BRIDGE Lunch-and-Learn Speaker Shares Family History to Show Why ‘Black History Matters’

During a lunch-and-learn titled “Black History Matters,” retired Army Col. Lillian Anita Dixon, civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army for the District of Columbia, shared stories from her own family’s history to illustrate the importance of her topic.

The stories, which begin before the Civil War and aren’t found in textbooks, involve Dixon’s great-grandfather, Gordon Dixon, and his cousin, Amanda America Dickson. Both were born into slavery, but their lives turned out very different.

Born in 1849, Amanda was the daughter of David Dickson, a plantation owner who had raped Amanda’s mother when she was 12. Dickson was known for agriculture innovation in Hancock County, Georgia. After the Civil War, he rebuilt his agriculture empire, using slaves as tenant farmers, allowing them to cultivate gardens set aside for them. The former slaves paid rent with the cotton they produced and other goods produced from their garden plots.

David loved Amanda, his only child, who grew up in the house of her paternal grandmother, learning to read, play the piano and practice social etiquette. He taught her how to maintain her finances, deeded her 13,000 acres of Texas farmland, gave her several thousand dollars’ worth of property and bonds—and, when he died in 1885, left the bulk of his estate to her, making her the richest Black woman of the 19^th century. Her estate was worth about $8 million in today’s dollars. Her story inspired a movie, 2000’s A House Divided, starring Jennifer Beals and Sam Waterston.

Gordon’s story didn’t inspire a movie—but it could have. “Last night, one of my cousins informed me that Gordon’s father happened to be David Dickson’s father,” Dixon said. “I’m pretty sure Gordon was of mixed race like Amanda. He had a story fit for Hollywood.”

Born in 1855, Gordon also grew up in Hancock, one of the wealthiest counties in Georgia before the Civil War. “That wealth was literally built on the backs of slaves,” Dixon said.

After Gordon gained his freedom at the end of the Civil War, when he was only 10, he became a student of agriculture and farming.

“My great-grandfather did not have to be a renowned figure to do great things,” Dixon said. “Unfortunately, unlike Amanda, there is not a lot of documentation found on Gordon. In an aristocratic sense, Gordon was a man of low ancestry … in the humble sense, he was a man who was anointed by God and placed on Earth to share his love and kindness.”

Gordon’s father gave him 10 acres, on which he built a small house, grew apple, peach and fig trees and blackberries, and owned livestock. On weekends, he sold fish, fresh pork and beef from a horse and wagon, and grew corn, cotton, vegetables, peanuts and sugar cane. He operated a syrup mill with the help of the 18 children he had with Dixon’s great-grandmother, Betsy. They ensured that their children and others could be free and independent. He amassed a land fortune in excess of $100,000, and all of his children were college-educated.

When Gordon died in 1930, he left 2,000 acres to his children and their heirs. “I currently manage 88 acres that are in the name of my grandfather, Clarence,” who took over the family business, Dixon said.

“I shared this condensed story of the two cousins because the American education system that I grew up with was designed to exclude the real historical accounts of African-Americans,” Dixon said. “Unfortunately, former slaves were just a number, and their contributions to the birth of our nation were unrecorded.”

Dixon said that Americans of color, especially Black Americans, have often complained that their stories have been left out of the history books—and that even stories like Amanda Dickson’s risk being forgotten. And she and her family strive to keep Gordon’s story alive.

“Over the years, my family has been able to piece together some of my great-grandfather’s story, but there are many gaps, gaps that perhaps will go unanswered,” she said. “But the beauty of it all, despite the gaps, is that I have the opportunity to write the rest of history.”

She encouraged her audience to know who they are and who they come from; to be informed about their history; to envision what their ancestors had in mind for their descendants; to change the narrative; and to write their own history.

“I shared so much today about my family, and it really wasn’t about me,” she said. “It was in the hopes that you all would have an appreciation of the evolution of Black America. Many of you today can probably share a similar story.

“Yesterday will always be a part of who we are today,” she added. “If we are not motivated by our evolution to greatness, we must find our voice for inspiration. That voice is you, and we as a people need to collectively embrace change and write the rest of history. When we embrace that change, we can do more, have more, be exactly what we desire to be. This is the ‘why’ to ‘why Black history matters.’ “

The lunch-and-learn was presented by Exchange Special Emphasis Group BRIDGE (Building Resources in Diversity Growth of Employees). After Dixon’s talk, BRIDGE’s executive champion Marla Smith Randolph, senior vice president of Europe, SW Asia and Africa, virtually presented Dixon, a 30-year combat Veteran, with a POG plaque representing her many deployments.

Chief Operating Officer Jason Rosenberg, who was general manager of the Fort Jackson Exchange when Dixon was the installation’s garrison commander, also made a presentation. “One of my most cherished coins in my collection is the one you bestowed on me when you were at Fort Jackson,” Rosenberg said. “So I asked the team if they would allow me to return that favor 14 years or so later.” Rosenberg’s coin and the POG plaque are being mailed to Dixon, who should receive them next week.

To view Dixon’s talk, click here.