February 6, 2020
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Black revolutionary history (that you may not have learned about in school)
It was the summer of 1976 when thousands of high school students marched in South Africa’s Soweto Township, near Johannesburg. They were protesting the government requirement that Afrikaans, a language spoken by the white minority, was to be used during instruction in Soweto’s high schools, which were primarily black.
Cleveland 19 News
“When those folks are on the sidelines when black and brown bodies are being killed in our midst, it leaves a community feeling devalued, like they don’t matter," said licensed social worker, Habeebah Rasheed Grimes.
It’s February, Black history month and 19 News has brought you a series of special reports, on-air and online, examining complementary life and the connection to slavery.
We now focus on unresolved trauma in the black community and the relation to the vestiges of slavery.
February 4, 2020
Berkeley News
Staffer Takiyah Franklin on striving to live a liberated life, leading with love
As the faculty research coordinator at the Othering and Belonging Institute, I have played an instrumental role in working with the associate director, Denise Herd, to implement cross-campus programming for the institute’s 400 Years of Resistance to Slavery and Injustice yearlong initiative. On campus, there has been an amazing response from people who are using this opportunity to program around the initiative.
February 3, 2020
The Michigan City News-Dispatch
Deuitch keynotes Black History Month event with talk on legacy and 'systemic racism'
“We are our history.” Angie Nelson-Deuitch quoted the late James Baldwin during her keynote speech at the 6th annual Black History Month Kickoff Brunch at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts on Saturday.
Still loosely quoting Baldwin, Deuitch continued, “The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways. And history is literally present in all that we do – everything that we do.”
Refinery29
Why I Traveled To Ghana 400 Years After Slavery
As an African American woman who is unsure where she stems from, I have always been curious about my roots. But I’m not one of those people who will be giving the government my DNA to figure it out, so I guess I’ll never get an Ancestry.com report. My Uncle Lee, who is one of my favorite uncles, did a family tree years before he died.
The Daily Californian
UC Berkeley Student Learning Center holds interGeneration400 initiative to celebrate Black history
UC Berkeley’s Student Learning Center, or SLC, hosted its interGeneration400 initiative Saturday, which celebrated Black history and was open to students and the public. The César E. Chávez Student Center was packed with more than 60 people. The all-day event featured speakers and panels including discussions on the global legacy of slavery, such as the panel, “Unapologetically Black: Thriving in the Face of Anti-Blackness,” and honoring Black legacy.
February 1, 2020
Berkeley Library News
Opinion: It has been 400 years since American slavery began. But how far have we actually come?
It was during my freshman year of college, May of 1992, when the Los Angeles riots erupted. Fires blazed, and stores were looted and damaged as police tried to regain order in the fragmented community. News stations televised vivid images of the city unraveling in the aftermath of the savage public beating of Rodney King, an unarmed black man. The scene was like watching a modern-day lynching caught on film and pushed out through the media for millions of people to see.
January 30, 2020
Ohio Wesleyan University
Critically acclaimed composer, recording artist, drummer, activist, and educator Mark Lomax II and The Urban Art Ensemble will present “400: An Afrikan Epic – Blues in August” in a free performance. The group’s 75-minute OWU performance will be drawn from Lomax’s 12-album collection, “400: An Afrikan Epic.” Released in 2019, the collection “traces the epic history of Black America, not only during the 400 years from the beginning of the Transatlantic slave trade but back through thousands of years of history on the African continent and into an optimistic future for the African
January 26, 2020
History News Network
Twelve Scholars Critique the 1619 Project and the New York Times Magazine Editor Responds
"It is not our purpose to question the significance of slavery in the American past.
January 22, 2020
Chesapeake Bay Magazine
400th Commemoration Art Exhibit featuring artist Ted Ellis
Mr. Ted T. Ellis is an artist and cultural historian, and he currently serves as the Vice Chair of the national 400 Years of African American History Commission. For more than 25 years, Ellis has created over 5,000 paintings that capture scenes from southern churches, courtrooms, families, and everyday life of African Americas’ 400-year journey. Developed exclusively for viewing at Old Dominion University, this exhibition features more than 20 original pieces that speak to the totality of African American experiences and contributions from the past to the present.
January 20, 2020
Chicago Tribune
Morton Grove Library plans year-long celebration of black history and culture
Sampling black history and culture, including a virtual reality experience of traveling through the U.S. as an African American, should take more than the typical month, say Morton Grove Public Library officials, who’ve made it a year-long project.
Miami Herald
A goal to ‘dismantle bigotry and racism.’ Miami’s 5000 Role Models honors top students
In eighth grade, Alexander Sanchez’s life was in turmoil. His grandmother had passed away after battling dementia. A buddy from his football team was shot to death at a park in Homestead. Alexander stopped caring about his grades and was hanging out in Brownsville, “getting into trouble,” he recalled.
January 18, 2020
48hills
Walton wants SF to get serious about reparations
Supervisor Shamann Walton announced Friday that he’s asking the city to develop a reparations plan for the Black community.
“The effect of slavery still remains and still resonates in our policies,” Walton said. “I am committed to create an advisory committee to develop a true reparations plan that will address the systemic inequities that continue to exist in our African American communities and neighborhoods.”
January 17, 2020
CBS
Ghana has attracted visitors from all over the world with its "Year of Return" campaign, an initiative that began in 2019 to mark 400 years since the first documented slave ship from Africa landed in Virginia. The Ghana Tourism Authority and Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture is encouraging the African diaspora to "come home" to the country many of those ships departed from.
January 16, 2020
New York Amsterdam News
Nate Parker Foundation film series traces arrival of 1st African to removal of confederate monuments
That former student, galvanized by a film he’d recently starred in, was actor Nate Parker. That film, “The Great Debaters,” about the creation of a winning all-Black college debating team in Depression-era Texas, inspired Parker and Favors to create an organization that developed curriculums and presentations around the movie. It led, Favors said in an interview with Amsterdam News, “To us doing a lot of work in the community.”
January 11, 2020
Newsday
Speakers at LI black law association event say legacy of slavery continues
The legacy of slavery remains 400 years after the arrival of the first slaves to America, in laws, policies, actions and attitudes, speakers said at a black law association luncheon Saturday.
January 8, 2020
Detroit Metro Times
'1619 Project' creator Nikole Hannah-Jones will speak at University of Michigan
Nikole Hannah-Jones, the reporter behind The New York Times' popular "1619 Project" — a sprawling package of stories that posits that the true beginning of United States history starts when the first African slaves arrived in Virginia 400 years ago — will speak at the University of Michigan.
