Celebrating Black History Month — E Pluribus Unum: “Out of Many, One”

Pamela Wright, President General

February 16, 2024

As we celebrate Black History Month, I wanted to take a moment to highlight DAR’s ongoing E Pluribus Unum (EPU) Educational Initiative! This initiative was launched in 2020 with the goal of increasing awareness of often underrepresented Revolutionary War Patriots, including those who were African American, Native American, and women. These inspirational individuals may not have received the honors afforded to other Patriots of the time, but still chose to fight for this country’s freedom, even if they themselves were not yet free.

The three primary goals of the E Pluribus Unum Educational Initiative are:

Expand research on the experiences of people of color, including Patriots of African, Indigenous, non-European or mixed-heritage descent.
Discover additional names and stories of Patriots of Color who supported the American Revolution and contributed to the cause of Independence.
Provide more historical, educational and genealogical resources about people of color and women during the Colonial period on our DAR website.

As our effort to celebrate, support scholarship, and expand resources on African American Patriots occurs all year round, please be sure to keep an eye out on the E Pluribus Unum website for future updates happening throughout the year and beyond! Some of these updates will include; new profiles on these brave Patriots, additional genealogical resources, and information on collaborations related to this initiative.

Many ongoing efforts and initiatives of DAR Headquarters departments, national committees and collaborations with other genealogical and historical organizations support the important mission of EPU in promoting how diversified participants assisted in the creation of our nation. Here are a few recent highlights:

Resources

Our DAR Library and members across the country continue to do wonderful work in honoring African American Patriots by expanding our resources and recognizing their brave actions! The African American Genealogical Research at the DAR Library is a great first step to finding historical records and journals based on state. Updates from our Specialty Research Committee and the African American Research team are always useful webpages to monitor if you are looking to learn more about African American genealogy. If you are interested in placing historic markers to honor Patriots of Color in your community learn more from the Historian General’s webpage.

Building upon research from the DAR resource guide, “Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War,” published in the early 2000s, the Patriots of Color Database makes finding names of African American and Native American Patriots more accessible. As new names are identified through research and DAR applications that are submitted, the names of the Patriots and the resources they are found in are added to the online database. The work to expand the database and its resources is ongoing!

Collections & Exhibits

The DAR Museum online exhibition “Remembrance of Noble Actions: African Americans and Native Americans in the Revolutionary War” on the E Pluribus Unum website shares many narratives along with visuals of objects and documents that help tell the story of underrepresented Patriots. The exhibition seeks to explore the broader dilemmas each of these populations faced in deciding to fight for American Independence, as well as shed light on individuals’ specific contributions to the war effort.

The DAR Museum collection and their recent portrait exhibition include a hollow-cut profile of Prince Simbo, a Black Revolutionary War Patriot who was a Private from the 7th Connecticut Regiment. Highlighting the objects and stories of the lives of Black Americans in exhibits and programming is an important part of the DAR Museum mission. Including the Prince Simbo profile in the portrait exhibit also aligns with the DAR E Pluribus Unum mission to highlight the contributions of underrepresented Patriots of the American Revolution. Learn more about Prince Simbo from a blog post when the DAR Museum first acquired the hollow-cut profile a few years ago.

External Collaborations

For the past few years the DAR has been collaborating with the American Battlefield Trust on the American Revolution Experience exhibition. The award-winning interactive online exhibition launched a couple years ago while a physical traveling exhibit was just created with four copies currently journeying the country to our very own DAR chapters and their communities! Coupling DAR’s archive of documents and artifacts with the Trust’s industry-leading digital content, the exhibit shares the experiences of ordinary people who witnessed the dawn of a new nation. While the online and traveling exhibit covers a variety of individuals’ experiences, African American Patriots, such as Thomas Carney, William Flora and Winsor Fry are prominent fixtures. Working with the Trust on this project strengthens our aim to expand research on the experiences of people of color in the Revolution, tell the stories of their amazing contributions, and add to our own online resources. Please find more information on the exhibition schedule and hosting opportunities on the exhibition webpage!

We are also excited to work with the 10 Million Names project, led by American Ancestors, as one of their founding collaborative institutions! The overall goal of the project is to expand access to data, resources, and information about enslaved African Americans and assist those searching for answers to family history questions. To help highlight the contributions of Black Patriots during the Revolutionary War, DAR provided its Patriots of Color data to the 10 Million Names project subsection: “On the Battlefield: Records of Soldiers, Veterans, and Refugees.” Stay tuned for more information on the project when 10 Million Names publishes the data later this year! Collaborating with the 10 Million Names is an extension of the E Pluribus Unum Initiative as DAR expands research on the experiences of people of color in the Revolution while collecting more names to the Patriots of Color database.

Last year, DAR provided a donation to support the Museum of the American Revolution’s Living History Youth Summer Institute. The Institute is a six-week intensive program for young adults interested in interpreting the lives of people with African ancestry in the Revolutionary era and involves guest speakers, research projects, and field study. The course prepares participants to explore careers in cultural heritage, museum, and theater fields. The DAR is proud to support the next generation of historians, educators, and cultural heritage keepers!

We continue to learn so much from the E Pluribus Unum Educational Initiative’s ongoing efforts and are proud of the new relationships we are forming with other organizations in our common efforts to expand research and highlight incredible stories. We look forward to sharing future projects and collaborations of the initiative as well as how members can become more involved in the efforts.

Out of many brave people, actions, ideas, and sacrifices, one beautiful country was born. Join me in honoring the important impact our African American Patriots had in shaping this country not only this Black History Month but every month!

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