c. 2000 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ In history class they learned Abraham Lincoln nominally ended slavery in the United States more than a century ago, but the 24 Colorado fifth-graders who gathered Thursday (June 8) at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., recently learned something else: Slavery is an unclosed chapter in the history of Sudan.

“At first it was hard to believe that slavery is still around,” said Sekani Turner, 10. “But it’s true, and we have to try to stop it. We’re here to finish what Lincoln started _ to end slavery.”

That mission brought Turner and his classmates to the nation’s capital Thursday morning to mark the culmination of the Sudan Campaign, a three-week effort by a coalition of clergy and rights activists working to end violence, slavery, famine and persecution in Sudan.

The fifth-graders met with lawmakers and humanitarian organizations such as the American Anti-Slavery Group to urge lawmakers to join their own abolitionist campaign, Operation STOP (“Slavery That Oppresses People”).

The students’ campaign began three years ago when, just days after teaching students that the Civil War had ended slavery, history teacher Barbara Vogel read an article about slavery in Sudan.

“I had been teaching students that slavery was over, but I found out I was wrong after I read the article,” said Vogel, who has testified about the issue before Congress and personally visited the northwest African nation. “I thought it was my responsibility to make sure these children knew the truth.”

So she read the article _ which relayed tales of kidnapped children forced to march across deserts _ to her fifth-grade history class at Highline Community Elementary School in Aurora, Colo.

Vogel was unprepared for their reaction.

“Nothing in my career prepared me for the sadness and the tears when I read that article,” she recalled. “The first thing my kids said was `What are we going to do?’ They saw a wrong and wanted to make it right.”

Melvin Harmon, 10, remembers hearing the news for the first time.

“I was in shock because I thought that slavery was over,” said Harmon, brown eyes widening at the memory. “I said to myself, `I want to help.”’

After the tears dried, the children took action. Several months and dozens of lemonade stands and T-shirt and toy sales later, Operation STOP was in full swing.

Some students even sacrificed allowances and babysitting earnings to the campaign.

“Lives are more important than money,” said Turner.

The children even launched a letter-writing campaign to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and soccer player Mia Hamm as well as the first lady and the president. President Clinton was one of several luminaries who wrote back to the students _ but no one has promised any concrete action.

With national donations, the campaign has netted more than $50,000. The money was given to Christian Solidarity International _ a Switzerland-based organization that buys slaves (often for just $50) in order to set them free. The group claims to have paid for the freedom of at least 20,000 people since its inception five years ago.

Paper figures pasted on the class’ “freedom wall” _ decorated with the newspaper article that first caught Vogel’s attention _ kept track of the number of slaves the students’ helped free.

So far students have helped free thousands of slaves, Vogel said. One former slave met with students during a news conference Thursday.

“When I was a slave, I was told I was an animal, and could not sleep with humans,” Francis Bok Bol told the students. He was kidnapped from his family at the age of seven and enslaved for 10 years before Christian Solidarity bought his freedom in 1998. “Many children are still slaves, but you stood up when the rest of the world looked away. The people of Sudan will never forget you.”

Meeting Bol was the highlight of the day, said Jessica Estrada, 10, one of several students who broke down in tears during the news conference.

“I feel bad that we’re free and people in Sudan are not,” she said, “But at the same time I’m happy that we can save even one person.”

The abolitionist campaign has special poignancy for Cynthia Hayes-Pugh and her 11-year-old son Charles Hayes III _ their African ancestors were slaves in the United States.

“Knowing what my ancestors went through in America, I can just imagine what slaves are going through all over the world,” said Hayes-Pugh, one of several relatives who accompanied students to Washington. “We have to help.”

The students’ efforts to end slavery have done “more for victims in Sudan than the entire United States government,” declared Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who represents the class’ district.

“We must now take up the challenge these kids have brought to us and end atrocities in Sudan,” he said. “We hope to make our voices known above the din of Washington politics and stir the president to action.”

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The students’ campaign _ which has inspired others in schools nationwide _ should be a wake-up call to lawmakers, said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa.

“What does it mean when a class of fourth-graders has come forward to say `What is the world doing to end slavery?”’ asked Royce. “It means we have to do more in Washington. We who mold public opinion have to mobilize.”

The Rev. Michel Faulkner, pastor of Manhattan’s Central Baptist Church, said the faith community had an obligation to support the students.

“Our moral duty, our conscience requires that we place ourselves in the forefront of this initiative to join those who love freedom,” said Faulkner, announcing a nationwide “Fast for Freedom” to begin on National Sudan Day on Friday (June 9). “We’re going to pray for freedom from genocide, from military and economic blight. We want to lift those who are downtrodden.”

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Though the students have made national headlines and won accolades from many, including Bishop Macrum Gassis, the exiled Roman Catholic bishop of Sudan, the campaign has been dogged by criticism from some humanitarian agencies who say buying slaves only encourages slave sellers to take more people hostage.

But Vogel shrugs off the criticism.

“The thousands of men, women and children that we’ve helped free convince me that should not stop this work,” she declared, adding that she does not know why lawmakers have dragged their feet on the issue. “I could not imagine having an office where you know children and women are enslaved and you don’t do anything about. I have one goal: to end slavery. I want my students to learn from the mistakes of the past.”

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