This weekend, Thursday, August 22-Sunday, August 25, 2019, was a National Recognition of the real date for the founding of America. July 4, 1776 might be the date the colony in the New World parted from its big sister Britain; however, it is August 25, 1619 when the White Lion docked at Point Comfort with 20 African bondsmen and women whom were then traded for food and other supplies that the philosophical tone was set or cast in a mold stiffly in opposition to the democratic values that came much later in the Constitution.

What became known as America was not an empty or barren landscape. These European descent men looking for opportunity they could exploit, did not recognize the humanity of anyone outside themselves. Though the history of the African people who ended up far away from home did not begin in 1619 with their capture, this event marks the start of a calendar.

Nothing today can undo that injustices African Diaspora people have faced and continued to face. What this commemoration does is speak out loud the unpleasant truth that needs addressing so the surviving generations can benefit.

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson said at the National Healing Day, Sunday, August 25, that he commended Gov. Ralph Northam, 73^rd Governor of Virginia, for admitting the errs of his predecessors and his commitment to righting those wrongs with legislation that is equitable and fair. Several people were taking photos with the governor at the Healing Day. Though Secret Service was there, he was accessible. The Mayor of Hampton, a righteously tired, Donnie R. Tucker, sat on the curb close to the stage later on. These politicians didn’t seem afraid of their constituency. Everyone was invited to get close that weekend whether that was on the history tour where we met the historic couple, Antoney and Isabella, who started the documentation trail in 1619 where torn from their homes in Angola without regard for the disruption and irrecoverable stolen legacy, the two become servants of Captain William Tucker, who was the commander of the fort at Point Comfort.  Their child, William is the first recorded baby of African descent Baptized in English North America—Jan. 3, 1624.

It is to this same place, the fort at Point Comfort that three African men who decided they did not want to be sold further south away from friends and family and took refuge where Major General Benjamin F. Butler granted asylum – using the clause “contraband of war” to legally justify not sending them back to their masters.  Harriet Tubman also spent time here at the hospital nursing the sick soldiers and others who sought refuge back to health.

I flew in late Wednesday, after an all-day flight from San Francisco, into Newport News airport.  The next day, Thursday was a wonderful community conversation with the 400 Years of African American History Commission and what its charge is. I met many men from San Francisco, one an author. I also met a wonderful woman, Alzelia Woodard, Hampton resident, who not only gave me a lift, she took me around to visit the African American heritage sites like the Emancipation Tree at Hampton University where I marveled at the 400 year old testament to liberty and education. Not only was the Emancipation Proclamation read here, this is also the site prior to freedom where Ms. Mary Peake, a free-born African American woman and an educator, taught free and enslaved Africans to read out of her home and later under the tree.  Such act was against Virginia law.

“At 98 feet in diameter, the Emancipation Tree is ‘designated as one of the ‘Ten Great Trees of the World’ by the National Geographic Society and it continues to be a source of inspiration for all Hamptoians” (1619-2019 Family Tree). A school was later erected so that students – adults and children, could be more comfortable studying, especially during the inclement weather. Bright red, a replica sits near the tree.

While on campus, my new friend, gave me a tour of her alma mater. We visited the graveyard, saw the chapel, library and a few of the new buildings and sat next to celebrity politician, activists and scientists like President Obama, Dr. King, Ms. Peake and Mary Jackson. I ignored President George  H. W. Bush. Couldn’t understand why he is there even after reading Hampton University President Dr. William R. Harvey’s rationale.[1]

Before dropping me off at my hotel, we went to see where the Tucker Cemetery at 1 Sharon Court in historic African American Alberdeen Gardens. It was walking distance from the hotel where I was staying, so the next day, I walked over. The weather had been inclement– hot in the daytime with an occasional drizzle but thunder storms at night. I carried my umbrella and Alzelia gave me a disposable rain poncho.

The Tucker Cemetery is the permanent resting place for Tucker descendants of the first African couple: Antoney and Isabella and their child William Tucker, and other people of African descendant. What was once called “The Old Colored Burial Ground” is the one of Hampton’s oldest cemeteries in Hampton, VA.

