Tshaka asks for new White House signage

Contacted last Thursday, Tshaka said he was thrilled at Ackerman’s request and is very optimistic that a sign will be erected. “This is something that is not taught in school,” the Bayside man said.

It’s almost deja vu for Tshaka, 81, who was honored by Ackerman more than a year ago for noting the role that slaves played in building the U.S. Capitol. In 2010, Tshaka traveled to Washington, DC for a ceremony where plaques were unveiled to acknowledge the contributions of slaves who built it.

The signs were erected outside the House of Representatives and Senate visitor galleries while a section of the Capitol Visitors Center was named Emancipation Hall to honor the contributions of slave labor.

Now, Tshaka is hoping similar action can be taken at the executive mansion. “It would be wonderful to go to the White House and shake Obama’s hand when they put up a sign,” he said.

In his letter to the president, Ackerman said “it is long past time” that the White House acknowledge the slaves’ role as was done at the Capitol.

After being alerted by Tshaka to his belief that enslaved African Americans built the White House, Ackerman’s office researched the subject and found that he was correct. The congressman wrote to Obama that slaves helped dig the foundation, quarried stone used for walls, dug up clay to make bricks, cut timber and did carpentry work inside the White House.

“It is wrong not to acknowledge wrongs,” Ackerman wrote. “An acknowledgement of the role of slave labor displayed in the White House would be an important symbol that the United States does not run from its history, but rather learns from it.”

He then requested that a sign or plaque be erected there in an area of public viewing.