January 5, 2020
Fox5 San Diego
Virginia recognizes 400 years since slavery came to North America
In 2019, Virginia commemorated the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans brought to English North America.
In 1619, about 20 Africans were brought against their will to Point Comfort, where Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia is located today. A historical marker now stands there.
January 2, 2020
Lonely Planet Travel News
An exhibit celebrating 400 years of African American culinary history is coming to New York
African American culinary traditions have a long and storied history, but their influence doesn’t often receive the recognition it deserves. This winter, though, one New York museum will begin to rectify that situation, via a Kickstarter-funded exhibit dedicated to the black chefs, farmers, and food and drink producers who made the country’s cuisine what it is today.
December 26, 2019
The Washington Post
2019 marked 400 years of 'forbidden black love' in America
Marking the 400th anniversary of African enslavement in the Anglo-United States, 2019 has been a year of bitter remembrance. Commemoration events, conferences, congressional hearings, news reports and public awareness initiatives crammed our calendars over the past 12 months with retrospectives on America’s heritage of racial slavery and its damaging legacies among present-day African American communities.
December 20, 2019
Berkeley News
Top UC Berkeley stories of 2019: The year in images, video and audio
For UC Berkeley, 2019 was a year of honoring the past and celebrating new beginnings. The campus held a symposium that marked the start of a yearlong initiative commemorating the 400th anniversary of the forced arrival of enslaved Africans in the English colonies.
December 17, 2019
USA Today
Dorbrene O’Marde paced back and forth, trying to quash evil spirits. He had been to many former sugar plantations on this small island, but last month was the first time he’d seen the dungeon.
O’Marde knows well Antigua’s long history of slavery – Africans ripped from their homelands, forced to work on sugar plantations for British owners. But the dungeon, with its dark inside smelling of sea salt and littered with dead crabs, stood as another visible reminder.
Enslaved Africans – his ancestors – would have had to climb through the small opening into this windowless cell.
THISWEEKNEWS.COM
Weighty history lesson sparks museum at Olentangy Orange Middle School
American History can be a difficult class, especially when the events of history are hard to hear.
Shane Shoaf’s eighth-grade students at Olentangy Orange Middle School have been faced with such events in their study of the transatlantic slave trade, during which millions of Africans were shipped across the sea to the Americas.
USA Today
At the dawn of Colonial America, two families lived in the same household, maybe under the same roof. One was white, one black. One was from England, one from Africa. One, almost certainly, owned the other.
The black family included the first identified African child born on the mainland of English America – the first African American.
December 16, 2019
WBUR
Ghana's 'Year Of Return' Encourages Black Americans To Return To Their Motherland
The first enslaved Africans were brought to British colonial North America 400 years ago, setting in motion the transatlantic slave trade.
To commemorate this anniversary, the president of Ghana has been welcoming descendants of those enslaved back to the West African nation to reconnect with their roots and invest in the country.
USA Today
Forget what you know about 1619, historians say. Slavery began a half century before Jamestown
For David Nolan, watching the nation commemorate the 400 year anniversary of the first arrival of slaves from his home here in the United States' oldest city is frustrating. The truth is Spaniards settled in St.
December 15, 2019
Greensboro News & Record
'Persistence and survival’: One of N.C.’s largest plantations tells story of slavery
The thumb prints of enslaved people are molded into the bricks. There are knuckle prints too, formed from slaves gripping the clay, turning over the bricks to harden in the sunlight. Up higher on the wall of the former slave dwelling, the markings of five little toes can be seen — the foot of an enslaved child leaving its mark.
More than 900 people were enslaved at one time on the Stagville Plantation. Down the gravel road in Durham, trees cover the land of what used to be one of North Carolina’s largest plantations.
December 14, 2019
The Daily Item
The first ship bearing slaves to arrive in what would become the United States docked in Virginia in August 1619. Those 20 slaves were the first of literally thousands that would be crammed into disease-ridden ships and forced to endure harrowing journeys across the seas.
It’s been 400 years since the birth of slavery on our continent, prompting major news projects exploring the ongoing legacy that slavery still has on society today.
NEWS10
Commission established to recognize African-Americans’ contributions to New York
Legislation signed Friday by Governor Andrew Cuomo established the 400 Years of African-American History Commission. The Commission will develop and carry out activities throughout New York State to commemorate 400 years since the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the English Colonies.
The commission will consist of 15 members selected by the Governor and legislative leaders as well as the Secretary of State and Commissioner of Education. Members will include individuals with expertise in African-American history, arts and culture.
December 13, 2019
WAER
Inequality in Syracuse, SU, and Nation to Come Up in Larger Discussion About Centuries of Oppression
Syracuse-area residents will gather at a church this Sunday for more than worship. It’s the second in a three-part discussion about 400 years of inequality in Syracuse and across the nation. Hopps Memorial CME Church Pastor, the Reverend Dr. Bruce Burns, Sr. says the dialogue comes with a twist...
"How did Syracuse, which once used to be a hub for the undreground railroad, become so unequal in its mindset?"
December 12, 2019
ABC News
‘I am 400’: Richmond exhibit displays the journey of African Americans
The Richmond Public Library is home to many books and stories, but now thanks to a father-son art duo it’s also a place for visitors to appreciate one of RVA’s most unique exhibits.
The messages that Jerome W. Jones Jr. and his son, Jeromyah, paint are more than strokes on a canvas. Their exhibit illustrates the journey hundreds of years in the making and offers an experience of walking through the milestones that transcend geography.
Tulsa World
“African American history is quintessential American history,” said Rex Ellis. “This is not a black and white conversation,” said Terry Brown, superintendent of the Fort Monroe National Monument, which is on the site where the first boatload of enslaved people came ashore in Virginia. “It’s a human conversation… The art of the deal is convincing you that what I’m saying is relevant to you regardless of what your skin color is.”
December 11, 2019
Center for American Progress
CAP Announces Formation of the National Advisory Council on Eliminating the Black-White Wealth Gap
For 400 years, structural racism embedded in federal, state, and local policies has produced and maintained a stark wealth gap between Black and white Americans. Today, the typical white household holds 10 times more wealth than the typical Black household. This disparity persists even after controlling for protective factors such as education, income, or homeownership. While lawmakers and policy experts increasingly agree that the racial wealth gap poses a serious problem, little consensus exists on the most effective way to eliminate it.