When one walked onto the sacred grounds African fabric was draped along the brick wall along the property line, on the other side was a plaque with the name Tucker Cemetery and The William Tucker 1624 Wreath with a “jeweled African mask representing the first Africans brought to Virginia August 1619. The thick rope symbolizes our ‘bound’ status because we were NOT FREE, nor were we on this land by choice. The rope is ‘bare’ to represent the violent and unrelenting attempts to strip us of all our connections to our African culture. The ribbon bold, and vibrant, indicates our ancestors’ legacy of STRENGTH, PERSEVERANCE, and HUMAN SPIRIT then and now” (williamtucker1624society.org)

The celebratory morning was a libation  those “20 odd Africans on the White Lion that landed at Point Comfort traded for provisions. . .” and to their child and his children whose land we were seated and to all the lives of other Africans who arrived unceremoniously exploited and abused for 249 years in this land, to build this nation. That morning in a USA Today column was the story of Dr. Wanda Tucker, Arizona State University professor, who shared the story of her recent visit to Angola to meet the people whose ancestry her forbearer, William Tucker shared. It is a beautiful reparations story, one that includes all the complications tangible and historic distance adds to the reclamation of African heritage. Dr. Tucker says she felt most connected when she was laughing with the children and dancing. To read the story: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2019/08/21/wanda-tucker-angola-slavery-1619-history-america-black-family/2016591001/

This was a high point and I had another two days to go.  I also of course could not help but do the Wanda Dance as I asked and received a nod to add another Wanda to the dynamic ensemble which includes Iya Wanda Ravernell, Onmira Institute and Iya Chef Wanda Blake.

It was a well-choreographed program, early enough so that the elders would not be in the direct sun too long and so that the mosquito abatement would keep the bites at bay. From Brenda Doretha Tucker’s Spiritual Medley, Dr. Colita N. Fairfax, Co-chair, Hampton 2019 Commemorative Commission, who also sang a bit, to Vincent Tucker, William Tucker 1624 Society, President and Ms. Audrey Williams Closing Litany — those assembled breathed a collective amen.

Two new friends, Dawne Young, editor of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History internal newsletter and Kevin Mosley, a great photographer, and I went to the Political Pioneer Stakeholder Luncheon at Hampton Roads Convention Center. Former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder (61) comments stay with me still. That his father’s parents were enslaved and his work in politics to amplify the voices of a silenced majority– Black people. There was even a representative who was/is a member of the Tea Party. It was a mixed bag and perhaps it was a good thing I was not eating (smile).

Afterward Kevin and Dawne graciously dropped me off at Hampton University to visit the museum and see the current exhibition while they went for food.  I visited the museum and special exhibit for the next two hours. I hadn’t known who some of the alumni were and the extent of the collection. John T. Biggers attended there and the collection on display was amazing. Biggers’ murals grace buildings at Hampton too. I hadn’t known Elizabeth Catlett taught at Hampton and encouraged her student, Samella S. Lewis to attend. Ms. Lewis is one of the architects of the Black Arts Movement in Southern California. Her grandson, Unity Lewis and my daughter, TaSin attended the California College of Arts and Crafts together. His more recent projects include “Black Artists on Art,” a book started by his grandmother and Ruth G. Waddy, San Francisco scholar, Sister Maryom Al Wadi’s mother, in 1969. Contact: blackartistsonart@gmail.com

So anyway, I was excited to see Ms. Lewis’s work and that of Catlett’s, Hal Woodruff, Romare Bearden, our very own Raymond Saunders and Richard Mayhew . . . Henry Osuwa Tanner originals—The Banjo Lesson?! And the huge African artifact collection, a gift of a former student, William Henry Sheppard[2] from his travels in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1890-1910. He was the first Westerner to enter the Kuba Kingdom and the first African American to collect African at in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries (see Hampton collections).

