Attend Public Hearing February 18 on Creating the Office of Freedman Affairs

Black History Month is still going strong, so what better time than now to share this story about descendants of chattel slavery in Philadelphia?

- Thera Martin

Thelma Martin

Ogbonna Haggins is a resident and citizen of Philadelphia. He is a very familiar face at Philadelphia City Council, every Thursday when they are in session, and often on other days of the week as well. Ogbonna has run for political office in Philadelphia several times. To date, he's not been elected. Nonetheless, that has not dampened his spirit to speak up and speak out on issues he's passionate about. He talked with me recently about what he is hoping will be the creation of a new agency within the Philadelphia government, specifically for the descendants of chattel slavery.

Not all Black people who lived here 250 years ago came here as slaves. This new office that Ogbonna is fighting for would be specifically for the descendants of Chattel Slavery. Ogbonna shared, “You see, a lot of people of various nationalities, they came over here on a jet, because they chose to be here. We didn't (referring to African Americans). We were forced here and forced to build this country. The country's infrastructure, the trees we had to knock down, the roads we had to build. We created the infrastructure.” Coming out of slavery and the Civil War, there was the Freedmen's Inquiry Commission. The Inquiry Commission was tasked with determining what the former slave needed. The very first thing they said they needed was agency within government. And they created what was called the Freedman's Bureau. The Freedman's Bureau, in law, still exists, but people just stopped abiding by this particular law. They just stopped using it.