A Timely Family History Lesson

Three decades later Booker T. Washington, the most famous black man in America, honored Stearns by name at the dedication of the spectacular bronze sculpture created for the 54th Regiment Memorial in Boston Common.

As Cameron quipped, “Ronald Reagan who?”

It’s been great to learn that my wife’s ancestors played such an important part in the birth of the country, the history of Boston and the fight to abolish slavery and help the freed slaves.

But my story about the proud history of Colleen’s family has a sad ending.

On June 3, exactly 123 years after Booker T. Washington dedicated it, the 54th Regiment Memorial was painted with four-letter words and phrases like “Black Lives Matter,” “No Justice, No Peace,” and “Police are Pigs.”

Like the statues of Ulysses Grant, Frederick Douglass and other forgotten abolitionists who fought for the freedom of blacks, the 54th Regiment Memorial was desecrated by a mob of white and black protestors and professional vandals.

It would have been nice if before those social justice warriors defaced the memorial and roughed up 15 other statues on Boston Common they had studied a little history. They’d learn it’s not as black-and-white as they think.

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Copyright 2020 Michael Reagan. Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan.” He is the founder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter.

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