Quiet No More

Reclaiming the Voices Lost in History's Shadows

• Carmen Cauthen

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America's history is often defined by the voices that recorded it, leaving many untold stories in the margins. 

Today, I challenge the conventional narratives and bring to light the essential contributions of women, Native Americans, African Americans, and immigrants whose stories have been overshadowed. 

I, Carmen Cauthen, invite you to explore these overlooked perspectives, sparking a necessary conversation about reshaping our historical understanding. We'll examine the biases present in traditional histories and recognize that every family's story is a vital piece of America's complex puzzle.

Embark with me on a transformative journey as I uncover my own heritage and its place within the tapestry of American history. This introspection has fueled my passion as a citizen and advocate, driving me to ensure that diverse voices are heard and honored. I'll address the significant gaps in educational representation and discuss how bringing these stories to the forefront empowers us all. As we connect through these narratives, we forge a path toward a more inclusive and truthful representation of our shared history. 

Join this empowering dialogue and be inspired to reconnect with your own roots.

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Carmen Wimberley Cauthen is an author, speaker, and lover of history, Black history in particular. As a truth teller, she delights in finding the hidden truths about the lives of people who made a difference - whether they were unknown icons or regular everyday people.

To Learn more of Carmen:
www.carmencauthen.com
www.researchandresource.com

Speaker 1:

Unseen, unheard. We've lived like that far too long. I'm Carmen Coffin and this is Quiet, no More. So let's talk about history in America. I have some questions and I have some answers for me, but they might not be the same as the questions and answers that you have. Let me ask this one when did the history of America come from? Now, think about that, because your answer might be different from mine.

Speaker 1:

I remember what I was taught in school from the first days that I went to school, but what I've recognized today is that the history of America was written by people who could read and write. That was number one. And people who were doing that reading and writing to make sure that their economic circumstances were captured that was white men. Now, you might not agree with that, but I promise you it's true. So for me, if you are anything other than a white man, if you are a woman of any race or color or creed, if you are native to, if your family was native to this country before white men showed up, if you were an immigrant, if you were an immigrant, you need to be writing your family history down, because that history is part of America's history, but it wasn't necessarily recorded, it wasn't necessarily considered important. When you think about most of the things that happen in America, it's behind money. Now a lot of us say that it's behind religion, but the people who could afford to come here, who were white from other countries, they had to have money to come. They didn't come because they were just trying to get away, unless they were indentured servants, and that was still about money. And so you know, most African Americans didn't come here on their own. They were stolen from other countries or sold from other countries and brought here. And so whose history have we learned? This is not about telling you that you need to practice critical race theory, because I don't know anything about that except for what I've read. This is about the truth of America's history. What I learned at school was what was in school books that were written by white people and in some cases, were passed down to my school after white people had finished using them because they weren't considered any good anymore. But my family history wasn't written into that history, and so that's what I do now is I try to search and find and share the history of America from my family's point of view, not just my Grady, winn, wimberly, wilson family, not just from my Coffin family, but from my Black people's family and from my Native American family, because all of that is in my background.

Speaker 1:

How much of what you know about your family's history is part of America's history. Know about your family's history is part of America's history, and did you ever think about that? Your family's history was an important part of America's history. Have you considered that if you pulled your family's part of American history away and it's a puzzle which it is, it's a puzzle which it is then the puzzle can't be completed because that piece has been removed. Your family's history is so important and so, if you've been thinking about it from a genealogical standpoint, dates and facts, think about it differently. Think about this is a piece of the puzzle of America's history. My part, my family's part, needs to be a part of that storytelling and we all do have that. How do you start to write that down so that it can be documented, so that it can be a part of America's history much longer than what you will remember to tell or the parts that you will remember?

Speaker 1:

How did you learn about America's history? There are so many ways to have learned it. We watched TV to learn it, but we actually started learning it when we first started school, whether that was you started in nursery school or daycare or kindergarten or elementary school. We have been learning about America's history all along. If you had time at your family table, dinner table during holidays, or just sitting around and having conversations with your grandparents and your parents, you've learned some American history, but that probably wasn't what was in your textbooks or what was talked about when you were at school. So you have to be sure to put your own pieces of America's history together, and that's what I'm working on.