December 9, 2019
The New York Times
Jacqueline Woodson on Africa, America and Slavery’s Fierce Undertow
In the coastal town of Elmina, Ghana, the Atlantic Ocean crashes against the rocks with such a ferocity, I make our kids move back away from the gray-blue water. Four hundred years have passed since captured Africans were forced across these waves on their way to bondage in the New World and now, standing at the edge of this violent water, startled by my own anxiety, I feel something deep and old and terrifying. Call it hydrophobia. Call it genetic memory.
December 8, 2019
AL.com
Marker notes Mobile as ‘site of memory’ in slave trade
“We are the unveilers of a history hidden far too long. This is our opportunity to create a healing of our land.”
Daily Press
The next phase for African Landing Memorial project is listening to public input
Brian Owens, a Florida-based artist hired to design Fort Monroe’s new African Landing Memorial, has a few questions for the people who will see it. What’s the public’s appetite for imagery? Does the public want something positive or something that depicts the brutality of enslaved persons? And what type of sculpture?
Taking whatever comes his way, the sculptor expects to visit in February for a listening tour — the next step in creating the public art space the Fort Monroe Authority is planning.
December 5, 2019
Downtown Devil
Thoughts of the past, future at event examining legacy of slavery
It was a day of reflection, remembrance and community for attendees of the panel 400 Years: African American Past and Presence, held at the George Washington Carver Museum & Cultural Center on December 3.
2019 marks the 400 year anniversary of enslaved Africans brought to the Virginia colony to farm tobacco, but also a rebirth for the future of the museum.
New England Public Radio
Pushing Past Myths About Slavery's Deep, Small-Scale Roots In New England
This year marks 400 years since the first enslaved Africans were brought to the Colony of Virginia. And while much history written about slavery in the U.S. focuses on the South, slavery was also prominent in the North.
Berkeley News
Haunted by slavery, a white woman reckons with her family’s past
That Frances Causey’s family owned slaves never quite sat right with her.
Since childhood, Causey disdainfully eyed the profound abuse, exploitation and grinding poverty that marked black life in her native North Carolina and throughout the South. She asked tough questions of herself, of her family and of society.
Causey’s lifelong search for answers yielded The Long Shadow, a highly acclaimed documentary that draws a strong, unmistakable line from the racial injustice of today and the brutally dehumanizing institutions of slavery and Jim Crow of yesteryear.
The Conversation
Reparations for slavery and genocide should be used to address health inequities
As soon as I entered Elmina Castle (the dungeons) in Cape Coast in Ghana, I felt haunted by over 400 years of brutality and the enslavement and genocide of millions of African and Indigenous peoples.
December 3, 2019
KUAF Public Radio
Church Commemorates 400 Years of African American History by Recognizing Unmarked Graves
In 1619, the first African slaves were brought to the colonies beginning what is now 400 years of African-American history in the U.S. A Fayetteville church recently commemorated that milestone with a ceremony at dozens of unmarked graves found on its property several years ago.
The Observer
Saint Mary’s student, faculty circulate posters inspired by ‘1619 Project’
Inspired by the New York Times Magazine’s “The 1619 Project,” the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership (CWIL) director Mana Derakhshani, along with Office of Civic & Social Engagement (OCSE) director Rebekah Go and junior Tyler Davis, organized the circulation of dozens of posters around Saint Mary’s that feature provocative quotes from the series.
November 30, 2019
Atlanta Black Star
It was an occasion worth celebrating as over 100 Africans-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans made it official by becoming Ghana’s newest citizens in a special ceremony Wednesday.
November 26, 2019
Essence
1619: 400 Years of History Remembered
Angela landed in the Virginia Colony in the sweltering summer of 1619, after being brutally snatched from her native Africa. Along with other Africans, she was held captive in the bowels of a boat bound for a strange new land. That crossing, some 10,000 nautical miles that became known as the Middle Passage, was harrowing. It would establish the race-based system of bondage that led to 246 years of slavery in America.
November 24, 2019
PBS NewsHour
Largest slave revolt in U.S. history lives on in reenactment
In 1811, more than 200 enslaved people in present-day Louisiana launched the largest insurgency of people in bondage in U.S. history. The revolt lasted only a few days before the poorly armed rebels were crushed by a militia and U.S. troops. But more than two centuries later, their story is living on in a performance called "Slave Rebellion Reenactment." Special Correspondent Brian Palmer reports.
November 17, 2019
The San Diego Union-Tribune
The “1619 National Celebration of Black Women Exhibit” aims to recognize, honor and be inspired by the contributions made by African American women since the first enslaved men, women and children from Africa set foot on American soil 400 years ago.
November 15, 2019
Florida Headline News
Katheryn Russell-Brown: An invitation to do race
For some people, public discussions about a national news story involving race may serve a cathartic function. This is problematic since when interest in the case wanes, the problems remain. Thus, too often we have allowed discussions about high-profile cases to substitute for real race work.
November 12, 2019
CLASP
Reflections on Citizenship from 1619 to 2019
In the New York Times’s “1619 project” marking the 400th anniversary of enslavement in the United States, Nikole Hannah-Jones reflects on the making of American democracy by contemplating what citizenship looks like in absence of legal rights and recognition.
November 10, 2019
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Robert Trent Vinson: Mark the milestones of nation’s spotted racial history
This year is a significant one in American history, because it recognizes the 400 years that have passed since the arrival of the first Africans in English North America.
It is the remembrance of the tragedy, travails, and trauma that befell these Africans who in 1619 were forcibly landed at Old Point Comfort, which is now Hampton. Understanding the legacy of the African landing is crucial to comprehending our trajectory as a country and the critical role of cultural diversity in American life.
delmarva now
Harriet Tubman tribute brought to US by man who rowed 5,000 miles from Africa
During the last leg of his 5,000 mile journey rowing across the Atlantic Ocean in 2014, Don Victor Mooney experienced the Delmarva Peninsula, where Harriet Tubman was raised and later escaped slavery.
"She used nature to navigate to freedom," Mooney said last week.
November 9, 2019
cleveland.com
Racism as a public health crisis: What Cleveland can learn from Milwaukee
Milwaukee struggles with the very same issues that Cleveland does: infant mortality, lead poisoning and other challenges that significantly affect black children.
November 8, 2019
Berkeley News
Berkeley Talks: Berkeley Law’s Ian Haney López on defeating racial fearmongering
People across the country, from presidential hopefuls and engaged voters to journalists and activists, are grappling with how to think and talk about racism in American politics.
This talk was organized as part of a series of events under the banner of the 400 Years of Resistance to Slavery and Injustice initiative, UC Berkeley’s yearlong commemoration marking the anniversary of the forced arrival of Africans in the English colonies in 1619.
