Gathering of tribal freedmen to call attention to ongoing discrimination

The Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Tribes will host a gathering for its members and supporters from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, 321 N. Detroit Ave.

Several speakers — including former Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank, who is considered to be one of the group’s strongest allies in its decades-long fight for citizenship — will address the crowd.

“Barney has been a huge supporter of the freedmen from day one,” said event organizer Eli Grayson, who is the former president of the California Muscogee (Creek) Association.

Frank was one of the few politicians to call out the perceived oppression of numerous freedmen whose tribal citizenship was denied in the 1970s. According to Grayson, the retired congressman played a significant role in Cherokee freedmen winning a contentious legal battle to assure their citizenship in August.

Marilyn Vann, president of the Descendants of Freedmen of the Five Tribes, said the purpose of Saturday’s gathering is twofold.

One goal is to celebrate the federal court ruling that guaranteed the right to citizenship for Cherokee freedmen.

“It’s also an occasion to bring attention to the plight of the freedmen of other tribes who have been disenrolled against their will,” Vann said. “These are people who are being treated like second-class Jim Crow citizens in their own tribes.”

The event will provide freedmen an opportunity to talk about discrimination they have faced. Attendees are encouraged to bring signs that convey their messages and stories.

Because national publicity has focused on Cherokee freedmen as a result of the lawsuit filed in 2003, the efforts of freedmen from other tribes largely have been ignored, Vann said.

“The fight isn’t over,” she said. “We don’t have justice in Indian Country for descendants of tribal members of African ancestry. There’s still work to be done.”