Speaker 1:

So when I talk about the history of Raleigh's Black neighborhoods something that I didn't learn about until I was in my late 50s I just assumed the neighborhoods had always been there. That wasn't true. There was a reason that they were where they were. There were reasons why black people were situated in Southeast Raleigh. If you look around in your own neighborhood, in your own locality, you're going to see the same things that I see, but you might have an issue in terms of not ever having thought about how did those neighborhoods get to be, especially if you don't live in those neighborhoods. You just drive through occasionally. You have no idea what's in the depths of the neighborhoods. You have no idea of the struggles that people had to buy homes, to lease places to stay. You have no idea of the kinds of occupations that people had or what they had to do in order to be educated. Those are the pieces of American history that have been left out and we have to be sure that they are part and parcel. I learned about the presidents and you know I could only learn about white presidents when I was growing up up, because that's all there had been.

Speaker 1:

When I hear young people tell me today they don't know anything about Martin Luther King, that's an anomaly to me. But it also says why is there only Martin Luther King that we need to talk about? Martin Luther King that we need to talk about. Why aren't there other black men and women in all walks of life that we don't talk about in the classroom? They did things. Why aren't there Native Americans that we talk about in the classroom other than Pocahontas, if we talk about her? And a lot of people think that Pocahontas is a cartoon character. That's not true. She was a real woman and since I mentioned her, let me ask you if you knew that, whatever the mother was during a long period of time.

Speaker 1:

In terms of race, the manufacturer of race children followed the race of the mother. So in the case of someone like Pocahontas, who was a Native American who married John Smith, and they at some point lived in England, but the land that John Smith had in Virginia was not his, because their children followed the race of the mother and that was Native American, they were not allowed, those children were not allowed to inherit their father's land. Did you know that? Did you also know, if you didn't know that, did you know that the legislature in the state of Virginia passed a law to allow only John Smith's progeny or his children to inherit his land? Otherwise they would have not been allowed to inherit the land that their father owned, that he had bought, that he had. I don't know how he got the land. I'm just going to assume he bought it from somebody who took it from Native Americans when they came here. But is that something that you were taught in school? I didn't learn that in school. I didn't learn that until much later. I didn't learn that in school. I didn't learn that until much later.

Speaker 1:

I get concerned now because I realize that so many of the things that we have taught our children, that we have been taught ourselves, that we have been I don't want to say indoctrinated, but that's what it was, because the things that we teach we expect young people to memorize facts, and when it comes to history and geography and those kinds of things we don't tell them they get to dispute it. This is what we're teaching, and a lot of the things that I learned I learned because I came home and read books that were on the shelves at home. Because I came home and read books that were on the shelves at home, One of them, one of those books being Carter G Woodson's Negro Makers of History, which was an important right in 1927, because people even in 1927 were not learning the truth about our history, and so I'm fortunate that I have that book in my library that has been on the shelves at my house, where I was growing up all my life and we were able to read the truth of American history, like when we talk about the Revolutionary War, I always knew that Crispus Attucks was a Black man who was part of the American Revolution, but not until the last two years have I realized how many more African Americans were part of the American Revolution, and it didn't matter if they were enslaved or not. It didn't matter if they were enslaved or not, and that's how so many African Americans were able to gain land during that period of time, because the payment for being a soldier in the Revolutionary War was a grant of land, a good-sized chunk of land. And I didn't know that and, as you know if you've been following me, I'm 65. So I should have known that, but nobody taught it to me.

Speaker 1:

So I have learned that on my own. And it just amazes me all the things about my country when I've pledged allegiance to my country, that I didn't know, that, I wasn't told about my country, and so it is so important that I acknowledge where my family fits in to the history of America. If it's personal for me, then it makes me think differently about the things that happen here. It makes me recognize the importance of my commitment, of my being a community advocate, of my being able to stand up and speak for myself and those who don't know that they can speak up for themselves or who aren't ready to do that, because I see where I fit in and I'm not able. You can't come and tell me that I'm not part of this country, and that's why I teach all these things, because I'm not going to be quiet anymore. You've been listening to Quiet no More where I share my journey. So you can be quiet, let's connect at wwwcarmencoffincom.