“I wanted to live in a society for some time, some portion of my life, where race did not have to be a battlement, that one could get beyond that and not feel it always in one’s craw…it used up so much of my energy, and the energy of so many in the United States.” Not long after The Debt was published, Randall Robinson moved with his wife to her native Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts. They were hauled to the Capitol and put in place by slaves.” They were brought up the Potomac River by slaves. No Blacks at all…these sandstone blocks had been mined in Stafford County, Virginia by slaves. These paintings again depict scenes from American history. “There are huge paintings set back into…these huge arkose sandstone blocks. But in these scenes, no Douglass, no Tubman, no Truth, no Blacks at all.” And then there’s a banner unfurled, ‘E pluribus unum’ - ‘Out of many, one’ - but all of the 60 are white…a frieze depicts scenes from American history, describing our development as a nation from the age of discovery to the dawn of aviation. “George Washington is there surrounded by 60 robed figures. In 2001, speaking about his book, The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, he described a realization he had while viewing the Capitol Rotunda fresco:

Randall Robinson frequently appeared on the Democracy Now! news hour. He was also a dedicated champion of the Haitian people, protesting U.S.-supported coups that have decimated Haiti. demonstrations against South-African apartheid. Randall Robinson was arrested numerous times in some of the most effective U.S. In 1977, he co-founded TransAfrica to push for a just foreign policy towards Africa and the Caribbean. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he went to work in Washington, D.C. Robinson was born in 1941 in Jim Crow Virginia. Loeb’s photo brought to mind another insightful viewer of the same work, Randall Robinson, the remarkable African-American author and activist who died this week at the age of 81.

As described on the website of the Architect of the Capitol, it shows “George Washington rising to the heavens in glory.” The fresco, The Apotheosis of Washington, was painted by Constantino Brumidi in 1865. Two of the insurrectionists are looking up, seemingly mesmerized by the massive fresco adorning the Capitol dome. Behind them hangs a massive painting, The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, depicting George Washington’s military victory over the British in 1781. One photo shows four white men, seated in the Capitol Rotunda. He ended up shooting some of the most iconic photographs of the ensuing insurrection. Capitol to cover Congress’ counting of the electoral college votes. On January 6, 2021, photojournalist Saul Loeb was in the U.S.

The debt what america owes to blacks