Richmond Free Press
NAACP members, others protest Dominion Energy's involvement in state conference
On the eve of the state convention, protesters called out the organization for bringing on Dominion Energy as an event sponsor and co-host of a reception and panel discussion on 400 years of African-American history.
Daily Press
Growing up in Iowa, Nikole Hannah-Jones had a few aha-moments about the year 1619 and its significance.
One really hit home during high school. A teacher tasked with cramming a couple hundred years of black history into four months of lessons gave the future journalist the book “Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America, 1619-1962” by Lerone Bennett.
November 7, 2019
cleveland.com
Racism to blame for deplorable African-American infant mortality rates, group says
In three years, First Year Cleveland has dramatically reduced the Cuyahoga County infant mortality rate – dropping deaths by 18 percent. But African-American babies are four times as likely as white babies to die in their first year of life. The rate is one of the worst in the country.
November 6, 2019
Valley Advocate
Bassist Avery Sharpe has been playing and composing music for years, touring and recording with jazz greats like McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Yusef Lateef, and Billy Taylor. As a composer, he’s written music not just for his own ensemble but for a wide range of other artists. Avery Sharpe, here in his home in Plainfield, has composed a new album, “400,” that marks the infamous anniversary of the introduction of slavery into the future United States.
WTVR
How this man uses a museum on Pocahontas Island to tell the story of his ancestors
The year 2019 marks 400 years since the first enslaved people from Africa came to Virginia. So, it should come as no surprise that the Commonwealth is home to one of the oldest black communities in America.
That community is just outside of Petersburg. A descendant of slavery has dedicated his life to tell the story of his ancestors and the people who lived along the Appomattox River. "I've always wanted to do something for my people. Cause we have such a rich history," said Richard Stewart.
The St. Louis American
Some people deserve more power than others?
“American holds onto an undemocratic assumption from its founding: that some people deserve more power than others.”
The above quote is from one of the 1619 Project’s essays by Jamelle Bouie, an introspective thinker and columnist for the New York Times. Bouie’s essay is entitled “What the Reactionary Politics of 2019 Owe to the Politics of Slavery.” The pull quote shook my soul when I first read it because it speaks to what’s happening in St. Louis in the enduring struggle for black political and economic power.
November 4, 2019
KSHB Kansas City
2 Kansas City schools chosen as ambassadors for national initiative
Two Kansas City, Missouri, schools will serve as national ambassadors over the next year, educating others about the history of African Americans in North America.
November 3, 2019
silive.com
Community commemorates the anniversary of first slave voyage to S.I.
Port Richmond High School hosted nearly 200 community members on Sunday, Oct. 27, to commemorate the anniversary of the first slave voyage to Staten Island’s shores and discuss the divisions the city and nation still face.
The 16th annual Anti-Bias/Anti-Violence Summit, titled “1619-2019: 400 years of African-American history: How far are we from racial equity,” was organized by Communities United for Respect and Trust (CURT), a coalition of organizations and community members that are committed to making Staten Island more inclusive.
October 31, 2019
ACLU
Why Have a Forum on Reparations in Charleston and Why Now?
This year marks 400 years since enslaved, kidnapped people were purchased by the forefathers and - mothers of America. Are the events that began 400 years ago connected to today? William Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Richmond Free Press
ASWAD conference to bring hundreds of scholars to area next week
Nearly 1,000 people from 30 different countries are expected in Williamsburg next week for the 10th Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide Diaspora, or ASWAD.
The conference, from Nov. 5 through 9, is being hosted in remembrance of the first enslaved Africans who landed at Point Comfort in Hampton 400 years ago in 1619.
October 30, 2019
Fresh Water Cleveland
Should Cleveland declare racism a public health crisis?
Racism. A word evoking a wide range of both defensive and offensive emotions. It deeply divides our country, our states and even our city. Cleveland. A place where slaves fleeing bondage came for a taste of freedom. They called it “Station Hope.”
Yet, when slavery ended, racism prevailed. What is its impact today? This year marks 400 years since the first Africans arrived on these shores involuntarily.
WBUR
For many black Americans, it's like an abusive relationship. We love our country, but it does not always love us back. The best way I can grapple with this complicated dynamic is by looking back at my own family.
I have a picture of my grandmother, Ethel Phillips, posing with the great-granddaughter of her employer. The child is looking up at my grandmother as she smiles into the camera. They are both holding small American flags. My grandmother is wearing a light blue dress, which was actually a uniform.
October 29, 2019
The Harvard Gazette
How slavery still shadows health care
Slavery in America traces its beginnings to August of 1619, when starving pirates sold about 20 kidnapped Africans to English colonists in Jamestown, Va., in exchange for food. On Monday afternoon an expert panel argued that centuries later, the legacy of slavery still shadows the American health-care system.
Virginia Mercury
A governor-appointed commission begins work on improving black history education in Virginia
The commission charged with making recommendations to create a more accurate and complete representation of black history in state education guidelines plans to finish its work by the time the state makes changes to the Standards of Learning again.
October 27, 2019
The Famuan
FAMU, FSU partner on ‘1619’ project
A collaboration between the Florida A&M University Black Archives Exhibition Research Center and Museum and the Florida State University Civil Rights Institute produced the “Remembrance of Slavery in America and Contributions of African Americans 100 Years Prior to 1619” program.
October 26, 2019
KLTV
Texas African American Museum recognizes 400th anniversary of slavery in U.S.
Saturday, East Texans acknowledged their past in downtown Tyler.
“Today commemorates 400 years of slavery for African Americans,” said Gloria Washington, the executive director of the Texas African American Museum (TAAM). TAAM recognized the occasion with a parade and event hosting vendors from all over. “That’s the importance of today,” said Washington. “To bring back the past into the future so we won’t go back to the past.” Those in attendance said they learned about others, but also about themselves.
October 25, 2019
Berkeley News
Unmasked: Many white women were Southern slave owners, too
In her new book, They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South, Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, UC Berkeley associate professor of history, expands our understanding of American slavery and the 19th century slave market with an investigation into the role of white women in the slave economy. She found they were active participants, profited from it and were as brutal as men in their management techniques.
October 23, 2019
The Natchez Democrat
Events celebrate 400 year contributions of African Americans
Two events this weekend will celebrate the contributions of African Americans locally and nationally over 400 years between 1619 and 2019.
