Road to Freedom: African-Americans in Florida

On May 18th, the academic program series entitled “Discover First America; Legacies of La Florida” will present “Road to Freedom; African-Americans in Florida” featuring Derek Boyd Hankerson and James Bullock; celebrating the Quincentennial of Ponce de Leon’s Landing in Florida.

Freedom Road’s presentation will be a multi-centric performance; not all lecture based. It will be a reflective well rounded World View about how African-Americans got caught up in the events of the New World, how they became the last slaves used, the battles fought, and the International conflicts of the day, which led to the formation of America. It will also include the relationships with Native Americans, what it took to survive, and who was offering freedom to whom and why. It will be both educational and entertaining.

More specifically, how the Spanish offered freedom through Civil Rights legislation to minorities, and then how the English followed suit during their rein over Florida through their edit for Minorcans in 1777 by offering freedom after the American Revolution War, and then again how St. Augustine played another pivotal role during the Civil Rights Era in the 1960’s leading to federal legislation, and the Civil Rights Act. In essence, St. Augustine has always played a role in Civil Rights legislation in the New World from 1600-1960’s, and beyond.

As cosmopolitans and in our final preparation for our presentation we visited Deutschland (D), which is always a wonderful journey, because my wife and I get the opportunity to visit family, friends, and shop. Our research includes civil rights, world, American and European History. Subsequently, this journey we focused on the American Revolution, which occurred from 1775 – 1783, and researched the Hessian soldiers who fought during the battle, located and visited Wiesbaden Air Field the European Central Command, which was the base my dad was stationed at in 1945.

We also continued 30 years of family history on our family name Hankerson/Hankinson and how it relates to the American Revolution, them being colonialist themselves. Our research was not a shock to us, actually it is and was refreshing, and hence why we are at peace with the world and ourselves.

More to the point, the Hankerson/Hankinson name is Norwegian (Vikings), which is northern Germanic, and the name descends from a long line of warriors, explorer, patriots, loyalist, merchants, famers, pastors, and contributors to society at large. The family line hails from Norway leads to England, from England to America, once in America (Northeast), the family involves itself in the American mercantile industries, heads south family members fights in numerous battles and to include the American Revolution up through the Civil War and beyond, and involves itself in the slave trade, to include owning plantations, and slaves, interracial marriage including amongst Native Americans, also known as miscegenation.

Our family consists of Native American, African, and European ancestry, and was concerned about the manumission laws affecting such families! Additionally, distant relatives fought in the American Revolution and were in-fact Aide de Camp to General and President George Washington, and hence my keen interest in government, politics, and military affairs from a young age, and love of St. Augustine, which has the oldest defense and military installation in America.

Military service in our family is nothing new, and my dad loved to share his personal experiences as kids with us, and that include his stint in Europe, which he like most soldiers loved and remember the most about the service. Man, it has taken me 45 years to make it to the base where he was stationed and assisted advance America into Europe. In 1945, he was stationed at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield, which was selected as the site for Headquarters, United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE) on 28 September, 1945.

This is the same air field where in 1184, a national festival was held and the German emperor Friedrich I, knighted his sons, in later years a racetrack, which was well known throughout Europe for its excellent horse racing competition, was built on the site. This fields history include May, 11, 1913 when Prince Heinrich of Prussia landed in a field near the racetrack, thus completing the first recorded landing by an aircraft, and when in 1926 a retired German Flying Corps officer, Joseph Aumann, conceived the idea of turning the racetrack into an airfield. And, when in 1933 the Third Reich came into power, and flight training was organized for future Luftwaffe pilots at Wiesbaden.

In 1936, Luftwaffe Headquarters in Berlin designated Wiesbaden Airfield as a Fliegerhorst Air Base, and constructed the military kaserne, the runway and hangar complex was completed in 1938 and the first German military unit, the famous “Ace of Spades” fighter wing, occupied Fliegerhorst Wiesbaden.

Wiesbaden was used by the Luftwaffe throughout the Second World War as a fighter and bomber base, and at the peak of its use as many as 40 bombers took off every 3 hours on assigned bombing missions. In late March 1945, Fliegerhorst Wiesbaden was abandoned by the Luftwaffe and occupied by advancing American soldiers. U.S. troops remained on Fliegerhorst Wiesbaden after the war.

In September 1947, the U.S. Army Air Corps became a separate service—the U.S. Air Force, and in 1948, Fliegerhorst Wiesbaden was designated Wiesbaden Air Base and was the home of Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Europe.

In closing the best part of the trip was our trip to the Benedictine monastery, which changed my life. This monastery, which was settled by the monks on the Martinsberg, is documented from about 1123. In 1865, the village took the name of the monastery to become the present town of Weingarten, and was settled by monks from Altounster Abbey.

In 1940, the monks were expelled by the Nationational Socialists, but were able to return after the end of the war. The monks were responsible for the management of the “Blutritt”, or pilrigage to the Reliquary of the Holy Blood in the abbey church. And, hence the greatest treasure of Weingarten is the famous relic of the Precisions Blood of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which is still preserved in the church of Weingarten.

The legend runs thus: Longinus, the soldier who opened the Jesus’ side with a lance, caught some of the Sacred Blood and preserved it in a leaden box, which later he buried at Mantua. Being miraculously discovered in 804, the relic was solemnly exalted by Pope Leo III, but again buried during the Hungarian and Norman invasions, and in 1048 it was re-discovered and solemnly exalted by Pope Leo IX in the presence of the emperor, Henry III, and other dignitaries.

It was divided into three parts, one of which the pope took to Rome, the other was given to the emperor, Henry III, and the third remained at Mantua. Henry III bequeathed his share of the relic to Count Baldwin V of Flanders, who then gave it to his daughter Juditha, and after her marriage to Guelph IV of Bavaria, Juditha presented the relic to Weingarten.

The solemn presentation took place in 1090, on the Friday after the feast of the Ascension, and it was stipulated that annually on the same day, which came to be known as Blutfreitag, the relic should be carried in solemn procession.

I know there is a God!

Derek Boyd Hankerson
Managing Partner
Freedom Road I, LLC

Derek Boyd Hankerson is lobbying the National Park Service on the inclusion of St. Johns County into the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, and is working on other National Heritage Area projects for Northeast Florida. He also has lobbied the NPS Underground Railroad Network to Freedom project to include St. Johns County because of the county’s contribution to the Underground Railroad. Hankerson is a graduate or Webster University School of Business and Technology with a masters degree in management and leadership. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland and completed graduate studies in organizational communications at Bowie State University.