018. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-family-separation-history-20180620-story.html. 4. Charles A. Taylor, Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom . Open Hand Publishing (2002). 5. Reverend France A. Davis (The HistoryMakers A2008.049), interviewed by Larry Crowe, March 13, 2008, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 3, Reverend France A. Davis describes her mother's family background. 6. Katy Vine, "A Pediatrician's View Into a Border Patrol Processing Center," Texas Monthly. June 19, 2018. Accessed June 22, 2018. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/pediatricians-view-border-patrol-processing-center/. 7. Asa Hilliard, III (The HistoryMakers A2003.098), interviewed by Larry Crowe, May 6, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 3, Asa Hilliard recalls his family history during and after slavery. 8. Artis Hampshire-Cowan (The HistoryMakers A2010.060), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 27, 2010, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 5, Artis Hampshire-Cowan describes her father's family background. 9. Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Harvard University Press (1985). 10. William Wan, “What separation from parents does to children: ‘The effect is catastrophic,’” The Washington Post. June 18, 2018. Accessed June 22, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/what-separation-from-parents-does-to-children-the-effect-is-catastrophic/2018/06/18/c00c30ec-732c-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html?utm_term=.e2cd63c82ecf.

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