October 21, 2019
Pratt
Pratt Joins Nationwide Commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of Slavery in America
In August 1619, a ship carrying around 20 enslaved Africans arrived at the English colony of Virginia, launching the slave trade in the future United States. This year marks the 400th anniversary of slavery in this country.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
1619 project: African exploration of Florida long predates slaves’ arrival
A Bethune-Cookman symposium, “Before 1619,” is a look back at 400 years since the arrival of the first African slaves in Virginia, and before, as the first Africans had arrived in Florida as early as 1528.
Estevanico — the first African to explore America — landed in La Florida in 1528.
News8
SCSU kicking off week of commemoration of 1619 Southern Remembers The 400th
Southern Connecticut University is kicking off a week of events commemorating the first enslaved Africans to be brought to the shores of North America 400 years ago.
1619 Southern Remembers The 400th will feature films, speakers and lectures. All of the events are free and open to the public.
University of New Mexico News
UNM School of Law hosts closing exhibition for '400 Years of Freedom, Restrictions, and Survival'
The University of New Mexico School of Law celebrates the closing reception featuring Emeritus Professor of Law Sherri Burr’s exhibition of '400 Years of Freedom, Restrictions, and Survival,' on Wednesday, Oct. 23 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the African American Performing Arts Center Foundation. The exhibit commemorates the first arrival of Africans in August 1619 and challenging traditional notions of how slavery developed in this country.
The LaGrange Daily News
400 Year Journey honors accomplishments, remembers past
Over the weekend, the LaGrange community honored the 400-year anniversary of the first slave ship arriving to America in 1619.
The project was coordinated by Ark Refuge Ministries in LaGrange. The 400 Year Journey, the first annual celebration of the journey from 1619 to 2019, was established to commemorate the struggles, influence and contributions made by African Americans during the past 400 years. More than a dozen workshops were held throughout the weekend that promoted relationships amongst a diverse group of people.
October 20, 2019
Crain's Cleveland Business
Facing up to an ongoing legacy
Four hundred years after the first ship holding enslaved Africans reached port at Jamestown, Va., two Cleveland organizations are hosting a summit to examine the connection between this legacy and today's racial disparities.
Since August of 1619, millions were forced into slavery, an institution that ultimately helped build the economic foundation of the United States.
October 18, 2019
The Daily Targum
Rutgers School of Public Health hosts event on reducing youth involvement in criminal justice system
The Rutgers School of Public Health hosted a half-day conference titled “Reducing Youth Involvement with the Criminal Justice System” last Thursday, which addressed the youth-to-prison pipeline among students in Newark and throughout the state.
The Daily Pennsylvanian
Penn hosts 'Legacy of 1619' conference to discuss slavery and revisionist history
Notable scholars of African American history gathered in Houston Hall Thursday to kick off the 2019 CallalooConference, analyzing the historical impact of the first enslaved people's arrival to America 400 years ago.
City Limits
Opinion: Join the 400-Year Fight for Full Participation of all Peoples
As we reflect on the week’s Indigenous Peoples gatherings, we should take a moment to consider what happened in the 400 years after enslaved Africans were brought to England’s first permanent colony in Jamestown, Va., in 1619, and how these experiences relate to human rights.
October 17, 2019
USA Today
Slavery in America: Some historical sites try to show the horrors. Others are far behind.
Sites from Virginia to Kansas are now grappling with how to portray the harsh truths of the past, from former presidents' enslavement of other humans, to the violent efforts to spread slavery in "free" states, to the historic presence of hundreds of enslaved people at well-loved tourist attractions.
But those attempts to change how Americans view history have met plenty of pushback: Some people, it seems, prefer a sanitized retelling of America's past.
October 17, 2019
BU Today
SPH Addresses 400 Years of Inequality at Dean’s Symposium Today
When former NAACP CEO and president Cornell William Brooks was taunted with fried chicken and threatened with shouts of the N-word during a 43-day march in 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, he was undeterred.
USA Today
She was captured, enslaved and she survived. Meet Angela, the first named African woman in Jamestown
Why isn’t Angela part of colonial history lessons? Why, 400 years later, are they just hearing her story?
“What if now is the time we are supposed to know about Angela?” Valarie tells Kaid. Maybe now the country is finally ready to acknowledge Angela’s importance – as the first African woman in Jamestown for whom there is a name and a story.
October 13, 2019
The Cavalier Daily
University announces new Equity Center to partner with Charlottesville community
The University announced Friday that it has established the Democracy Initiative Center for the Redress of Inequity Through Community-Engaged Scholarship. Referred to as the Equity Center, the project will promote partnerships between faculty and community members, so that the University may better support the Charlottesville community and address issues of racial and socioeconomic disparity.
October 12, 2019
WDVM
West African King makes first visit to Montgomery County
BETHESDA, Md. (WDVM) — A West African king makes his first visit to Montgomery County to commemorate 400 years since slavery began. All the way from Benin, Royal Majesty King Toffa IX makes history as he visits Montgomery County. “Royal Majesty King Toffa IX has come this way, all the way from Porto Novo,” Rev. Adebayo stated.
October 11, 2019
The New York Times
Episode 5: The Land of Our Fathers, Part 2
The Provosts, a family of sugar-cane farmers in Louisiana, had worked the same land for generations. When it became harder and harder to keep hold of that land, June Provost and his wife, Angie, didn’t know why — and then a phone call changed their understanding of everything.
On today’s episode:
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June and Angie Provost spoke with Adizah Eghan and Annie Brown, producers for “1619.”
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Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of history, race and public policy at Harvard University and the author of “The Condemnation of Blackness.”
OperaWire
Composer and pianist Damien Sneed is set to showcase his new opera “Our Journey: 400 Years From Africa to Jamestown,” at Carnegie Hall on Friday, Oct. 11, 2019.
The world premiere performance will star mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and baritone Will Liverman alongside the Chorus Le Chateau and the Sphinx Virtuosi Orchestra.
October 10, 2019
WVXU
Founded On Slavery: How Does Higher Education Make Amends?
Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati are studying how its institutions were built on slavery. Higher education representatives from across the country are in Cincinnati this week for "The Academy's Original Sin," a conference exploring the past and present racial inequities in higher education that date back to slavery. Enslavers founded both Xavier and UC, which are hosting the conference.
October 4, 2019
WDRB
New justice movement with eyes on slavery reparations brings national conference to Louisville
A new justice movement grown through social media planted roots Friday in Louisville in an effort to address the barbaric act of slavery and repay the ancestors of those who were shackled and abused generations ago.
The New York Times
Episode 5: The Land of Our Fathers, Part 1
More than a century and a half after the promise of 40 acres and a mule, the story of black land ownership in America remains one of loss and dispossession. June and Angie Provost, who trace their family line to the enslaved workers on Louisiana’s sugar-cane plantations, know this story well.
