York's Adventures with Lewis and Clark

"To hear hero makers tell it 

wasn't nobody 

on the great expedition but captains.

An them always mentions Seaman

Capt. Lewis's dog

before them remembers me"

-"Role Call"

York

Politics and African American Historical Fiction

Americans -- and everyone for that matter -- are taught about the adventures of Lewis and Clark.  If we were taught about York’s adventures -- featuring Lewis and Clark -- than we might have a different perspective of the historical event.

This is an example of politics at work in the context of American History. Nearly every historical textbook excludes the majority of significant African American achievements and does little to acknowledge the atrocities of racism and prejudice against the African American people.

York’s conspicuous absence intersects history, race, and ethnicity, signals the legacies of slavery that still plague American culture, and underscores the politics of public memory.

Like so many other African Americans, York is an invisible hero in American history. His absence can be constructed as an elegant metaphor for what is at stake in remembrance.

His disappearance from both history and our minds is a tragic lesson of how prejudice causes society to undervalue a great man's contributions to American and world history.