Another student (1931), Mbiyu Koinage (1907-1981), Kenyan, also gave the university amazing art and artifacts.  What’s really great about the African art is that the curator provides a context often missing in such exhibits.  The work was not stolen, rather it was freely given from one community to another. This energy resonates differently than that found in western galleries where African spirits often pace angrily, unwilling captives in these foreign spaces. Rituals often interrupted- the display out of context the visit leaves one ill at ease—not so at Hampton. After graduating, Koinage returns home to establish 400 independent schools which the British bands before exiling him. He wrote a book, “The People of Kenya Speak for Themselves” endorsed by C. L. R. James, Grace Lee Boggs and Cornelius Castoriadis in their book “Facing Reality” (wiki).

That Friday evening was a panel discussion at the chapel on the Hampton campus hosted by ASALH. It stormed that evening as we sat in awe listening to the scholars assembled address the issues surrounding the 1619-2019 phenomenon. To its credit, Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is the only institution to frame the discussion: 400 Years of Perseverance.

I enjoyed my time at Hampton University Friday, August 23, a lot. The evening panel, “400 Years of Perseverance,” hosted by ASALH and its Hampton Roads, Virginia, branch was a unique opportunity to put the events of the First Landing in perspective. It was the first time the word MAAFA was mentioned and during the Q&A, more than one person questioned its applicability. A free event held in the university chapel began with a drumming invocation and libations. Ms. Sylvia Y. Cyrus, Executive Director of ASALH, hosted. Professor Robert Watson poured libations. Ms. Brenda Doretha Tucker, whom many of us had seen earlier that day at the Tucker Cemetery where she sang a lovely Negro Spiritual Medley, sang “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing. Prof. Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, Chair, 400^th Commemoration Committee of ASALH gave opening remarks followed by a lovely welcome by Dr. Linda Malone-Colon, Dean, Hampton University School of Liberal Arts and Education.  Ms. Susan Taylor, Editor in Chief Emerta and Founder National Cares Mentoring Movement gave a talk toward the end; however, it was her husband, Mr. Khepera K. Burns, Author and Producer who shared a wonderful poem that really set the stage for what was to come.

The panelists were phenomenal from Dr. Derrick P. Alridge, who highlighted a storytelling project with African American educators; Prof. Gloria J. Browne-Marshall who shared work from her forthcoming book: “The African American Woman: 400 Years of Perseverance”; and Dr. Colita Nichols Fairfax, author of forward to a “Guidebook to Virginia’s African American Historic Markers”; Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, historian, author, “Virginia Waterways and the Underground Railroad” (2017), “An African American History of the Civil War in Hampton Roads” (2010); and Prof. Robert Watson, Hampton faculty (moderator).

I hope their talks are published on ASALH’s website at some point, the material was both dense and enlightening. Though the Memorial Chapel was full, most of the audience was over 40. Youth needed to be in these seats, because the wisdom shared was a liberation narrative and given the length of the program, there was time afterward to meet and engage with the presenters who were all pleasant. Visit www.asalh.org read more coverage of this event.

It was with this acknowledgement — the truth of what this nation has done to people of African descent and how its wealth is centered in the free labor and stolen lives dating  back to August 1619 here– that the events leading up to the National Day of Healing, Sunday, August 25, 2019 proceeded.

Saturday began at the historic African Buckroe Beach.  It takes up many city blocks like our Ocean Beach in San Francisco. One has to know the cross street to find the gathering. It was warm and breezy that Saturday morning, perfect for the African naming ceremony and community libations for African Ancestors. When I arrived everything was in full swing. There was drumming and dancing and meditation as we remembered the first Africans stolen from home and transported against their will to this land to labor and create wealth for a nation that still denies its debt.  American Evolution: Virginia to America 1619-2019 at Buckroe was an experiential acknowledgement of the suffering then and now. All that is left is to continue with legislative polices to make the debt repayment real for descendants of these Africans.