On today’s episode:
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June and Angie Provost spoke with Adizah Eghan and Annie Brown, producers for “1619.”
October 3, 2019
Essence
On My Mind: Inviting African-Americans To Rediscover An Ancestral Home
Danielle Kwateng-Clark considers her own rich cultural heritage as a child of the African diaspora on her revolutionary return home to Ghana.
In Maya Angelou’s autobiography, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, she describes the revelatory experience of moving to Ghana in 1962 for three years.
Berkeley News
From Mississippi to Chicago to Belarus, ancestors guide her way
During the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans to the English colonies, we’re highlighting members of the campus community whose personal stories, often marked by racism and discrimination, inform their life’s work. We begin with Tina Sacks, UC Berkeley assistant professor of social welfare, who tells of the struggles, self-determination and achievements of her African American and Jewish ancestors.
October 2, 2019
BK Reader
BHS Presents ‘400 Years of Inequality’
This year, 2019, marks 400 years since the arrival of the first 20 Africans to North America’s shores. They arrived at Jamestown, VA, in 1619 and were sold into slavery.
And from that time until 1866, 12.5 million more Africans were shipped to the New World (10.7 million survived the dreaded Middle Passage), disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South America, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.
BBC
The awkward questions about slavery from tourists in US South
Charleston reflects a wholly American truth: that nothing here is untouched by the legacy of slavery, even centuries on. What is less certain is how a city - and a nation - should talk about such a difficult past. "We do things a little bit differently than they do at other plantations in Charleston, because we do focus our perspective on the enslaved people," Olivia Williams tells our group. "What we're going to talk about today is hard," she continues. "You may feel uncomfortable. You may feel upset, sad or angry, and that is perfectly fine.
October 1, 2019
Bushwick Daily
Brooklyn Historical Society Focuses on Slavery and 400 Years of Inequality
The October lecture series will feature talks, screenings and plays on redlining, the criminal justice system, reparations and more. “There is this unhealed wound in our history that impacts our present-day society deeply in every way,” said Marcia Ely, Brooklyn Historical Society’s executive vice president. BHS wants to acknowledge the United States’ unresolved legacy of slavery and its long-lasting effects.
September 30, 2019
Architectural Digest
Kehinde Wiley Makes a Statement With New Sculpture in Times Square
Kehinde Wiley is a maven at making a major statement. Barack Obama’s official portraitist (he was the president’s personal choice for the painting that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery) has just created another first: a larger-than-life public art work—a towering bronze equestrian statue—that was spirited into New York’s Times Square in the wee hours of the night, shrouded in a silver drape until its unveiling, complete with a marching band, on September 27.
September 27, 2019
Tulane University
Tulane hosts ‘400 Years of Inequality’ in observance of slavery’s impact
Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine will bring together scholars, activists and community members for a day-long event observing the 400-year anniversary of the beginning of slavery in America and exploring its lasting impact on inequalities for communities across the country.
September 25, 2019
The Hilltop
CBCF Commemorates 400 Years Of Legacy
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) hosted its 49th Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from Sept. 11-15. Although it is linked to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan arm that runs programs in economic development, education and public health. The black caucus is made up of congressional members from the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. All 55 of the members share the same legislative goal: the advancement of African-Americans.
September 22, 2019
The Virginian-Pilot
NSU conference includes national speakers, politicians to discuss America’s evolution after 1619
Virginia has spent much of the year commemorating historic events of 1619, including the landing of the first Africans in an English North American colony.
A three-day conference at Norfolk State University this week will examine what evolved after 1619, including how the legal system, at times, granted and denied citizenship to certain Americans, and how people of color have often been negatively portrayed in history books and movies.
September 20, 2019
Science
Over centuries of slavery in America, systematic structures were erected to present enslaved people as “the other”—a race apart and less than human—as a way to justify the institution and forestall discussions of its inhumanity and the moral imperative to dismantle it. These efforts included invoking science, as objective arbiter, in support of these viewpoints. Some theories of human origins, for example, espoused by great names of science, reflected attempts to bolster constructs of racial inferiority rather than to advance science.
September 18, 2019
BET
On This Day In History, Harriet Tubman Liberated Herself
Determined to live free, Harriet Tubman tried more than once to escape slavery. In 1849, she seized an opportunity.
Hiding by day and traveling by night, Tubman stealthily journeyed through her native Maryland, then Delaware and, finally, Pennsylvania.
September 17, 2019
Berkeley News
Constitution’s biggest flaw? Protecting slavery
For many, Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky wrote the book on Constitutional Law. Or, more accurately, the books. Published last year, We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century is one of several he has penned about America’s founding document, including a seminal casebook and treatise now in their fifth and sixth editions.
September 13, 2019
ABC News
Families connected by slavery meet for the first time in Campbell Co.
Two families connected by slavery met at the Campbell County Courthouse Friday after an award-winning journalist uncovered the connection between a freed slave and a slaveowner. Washington Post Reporter Bobbi Bowman was researching her family history at the courthouse when she discovered the fate of her great-great-grandfather William Williamson, who bought his own freedom in 1842.
The New York Times
Episode 4: How the Bad Blood Started (podcast)
Black Americans were denied access to doctors and hospitals for decades. From the shadows of this exclusion, they pushed to create the nation’s first federal health care programs.
On today’s episode:
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Jeneen Interlandi, a member of The New York Times’s editorial board and a staff writer for The Times Magazine.
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Yaa Gyasi, the author of the novel “Homegoing.”
September 11, 2019
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Contractors may have to reveal past ties to slavery to get business with New York City
City contractors would have to reveal past ties to slavery under a Council bill that will be introduced on Thursday.
The legislation would require companies to search their history and records to determine if they or any affiliated entities engaged in or profited from the slave trade when they enter in or renew city contracts of $100,000 or more.
Essence
Congressional Ceremony Marks 400 Years Of Slavery In America
In the U.S. Capitol, largely built by enslaved Africans, members of Congress held ceremonies to mark 1619, the year Africans landed in the Virginia Colony and centuries of American chattel slavery began.
Tuesday’s ceremony was hosted by the 55-member Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and welcomed lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. The crowd ranged from Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and special guests such as actress Alfre Woodard.
September 9, 2019
Berkeley News
Chancellor Christ: ‘We aspire to a culture of belonging’
Dear Students, As the year begins, I write to remind us of our responsibilities to each other as members of the Berkeley community.
