Page 99 - 1619 Project Curriculum

August 18, 2019

Yasiman Montgomery, 24
(Between her father, Alfred, and

her mother, Cecily)
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
-school plans: She will
Post -law
work as a litigator in New York,

after which she intends to return
to
to Washington work

in the federal government.
Charles McDuffie Wilder, Yasiman
Montgomery’s ancestor on her

father ’s side, was born around
1835 in Sumter, S.C., and is absent
from public records for the first

several decades of his life.
By 1866, Wilder was a member

of the South Carolina General
Assembly, where he represented
Richland County throughout
Reconstruction. He was also
appointed a deputy marshal — the
U.S. marshal for South Carolina,
J.P.M. Epping, said he ‘‘could not

find a white man who could take
the oath who had honesty and

capacity enough for the position. ’’
In 1869, Wilder was named

postmaster for Columbia, S.C.,

a presidential appointment that

required confirmation by the

State Senate, becoming the first

known freedman o receive
t
such an appointment. Coverage
in The Columbia Daily Phoenix
included this paragraph: ‘‘Charles

M. Wilder, the newly appointed

postmaster at Columbia, is

an intelligent colored man, fully
competent to discharge the
o

duties f the office to which
he has been appointed, and is
highly esteemed, as a colored

man, by the whole community.
The only objection made against

him by opponents of the present

Federal and State Governments

is, that he is a negro. ’’ He held

the job for 16 years, under four

presidents. During this span

Wilder was also a member of the
Columbia City Council and
attended the National Republican

Conventions as a delegate.
Montgomery grew up in

Washington and knew of Wilder,
who, she said, a lot of people

in the area trace their history back

to. ‘‘Reading about it makes

me feel more purposeful, ’’ she said,
‘‘because I am attached to that

legacy.’’ She credits her parents,

Alfred and Cecily, for instilling

in her an appreciation for her

heritage. ‘‘They were older and
grew up in segregation,’’ she
said. ‘‘They took me to look at

Credit by Name Surname a lot of pride in being black
wanted
archives together; they

to learn my history. I have
me

’ s because I know my
and that

heritage.
It

’ s important to start the
conversation before slavery.
We didn

’t just pop up in America,
93 we were part of a culture. ’’