In the midst of a pivotal presidential election, I decided to carve out time this weekend for a historic ritual: a Black family reunion, a tradition that began in the post-emancipation era when formerly enslaved men and women sought to reunite with family members who had been separated or sold by slave masters.
An 1865 Tennessee newspaper advertisement, provided by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, describes this quest.
“Samul Dove wishes to know the location of his mother Aleno, sisters Maria, Nesia and Peggy and brother Edmond. They were owned by George Dove of Rockingham County in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. They were sold in Richmond and Samul and Edmond were subsequently taken to Nashville, Tennessee by Joe Mick. Aleno was left behind at the Eagle Tavern in Richmond.”
“Sincerely yours, SAML. DOVE. Utica, New York, August 5, 1865.”
The museum explains: “As the waves of emancipation swept across the nation, many African Americans sought to reunite with lost family members and sought to define family roles and responsibilities in ways that they thought best suited their new circumstances. Their efforts emphasized the importance of family as the foundation of their status as free people.”
Regardless of the size of the gathering, regular solidarity with loved ones remains a powerful yet under-noticed force that strengthens connections in Black communities.
That explains why more than 100 family and friends of the Stone-Walker family will gather in the DMV this weekend to celebrate Janie and Sterling Stone and Lettie and Joe Walker, two Mississippi couples who married in the 1800s and left legacies, and they'll be in town from areas like Seattle, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles. Other families will come from West Hartford, Connecticut; Philadelphia; Brooklyn and the Bronx; South Salem, New York; Clarksdale, Mississippi; and Pembroke Pines, Florida. Families will also be coming from Gaithersburg, Alexandria and Washington, D.C.
I am here as Gwen's husband, tracing her lineage from her mother, Henry Walker Stewart Good, to Lettie and Joe Walker of Okolona, ​​North Mississippi. Absent this year, a special family memorial will be the memory of Gwen's cousin, “Black Eagle” Joe Madison, Radio Hall of Fame inductee, who passed away in January at age 74.
Like family reunions across the country, ours will be a weekend of storytelling and reminiscing. Memories will be shared, laughs will be made, cries will be shed, and elders will teach the younger ones things they could never learn in school.
It will be a weekend that once again touches upon the broader dimensions of American life today. How can we avoid speaking, even in a moment of celebration, about the issues that plague our daily lives? The deep-rooted social, political and cultural conflicts that are dividing our country?
The siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins ​​and parents who have come together under the Stonewalker umbrella are as diverse in their professions as they are geographically dispersed: participants include communications professionals, health care workers, educators, students, lawyers, trade union representatives, entrepreneurs, politicians, current and former public servants and community activists, and more, to discuss how they see things from where they sit.
Don't get me wrong, there will be a lot of time dedicated to photo ops and donning family T-shirts, and there will be no parades, but we will toast to kinship and recognize that family today reflects bonds forged not necessarily by blood or gender, but by love, and that will be reflected in the faces on display.
While I can’t be sure, I am confident that the names Joe Biden and Donald Trump will come up in conversations about the important issues facing the Stonewalker family and at Black family reunions across the country.
Neither the current nor former presidents will be the subject of formal political debate — that's not what the reunion is for — but I suspect that relatives will talk about them, and the future of the Stonewalker clan and groups like them around the country will turn.
Make no mistake: divisive forces that use fear and hate as lightning rods run rampant in this country. The long journey that began in Mississippi for Lettie and Joe Walker, and Janie and Sterling Stone, where cotton was king and the lynch mobs knew it, has been an uphill battle to get to where their descendants are today, and it's still an uphill battle.
Painful experience teaches us the harsh reality that every generation must win the same victories over and over again. This is the importance of this weekend's gathering.
Family resilience, reflected in the Stone-Walker family reunion, is key to the fight.
