ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
When explorers Lewis and Clark returned from their expedition to the Pacific Ocean, they were rewarded with land, money and glory. One key member of their crew was not, though. He was an enslaved Black man named York. He returned to slavery, and almost nobody knows his name. More than 200 years later, the inaugural York Fest aims to change that. Deena Prichep reports from Portland, Oregon.
DEENA PRICHEP: York was born enslaved to William Clark's family in Virginia. He moved with them out to St. Louis and then on to the expedition, helping hunt and camp and trade with the tribes along the way. He carried his own gun and even had a vote in where the party set up their winter camp.
ZACHARY STOCKS: Not only was he a capable and contributing member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, but he was also one of the most successful explorers in American history of his era.
PRICHEP: Zachary Stocks runs Oregon Black Pioneers, the state's African American historical society. They just kicked off York Fest in Portland, Oregon, to give York the recognition he never got in his lifetime.
STOCKS: There is no York journals in the way that there's a Lewis and Clark journal, right? So everything that we know about York comes from second- or third-hand sources.
PRICHEP: We know York had a wife and family that he had to leave behind and that after the expedition he returned to his role as the Clark family servant. Most historians agree he eventually received his freedom, but not for nearly a decade.
STOCKS: It's kind of up to us, as the people who've come after him, to think about what his story means and carry on his legacy.
PRICHEP: York Fest aims to live out that legacy in all sorts of ways this week. Different organizations are offering events from historical talks to boat rides tracing York's path up the Columbia River. The festival will end with the premiere of a folk opera that literally gives York a voice.
CEDRIC BERRY: (As York, singing) Living enslaved is all I have known, but I know there's something better on the other side.
PRICHEP: That impressive baritone is Cedric Berry, playing the title role in "York The Explorer."
BERRY: (As York, singing) Each day above the ground is a blessing, we know. I'mma (ph) keep dreaming till the day I die.
PRICHEP: The opera was written by Aaron Nigel Smith. It blends those classical operatics with West African drums, a gourd banjo and hip-hop vocals.
ZION SMITH: (As Shine, rapping) Vandalism wouldn't have happened if York wasn't Black. We could be hero, or shero, or even a saint. Still we get hit with that slap in the face.
PRICHEP: Smith says it's important to tell York's story, and it's especially important to do it here.
AARON NIGEL SMITH: And it's in the Constitution of Oregon that Black folks weren't allowed and should not be here and would not be here, you know?
PRICHEP: These Black exclusion laws were repealed, but they left a legacy. Portland is still one of the whitest major cities in the U.S.
A N SMITH: There's a lot of work that we have to do as a community and as a society to embrace knowledge, you know, and learn from it.
PRICHEP: Like a lot of Oregonians, Aaron Nigel Smith first heard of York a few years ago, when an unauthorized bust of him was put up in an Oregon park and then vandalized and taken down.
A N SMITH: We're coming up on the celebration of the 250th year of independence here. And so it would be incredible for us to not bury our history and our stories, but rather, you know, shine a light on the real American story.
PRICHEP: York's story is hard, but it's also joyful and surprising and kind of amazing. The organizers of York Fest hope that shining a light on York's story can help people reckon with the past and maybe pioneer a better future.
For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep in Portland, Oregon.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) York, the man with just one... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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