Vassar’s Hidden History video series examines aspects of U.S. history that have been untaught, modified, or erased. It sheds light on historical injustices that are implicated in current disparities in everything from health and financial outcomes to criminal justice.
For the men and women of Celebrating the African Spirit (CAS), every month is Black History Month. For more than three decades, the organization’s predecessor, the Black History Project Committee, has been rewriting history by shedding light on African Americans’ contributions to life in the Hudson Valley since Europeans started settling here more than 400 years ago. And since it morphed into CAS, the group has been taking steps to memorialize the contributions of the thousands of African and African American men, women, and children who were brought up the Hudson River in the 18th and 19th centuries and delivered to slave owners.
By Larry Hertz