If we are committed to racial justice, we must do more than state our support for it. We must find ways to serve that commitment with action. Keeping the menhaden net reel where it currently stands on the main Lewes Historical Society campus would be such an action.
The ordinance coming up for discussion Monday, March 7, would allow the reel to remain where it is. This issue has been in limbo now for way too long, and it’s time to let the reel stand. Putting it on the LHS main campus was and continues to be an action that helps lift Black people to their rightful place in Lewes’ history. The sad irony is that we have to highlight the “Black” part of that history because it has never been recognized or celebrated the way white history has been. The reel’s presence makes the story of Lewes’ history a truer and richer one.
Yes, the reel is big, an extraordinary piece of wood design that aligns with the other wood structures on the campus. It had to be big, given the work it did. Standing inside it, African American men walked to turn it, and sang as they walked. The turning of the reel allowed the fishing nets to dry for the next day. As Tom Brown said in an article for the Cape Gazette, “The net reel is an historical monument to the physical labor of untold African Americans who formed the backbone of the menhaden fish industry. This was the economic engine that powered Lewes for over 50 years in the 20th century.” It put Lewes on the map. This was also a time when Black people earned enough to own property and build homes, another critical feature of racial equality and equity. Black people were vibrant members of Lewes society; Lewes had a Black mayor. Yet now, as Alicia Jones has pointed out, there are few Black people walking the streets of Lewes and fewer yet who own homes in town. And we all lose from this lack of diversity.
Our national history and our community’s history is replete with evidence that we have ignored, to say nothing of never celebrated, the incredible and essential contribution Black people have made to our town, our cities, our rural areas and our country. Keeping the menhaden reel where it belongs on our historical society campus is an acknowledgment of Black people as equal members of our society. It is an acknowledgment that their contributions to our local and our national history are as vital as those of white people. It is recognition that they can and must live and work in any community with the dignity and respect afforded white people. And it is a commitment that our actions, big and small, must and will work against the soul-degrading racism that has hurt and continues to hurt all of us since our nation’s founding.
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