Staff Writer

ELIZABETHTOWN — The legacy of John Brown's final stand at Harper's Ferry is an immortal question.

How do we advance human freedom?

The question sits heavy, like the giant granite rock unmoved above Brown's North Elba grave.

It was not fully answered in the Emancipation Proclamation that moved to free 4,000,000 people of color from the bonds of slavery.

It was not fully answered in a bloody Civil War that claimed the lives of 620,000 soldiers.

It was not fully answered in generations of black and white votes tallied together in countless elections.

It remains not fully answered, even though — 150 years since the abolitionist was tried, hanged and buried — a man of color is president of the United States.

SYMBOLIC REMAINS
In three weeks, on Dec. 5, a funeral cortege will bring the symbolic remains of John Brown's body back through Essex County.

With it comes a series of far-reaching events, offering ways to trace the roots of freedom and give voice to that historic moment in time.

In film and in song, in seminars and in schools, the next few weeks are fraught with core inquiry.

Naj Wikoff organized what has emerged to become a national commemoration for the Lake Placid/Essex County Visitor's Bureau with Margaret Gibbs at the Adirondack History Center Museum.

Talking about how the roster came together over the past year, Wikoff suggested the whole thing points toward the work Americans have yet to do.

"We are not trying to whitewash John Brown, so to speak. We are really looking at the best and worse aspects of being an American. He brings up some tough questions about us. He was that tipping point at the Civil War; he leveraged that change. And he made a home here in Essex County. This place renewed him.

"Still, a lot of the same questions he raised then remain unanswered. There is a high level of homicide in the U.S.; there is this resort to violence in our country. But at the same time, we're one of the most generous nations in the world?"

STILL SLAVERY
Moral quandary is a central theme running through in the entire program in "John Brown — Coming Home."

"Have we ever gotten off that edge? I don't think so," Wikoff said.

"What was it like to be a slave? What was it like to be a free black? What was it like to bring people up out of slavery? Where are we now? What is the ramification today?"

Wikoff points out there are 27 million people still living in slavery throughout the world, an estimated 25,000 in the United States.

"And one of them will be coming to Lake Placid to tell her story," Wikoff said.

Maria Suarez will be one voice at a center-point symposium in Lake Placid, commemorating the Life and Legacy of John Brown on Dec. 4.

The rural confines of Essex County hold transcendent clues to the story of John Brown, from stark furnishings in his North Elba homestead — now frozen in time as a state historic site — to newly dug archaeological excavation of earth around neighboring black farms at Timbuctoo to the chambers of the Old County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, where laws are still made.

Keene Valley author Russell Banks, who wrote the acclaimed American novel "Cloudsplitter" based on the life and times of John Brown, drew from the legacy next door.

A central theme in Banks's work is the moral dilemma between violent and non-violent protest.

He will present several readings throughout the next few weeks and moderate at the symposium.

"The intersection between revolution and principled violence is a big seam that runs through American history," Banks said. "It is not just about race, it's about religion and political issues as well. Brown is a kind of exemplar of that. Most societies in the modern era aspire to non-violence. We can see how the great heroes of modern times, Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi, created great social change through non-violence."

MEANINGFUL QUESTIONS
But, Banks pointed out, there is immense weight in the last words of John Brown, written on the day he was hanged, Dec. 2, 1859:

"I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."

"These are meaningful questions, ones we need to address and not ignore Brown," Banks said. "It's a worthwhile endeavor here, especially now."

Other scholars will weigh in on the vortex Brown opened for civil rights.

J.W. Wiley, director of the Center for Diversity, Pluralism and Inclusion at Plattsburgh State, will also participate in panel discussions at the symposium. He is a longtime scholar of Brown biographer W.E.B. DuBois, one of the greatest Black American intellectuals, born about 10 years after Brown's burial.

"Harper's Ferry went down in 1859," Wiley said.

"People paused and gave him love at the time. But DuBois was the first to really frame how Brown's actions at Harper's Ferry were transcendental, because white men didn't die for black folk then. Brown was considered a traitor in that context. And John Brown should be being celebrated in history on the level with Patrick Henry. The fact that he's not is a statement how the history on him hasn't been articulated. He had a sense of social justice; he did not like hypocrisy. He struggled with notions of equality and American rights then got a first-hand glimpse at slavery. Instead of joining the throngs, he took action. I'm not condoning the violence he did. But he got tired of watching this unfold across his lifetime."

A LONG JOURNEY
It was Wiley's mentor, DuBois, who mounted the first effort to establish full citizenship for blacks.

In 1906, barely a century ago, DuBois stood at Harper's Ferry and gave his "Address to the Country."

He thanked John Brown and claimed a promise of peace.

"The battle for humanity is not lost or losing. All across the skies sit signs of promise. The Slav (sic) is rising in his might, the yellow millions are tasting liberty, the black Africans are writhing toward the light, and everywhere the laborer, with ballot in his hand, is voting open the gates of opportunity and peace. The morning breaks over blood-stained hills. We must not falter, we may not shrink. Above are the everlasting stars."

In 150 years since John Brown's raid, has our nation learned anything?

"Yes, I think we've learned a lot," Wiley said.

"It's easy to say we haven't made progress, because we get impatient. But the fact I have the job I have in a region that is predominantly white says a lot to me. We just came from an election where our final four presidential candidates were two white men, a white woman and a black man. No matter how you slice it, we've come a long way. We just can't think we've come so far our work is done."

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com