{"id":24157,"date":"2012-07-05T02:17:44","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T02:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=24157"},"modified":"2014-10-17T14:57:18","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T14:57:18","slug":"for-daughters-of-the-american-revolution-a-new-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=24157","title":{"rendered":"For Daughters of the American Revolution, a New Chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Daughters of the American Revolution, a New Chapter<\/strong><\/em><\/a>
\n
\nThe New York Times<\/a>
\n2012-07-03<\/p>\n

Sarah Maslin Nir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Olivia Cousins can trace her family in the United States to a soldier who joined the rebelling colonists when he was just 17. But when a friend suggested she join the Daughters of the American Revolution<\/a>, an organization whose members can prove they are related to someone who aided the rebels in 1776, Dr. Cousins nearly laughed.<\/p>\n

Dr. Cousins is black. And the D.A.R., as it is commonly called, is a historically white organization with a record of excluding blacks so ugly that Eleanor Roosevelt<\/a> renounced her membership in protest.<\/p>\n

Yet last week, in a circa-1857 stone chapel in Jamaica, Queens<\/a>, Dr. Cousins was named an officer in a small ceremony establishing a new chapter. Her daughter took photos. The pictures documented a singular moment for the D.A.R., founded in 1890: 5 of the 13 members of the new chapter are black.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more strikingly, the Queens chapter is one of the first in the organization\u2019s nearly 122-year history that was started by a black woman: Wilhelmena Rhodes Kelly, from Rosedale<\/a>, who is also its regent, or president. Ms. Kelly traces her origins to the relationship between a slaveholder and a slave, who appear to have considered themselves married<\/strong>, and her new position is part of a remarkable journey for both her family and the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents understood that they were Americans and that they were a real important part of the American story,\u201d said Dr. Cousins, who, like the other members, is a passionate student of genealogy. Her Revolutionary War<\/a> ancestor was a free man of mixed race. \u201cTheir whole thing was that segregation is unacceptable,\u201d she said of her parents. For her, she said, \u201cde facto segregation was unacceptable.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Daughters of the American Revolution, a New Chapter The New York Times 2012-07-03 Sarah Maslin Nir Olivia Cousins can trace her family in the United States to a soldier who joined the rebelling colonists when he was just 17. But when a friend suggested she join the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,8,20],"tags":[11175,11185,11179,2640,11180,11177,11176,11178,2327,11181],"class_list":["post-24157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-d-a-r","tag-dar","tag-daughters-of-the-american-revolution","tag-new-york-times","tag-olivia-cousins","tag-sarah-m-nir","tag-sarah-maslin-nir","tag-sarah-nir","tag-the-new-york-times","tag-wilhelmena-rhodes-kelly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}