16859: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-IMMIGRANT WORKERS' FREEDOM RIDE (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Mon, Sep. 29, 2003

IMMIGRANT WORKERS' FREEDOM RIDE
Haitians revisit role in U.S. history
Riders on the Immigrant Workers' Freedom Bus learn of Haitian soldiers' role
in America's Revolutionary War.
BY RICHARD BRAND
rbrand@herald.com




HONOR: Deacon Raymond Lawrence looks forward to seeing a monument to Haitian
soldiers who fought in the American Revolution. NOELLE THEARD/HERALD STAFF


SAVANNAH, Ga. - Participants in the Immigrant Workers' Freedom Ride stopped
in this Southern city Sunday, the future home of a statue to honor Haitian
soldiers who died in the Battle of the Siege of Savannah.

''If only people knew what we contributed at Savannah,'' said Daniel
Fils-Aimé, executive director of the Miami-based Haitian-American Historical
Society. ``If it wasn't for the Haitians, America might not be America
today.''

Seeking recognition for their contribution is the goal of Haitians and
migrant workers on the bus, who are demanding equality under immigration
laws.

The ''freedom bus'' left Miami Saturday and will travel across the South for
eight days in transit to Washington, D.C., and New York City for rallies.
Today it will be in the Carolinas.

Sunday's stop in Savannah is of special significance to South Florida
Haitians, who will be asked to help finance the $2 million statue project.

Among those spearheading the effort is Joe Celestin, the mayor of North
Miami and the nation's first Haitian-American mayor.

Celestin and Fils-Aimé first brought the idea of a memorial to Savannah
leaders about two years ago.

Now, they're tapping Haitian-Americans for donations to pay for the
monument's design and construction.

''Between Boston, Miami, New York and the rest of the United States, we are
four million people. We won't have difficulty raising that money,'' Celestin
pledged.

The statue will honor the estimated 545 Haitian soldiers who fought
alongside American troops during the second bloodiest battle of the
Revolutionary War, the Siege of Savannah, waged here almost 224 years ago.

The Siege of Savannah was a low point in American military history. Tipped
off about an imminent raid by revolutionary fighters, British forces holding
Savannah killed more than a thousand French and Americans during the Oct. 9,
1779, attack.

''It was a tremendously violent 55 minutes,'' said Scott Smith, director of
Savannah's Coastal Heritage Society. Historians now say that a contingent of
Haitian reinforcements entered the battle at a critical moment, allowing
many American and French forces to flee to safety and ultimate victory at
Yorktown.

''It gave people the chance to run for their lives,'' said Fils-Aimé. ``If
it wasn't for the Haitians, it would have been even more of a disaster.''

Among the fighters was a teenage Henri Christophe, who would become a leader
in Haiti's own revolution, and later king.

But few details about Haitians' participation are available. Haitian
military archives were lost in a fire in the 19th century.

The monument will stand in Benjamin Franklin square across from the First
African Baptist Church, the oldest of its kind in the nation. It was founded
by slaves in 1773.

Its leader, Rev. Thurmond Tillman, has rallied his congregation behind the
monument's construction, saying it reflects recent changes in Savannah's
racial history.

''We never had any monuments dedicated to African Americans or blacks. Now
we have several,'' Tillman said.

For riders of the freedom bus, Sunday's stop proved to be a history lesson,
as they listened to stories of the soldiers' courage.

Some Haitians on the bus say they don't understand why the United States has
stricter immigration policies toward Haitians, even though their ancestors
helped in the fight for American independence.

''The U.S. government has forgotten what the Haitian people did for this
country,'' said Ceroul Ferdinand, 50, a Haitian riding the bus.

''Very little has been written about these people,'' said Todd Gross,
executive director of the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, of the
soldiers who fought under the French flag.

``I don't know if it's just a combination of the fact that they were
overlooked because they were black or . . . because there were so few of
them.''

North Miami's mayor has made the statue a crusade.

Celestin and Savannah Mayor Floyd Adams Jr. the city's first black mayor,
traveled to Haiti this summer and visited the port of St. Mark, where
Haitian soldiers embarked to fight in America.

At the First African Baptist church in Savannah, a storied building that was
once a stop on the Underground Railroad, Deacon Raymond Lawrence draws a
parallel between the Haitian soldiers' experience and that of his own
ancestors.

``There were American blacks who fought in the Revolutionary War and, after
that war, they weren't treated fairly. So I can relate to the Haitians

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