Political Quotes

“Today we have been asked to wear white to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She represents the tremendous struggle and fight for women's equality. In the Virgin Islands, today, October 1, is formally known as Contract Day. It honors and celebrates four women, our four queens, that led the St. Croix Labor Rebellion of 1878, also known to us as Fireburn. After slaves in the Danish West Indies organized, fought, and took their freedom from chattel slavery in 1848, a new type of slavery was formed in a labor bill in the following year to regulate the conditions of the now free workers. The law stipulated a day wage, and confined workers to one plantation each year that could only change on Contract Day, October 1. Former slaves worked on the same plantations as before, with little to no improvement in their living conditions, healthcare, education, income, and their movement was restricted. I am sure many of my African-American brothers and sisters recall this happening in the United States after the Civil War. The newly freed workers found that the low wages and new restrictions made living impossible. It was freedom in name only. These conditions, along with the inability to vote, to participate in any aspect of the Danish Government at the time, created an incredibly untenable life. Before October 1 of 1878, rumors circulated that the law was going to improve.…”