September 6, 2019
The New York Times
Episode 3: The Birth of American Music (podcast)
Black music, forged in captivity, became the sound of complete artistic freedom. It also became the sound of America.
On today’s episode:
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Wesley Morris, a critic-at-large for The New York Times.
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Nikole Hannah-Jones, who writes for The Times Magazine.
Berkeley Research
Berkeley Talks: john powell on rejecting white supremacy, embracing belonging
On Friday, Aug. 30, UC Berkeley held a symposium that marked the start of a yearlong initiative, “400 Years of Resistance to Slavery and Oppression,” commemorating the 400th anniversary of the forced arrival of enslaved Africans in the English colonies with a daylong symposium. It drew hundreds of attendees who heard from more than a dozen historians and social scientists about the impact and legacy of slavery in society today.
Berkeley News
Berkeley Talks: john powell on rejecting white supremacy, embracing belonging
In his keynote speech to close the symposium, john powell, director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society and professor of law, African American studies and ethnic studies, discussed the link between slavery and white supremacy. Slavery, he said, created anti-black racism, which was necessary for the extraction of capital.
September 4, 2019
America Journal of Public Health
Four Hundred Years Since Jamestown: An AJPH Dossier
This special section marks an important but troubling anniversary in US history, the arrival in October 1619 of 20 unfree African laborers who were brought as indentured servants. The six contributions to this section take on the challenge of making sense of the 400 years since October 1619 by exploring how slavery and its continuing legacies have shaped US medicine and public health, especially with regard to persisting racial biases and health disparities that show improvement over time but refuse to disappear.
September 3, 2019
Berkeley News
Hundreds gather for symposium marking 400th anniversary of slave ship arrival
Opening the symposium, Denise Herd, lead organizer of the “400 Years of Resistance to Slavery and Oppression” initiative, explained why it is crucial for Berkeley to acknowledge this sordid anniversary, invoking a famous quote by William Faulkner, who wrote that, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
The Daily Californian
A daylong symposium was held at UC Berkeley on Friday recognizing the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves brought to the English colonies and what would later become the United States. The symposium is part of a campuswide initiative announced by Chancellor Carol Christ in May that aims to “honor and celebrate” Black “extraordinary … contributions” to the country.
September 1, 2019
Charleston Post Courier
Despite pushback, Charleston historic sites expand their interpretation of slavery
In recent years, Charleston-area historic sites have dramatically increased their interpretation of slavery and its vital role in the area’s early history.
And some visitors have pushed back, uneasy with hearing a story many feel reflects poorly on their ancestors. The feedback can be particularly harsh with the relative anonymity of social media and a political moment where racism is debated almost daily in the news.
But local historians and curators say they are undaunted by the detractors, who they estimate make up less than 10 percent of their total visitors.
August 30, 2019
The New York Times
Episode 2: The Economy That Slavery Built (podcast)
The institution of slavery turned a poor, fledgling nation into a financial powerhouse, and the cotton plantation was America’s first big business. Behind the system, and built into it, was the whip.
On today’s episode:
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Matthew Desmond, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and the author of “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.”
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Jesmyn Ward, the author of the novel “Sing, Unburied, Sing.”
August 29, 2019
BBC
The hidden links between slavery and Wall Street
Stacey Toussaint, the boss of Inside Out Tours, which runs the NYC Slavery and Underground Railroad tour, says people are often surprised by how important slavery was to New York City.
"They don't realise that enslaved people built the wall after which Wall Street is named," she says.
August 28, 2019
The Washington Post
“Think about this. For 246 years, slavery was legal in America. It wasn’t made illegal until 154 years ago,” the 26-year-old teacher told the 23 students sitting before him at Fort Dodge Middle School. “So, what does that mean? It means slavery has been a part of America much longer than it hasn’t been a part of America.”
August 26, 2019
Vox
How history textbooks reflect America’s refusal to reckon with slavery
Textbooks have been slow to incorporate black humanity in their slavery narratives. And they still have a long way to go.
August 25, 2019
NPR
Barbershop: Reckoning With The History Of Slavery
NPR's Michel Martin discusses ways to reckon with the history of slavery with journalist Rachel Swarns, public historian Niya Bates and law professor Sherri Burr.
August 24, 2019
The Washington Post
Virginia marks the dawn of American slavery in 1619 with solemn speeches and songs
They faced the sunrise to the rhythm of drums and waves on a windswept beach, dozens wearing white, near the spot where the first enslaved Africans arrived at the English colony of Virginia in 1619. On Saturday morning, they would release those spirits.
The cleansing and naming ritual, presided over by visiting chiefs from Cameroon, kicked off a weekend of events marking the 400th anniversary of the Africans’ arrival and the dawn of American slavery.
August 23, 2019
The New York Times
Episode 1: The Fight for a True Democracy
America was founded on the ideal of democracy. Black people fought to make it one.
Four hundred years ago, in August 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the British colony of Virginia. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed.
“1619,” a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, examines the long shadow of that fateful moment.
August 23, 2019
Unesco
This 23 August, we honour the memory of the men and women who, in Saint-Domingue in 1791, revolted and paved the way for the end of slavery and dehumanization. We honour their memory and that of all the other victims of slavery, for whom they stand.
National Geographic
How slavery flourished in the United States
See 400 years of data tracking the rise and fall of the slave trade.
August 20, 2019
The Atlantic
The Hopefulness and Hopelessness of 1619
Her name was Angela, one of the first known Africans in British North America. His name was John, the first known antiblack racist in colonial America.
National Park Service
National Park Service To Commemorate 400 Years Of African-American History
National parks will offer special programs on Sunday, August 25, to commemorate the first landing of enslaved Africans 400 years ago in English-occupied North America at Virginia’s Point Comfort, now part of Fort Monroe National Monument.
The Washington Post
Why the legacy of American slavery endures after more than 400 years
The Mayflower is the center of our founding myth. But the slave ships arrived first. A year before the Pilgrims made their famed journey to New England, signing the “Mayflower Compact” and thus inaugurating so many of the myths that we believe about our democratic origins, a very different ship disembarked in that older English colony to the south, Jamestown. Aug.
WNYC Studios
1619: The Truth About 400 Years of Slavery
August 1619. Four hundred years ago this month, the first group of enslaved Africans were forcibly brought by British colonists to what is now the United States.
August 19, 2019
Public Radio International
A professor with Ghanaian roots unearths a slave castle’s history — and her own (PRI)
Rachel Engmann, a professor at Hampshire College, found her surname in a slave castle in Accra, Ghana, and decided to do some digging.
