I have been to a museum here in town that has a couple people dress up as civil war soldiers and answer questions about what the time period was like. That was pretty neat, the kids thought it was cool. They had one old white guy, one teenage white guy, a teenage white girl and a regular black guy. (Regular would denote my age that I am now ... we'll just leave it there). Now, my thought was, wow ... that guys is pretty old, I wonder how old the older guys were that went off to war. But, at my right, another mom hissed that it was disgusting that they made an African American be there. Those kinds of people, the white reenactors, shouldn't be allowed in the park. I was surprised, and mumbled something about needing to study history. Did she really think that the white guy FORCED him to buy period clothing, a tent, a bag of peanuts (which he explained were called goobers) and then come set up and answer history related questions? I mean, to be realistic wouldn't it be odd to not have any African Americans around?
Back to the present, at this Olustee Reenactment, they have tents with displays, lots and lots of shops and recreated war tents. One of the tents was a display of the making of the movie "Filling the Gap". It is a movie made to fill in the gap of civil war history taught that ignores African Americans during that time aside from the stereotype of Uncle Ben's Cabin. Thank you, Ms. Fears and Mr. Young. There was an entire war that was fought with the freedom of enslaved Africans Americans the highest profile reason, and certainly the best result of it.
The film's website is http://www.essenceofhistory.com/ and they have clips, photos, and the film available for purchase.
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