.::Lost In Time...Lost In History::.

"...A haunting 150-year-old photo found in a North Carolina attic shows a young, black child named John, barefoot and wearing ragged clothes, perched on a barrel next to another unidentified young boy. In April, the photo was found at a moving sale in Charlotte, accompanied by a document detailing the sale of John for $1,150..."

This is a part of our history that so many try to trivialize, try to write away and say "Oh, you should just get over that! Forget about that. Time to move on."

But how can we? How can we move on when our ancestors blood, sweat and tears have been poured into this land... Yet they receive no recognition. They receive no honor. We, their children, do not honor them.

Look at the faces of these two, little boys. A tragic scene of two black children, frozen in this moment forever. When I look at the boy on the right, I see a dull look in his eye that a child should NEVER have. I see child ready to burst into tears.

On the little boy on the left, I see pain. I see anger. I see a face already aging and hardening...

These children are unknown and shall forever remain so. They could be brothers... But we will never know. One of us could be the descendant of one of these beautiful, black children... But we will never know.

Their story--our story--goes untold, unwritten... And we have those who attempt to "water-down" the truth of what our ancestors went through. Those who want to wipe out history... More than they already have. They would remove ALL signs of these two, black children and all signs of what they went through.

We read about the horrors of the slavery and we live the psychological effects of it... But these two children LIVED the horrors we read about. We don't know how they died, if they lived long, if they loved... This is the only record of their existence. A photograph and a slave name. "John."

So much of our history is gone. Millions of stories like this that will never be told...

Slaves weren't important. They weren't human. Records of their births, their names, their marriages, etc, etc wasn't important enough to keep up with or even record.

We were stripped of our history, our heritage, names, our spirituality, our childhoods, our mothers, our fathers, our brothers, our sisters... Our very humanity was taken from us.

And they debt has yet to be repaid.

So don't you dare tell me to "just forget about it" or to "let it go." Until the sounds of my ancestors cries are heard by everyone and not just me, I cannot let it go. Until my ancestors have been honored... Until my people are TRULY free... I cannot, I will not let it go...

And I shall never, ever forget.

Written by: Genesis/Queen Tiye