Friday, October 16, 2026
Freeport resident and South Side High School graduate Lynda Day discussed the role of African and Indigenous Americans in the American Revolutionary War during her Sept. 26 presentation at the Freeport Memorial Library.
Day, a professor of Africana studies at Brooklyn College, discussed early African and Indigenous culture in New York, the history of enslavement in New York and the Northeast, and the roles of Black and Indigenous people who served on both sides of the Revolutionary War.
Day, who was raised in Rockville Centre, holds a PhD in African and African American History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and previously served as the first curator of Black history at the Joysetta and Julius Pearse African American Museum of Nassau County in Hempstead. Her answers have been slightly edited for clarity.
Q: What inspired you to lead this discussion on minorities in the Revolutionary War?
A: I [gave] a lecture on the African American and Indigenous presence in the American Revolution as part of Freeport’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. I was motivated to participate after so many commemorations this year ignored the Black and Indigenous involvement in the fight, when in fact thousands of free and enslaved Blacks and members of Indigenous nations, both male and female, were inspired by the calls for freedom and liberty in this Age of Revolution. Rather than undermining the achievements of the Founding Fathers, reframing the American Revolution to include the role of the enslaved and enslavers adds to the national story.
Q: How does your academic expertise inform your discussion on this topic?
A: I completed a minor field in African American History from [the University of Wisconsin-Madison], but most of what I learned about American history I learned in AP American History at South Side High School in Rockville Centre. Specifically on this topic, I served as the first curator of Black history for the Joysetta and Julius Pearse African American Museum of Nassau County and spent a few years digging into local history publications and historical societies, pulling out hidden references to the history of Long Island’s Black involvement.
Q: What are some important events and stories people should note when considering this history?
A: I would point to two. First, the group of enslaved men of Boston who wrote to the Massachusetts legislature in 1777 to demand their freedom, citing the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Second, Benjamin Whitecuff of Hempstead, whose father and brother died fighting for the Patriot cause while he fought for the British, was eventually able to recover his family’s farm in Hempstead after the war.
Q: Do you believe schools do enough to teach these stories?
A: Schools do not do enough to include information about the thousands of Black and Indigenous men and women who, inspired by the American fight for liberty from the British, seized the opportunities presented by the war and Revolutionary ideals to fight for their own freedom. The Revolution reminds us that not only our white American heroes believed in that fight, but thousands of Black and Indigenous men did as well.