August 18, 2019
The Washington Post
Why we should remember 1619 (Washington Post)
Enslaved Africans were brought to Jamestown. Their descendants have led the fight for freedom.
PBS
The 1619 Project details the legacy of slavery in America (PBS)
Four hundred years ago this month, the first enslaved people from Africa arrived in the Virginia colony. To observe the anniversary of American slavery, The New York Times Magazine launched The 1619 Project to reframe America’s history through the lens of slavery. The project lead, reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss.
August 16, 2019
The Guardian
400 years since slavery: a timeline of American history (The Guardian)
Many Americans’ introduction to US history is the arrival of 102 passengers on the Mayflower in 1620. But a year earlier, 20 enslaved Africans were brought to the British colonies against their will.
August 15, 2019
Berkeley News
Berkeley to mark ‘400 Years of Resistance to Slavery and Injustice’ (Berkeley News)
The 400th anniversary of the forced arrival of enslaved Africans in the English colonies will be observed at UC Berkeley, not only this month — in August 1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia by ship — but during the entire 2019-2020 school year, starting with a daylong symposium Friday, Aug. 30.
August 14, 2019
The New York Times Magazine
Those searching for reasons the American economy is uniquely severe and unbridled have found answers in many places (religion, politics, culture). But recently, historians have pointed persuasively to the gnatty fields of Georgia and Alabama, to the cotton houses and slave auction blocks, as the birthplace of America’s low-road approach to capitalism.
The New York Times Magazine
The excruciatingly painful medical experiments went on until his body was disfigured by a network of scars. John Brown, an enslaved man on a Baldwin County, Ga., plantation in the 1820s and ’30s, was lent to a physician, Dr. Thomas Hamilton, who was obsessed with proving that physiological differences between black and white people existed.
August 13, 2019
New York Times
Watch: The Times Presents the #1619Project (New York Times)
The Fourth of July in 1776 is regarded by most Americans as the country’s birthday. But what if we were to tell you that the country’s true birth date, the moment that its defining contradictions first came into the world, was in late August 1619?
National Geographic Society
400 years ago, enslaved Africans first arrived in Virginia (NatGeo)
In late August 1619, “20 and odd” captive Africans first touched the soil at Point Comfort (now Fort Monroe National Monument), part of England’s new colony in Virginia. These men and women had been stolen from their homes in Africa, forced to board a ship, and sailed for months into the unknown.
August 1, 2019
Reuters
Retracing a slave route in Ghana, 400 years on (Reuters)
Nana Assenso stands at the grave of his uncle, remembering the man he loved but also a past that has haunted his family for generations. His uncle was called Kwame Badu, a name that has been passed on through the family in remembrance of an ancestor with that name who was captured and sold into slavery long, long ago.
July 26, 2019
ProPublica
Federal Government Wants to Hear From Heirs’ Property Owners (ProPublica)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency this week announced two listening sessions on heirs’ property as it seeks public input on a relending program to clear titles and how to address obstacles to gaining access to certain FSA programs.
June 28, 2019
National Park Service
400 Years of African-American History Commission (National Park Service)
In August 1619, 20 enslaved Africans were brought to Point Comfort in the English colony of Virginia—this site is now part of Fort Monroe National Monument.
June 26, 2019
Haas Institute
Blog: Tensions over Reparations Expose Crisis of National Identity (Haas Institute)
The question of reparations for African Americans has entered the political discussion in a way it has never before. A number of candidates for the Democratic nomination for the presidency have publicly declared their support for a reparations plan. The array of voices affirmatively contributing to this conversation is growing across a range of publications and sources. On June 19, 2019, the US House of Representatives held a hearing to discuss reparations as a legislative proposal.
June 6, 2019
Daily Cal
UC Berkeley acknowledges 400th anniversary of African slavery with educational events (Daily Cal)
Through a series of educational events that constitute a yearlong program, the UC Berkeley campus will spotlight African American history after the passage of the 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act.
May 31, 2019
Chancellor's Office
Dear Campus Community,
This year is the 400th year anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves at England’s Colony of Virginia, marking the beginning of slavery on the North American continent.
Last year the federal 400 Years of African American History Commission Act was signed into law and now, together as a country and a campus, we will acknowledge, study, and discuss the meaning and lasting impact of a despicable chapter in our nation’s history.
May 22, 2019
The Smithsonian
The ‘Clotilda,’ the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found (The Smithsonian)
One hundred and fifty-nine years ago, slave traders stole Lorna Gail Woods’ great-great grandfather from what is now Benin in West Africa. Her ancestor, Charlie Lewis, was brutally ripped from his homeland, along with 109 other Africans, and brought to Alabama on the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to arrive in the United States. Today, researchers confirmed that the remains of that vessel, long rumored to exist but elusive for decades, have been found along the Mobile River, near 12 Mile Island and just north of the Mobile Bay delta.
May 1, 2019
Christian Science Monitor
Untangling slavery’s roots: the yearslong search for ‘Angela’ (Christian Science Monitor)
Her name, as written down for the first time in a 17th-century muster, was Angelo.
She is now known to history as Angela, one of “20 ... odd” twice-captured Angolans who became the first enslaved people in British North America 400 years ago this summer.
February 19, 2019
Berkeley News
Black history cemetery tour: Abraham Holland and the Sweet Vengeance Mine (Berkeley News)
In 1849, a man named Abraham Holland packed up his things and left his life on the East Coast for California, in hopes that he’d strike it rich. The year before, gold had been discovered in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and people were coming from across the U.S. — and the world — to seek their fortune. It became known as the California Gold Rush. It marked a new set of opportunities for African American migration to California.
January 17, 2019
PRI
Amid 1619 anniversary, Virginia grapples with history of slavery in America (PRI)
At the Valentine gallery in Richmond, Virginia, Free Egunfemi shows me a portrait that will be unveiled later this year.
“So this is Gabriel,” says Egunfemi, independent historian and founder of Untold RVA, an organization devoted to sharing Richmond’s untold stories.
She tells me Gabriel was an enslaved man who tried to hold the governor of Virginia hostage in 1800 to bargain for freedom for slaves. No one knows what he looked like. Egunfemi commissioned the painting.
January 1, 2019
ASALH
Website Commemorates 400 Years of Perseverance (ASALH)
For African Americans, this New Year marks 400 years of perseverance. Records reveal, in 1619, at least twenty Africans arrived in the fledgling English colony of Virginia. This English colony had been founded only a few years earlier, in 1607. Today, a website will serve as a clearinghouse for local, national and even international events to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Africans in the Virginia Colony.