Here is a link to the Sat., August 24, morning-early afternoon program at Ft. Monroe National Monument, which featured speeches from Congresswoman Karen Bass, Los Angeles, CA, Van Jones, attorney and CNN commentator, Virginia Governor Ralph S. Northam and others.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?463305-1/400th-anniversary-ceremny-africans-virginia

Congresswoman Bass (CA-37) spoke of her participation in a recent delegation to Elmina Dungeon in Ghana where Congressman John Lewis got the spirit and did a little dance for the ancestors. She described the different areas of the fort where women would be separated from the others and left on a staircase where she would be led to a room and raped then returned to the dungeon with other captive women and girls. The Hon. Bass, head of the Congressional Black Caucus, then said that where we stood that day at Fort Monroe, was also hallowed ground. Enslaved Africans escaped and received sanctuary at this very location during the Civil War.

It was hard covering this huge event. I can only share just a part of what I was able to attend. To do justice to the commemorative weekend, we would have needed a team. In any case, after the plenary the African chiefs whom we’d met at Buckroe Beach spoke and there was a procession to the pier to toss flowers in the water for the ancestors.

I visited various National Park Service educational booths and artisans. I meant to get by the Casement Museum, but I forgot and ended up missing it and the new educational center. I will have to return next year when I am in the area for the Poor People’s Campaign March on Washington June 2020.

I saw this beautiful sister with a staff and asked for a photo. While talking to her, I learned that she had lived in Oakland before relocating to Hampton. I also met up with my dear friend, Monica Pree’s aunt. I kept looking at her, but didn’t realize we knew each other until we had a conversation. These moments kept occurring, like seeing Muhjah Shakir in the water doing ceremonial cleansings that morning and Jahahara too – it was like we were home commemorating our ancestors—perhaps we were.  I ran into Brother Jahahara again at UC Berkeley at its 1619-2019 Commemoration Symposium August 30, a kick-off to a yearlong initiative. It’s all a part of john a. powell’s work on inclusion and belonging. Visit 400years.berkeley.edu

Later that afternoon I went on a Black Heritage Tour which featured actors in period garb who reenacted the stories of Africans at Fort Monroe. We met Antoney and Isabella first, then Lighthouse Keeper: William Roscoe Davis, then the three brave African escapees, Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory and James Townsend found refuge on May 24, 1861. The men and commander Benjamin F. Butler. Butler granted them asylum as “contraband of war.” An attorney he saw that because African people were seen as property, not people, he could use that clause to secure their safety. During war, officers were allowed to keep the belongings of their opponent. These items are called contraband. Before we left that area, we learned that President Lincoln spent the night at the fort before the war ended. When the men were granted asylum other Africans escaped and sought refuge at the fort. Soon there were hundreds-thousands of escaped Africans and their families.  They built schools, houses and established their own churches. Read a great account here: https://www.dailypress.com/history/dp-civil-war-contraband-slaves-20130114-story.html

After this story in front of the house where the men were held in the basement jail until freed, we started walking again.  As we approached this large clearing with buildings and a huge tree, I saw this elder woman seated on a bench in the distance. She reminded me of Harriet Tubman, and low and behold it was she.

Harriet Tubman worked as a nurse at a hospital there for African people. Under the 500-year-old tree she shared her story. The hospital was located in one of the buildings we faced.

That evening my friend, Eurica Huggins Axum, ADACI co-founder, drove in from Washington. We went to see Lonnie Rashid Lynn aka Common and Sounds of Blackness, An African-American Music Collective. By the time our tickets were cleared we’d missed the local talented singer whom we could hear from the lobby. We also missed our Sister Chadra Pittman (Sankofa Projects) speak and I think we missed Hampton Mayor, Donnie Ray Tuck, too. The concert was an opportunity to just relax. I was so far away, I wouldn’t have recognized any of the artists, except there was a great screen which projected the images of the artists who were amazing: conscious, full of soul and great messages. We were lifted. It was a wonderful conclusion to a full day and a prelude to the Day of Healing that followed hours later.

Sunday, August 25, 2019 – Healing Day

It was a gift to be present at the National Day of healing, what the state of Virginia, the first colony in what would become the Union and then the United States, calls its “American Evolution Challenge.” Similar to what Bryan Stevenson suggests in his Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice and its Legacy Museum, from Slavery to Mass Incarceration.  The link between what is past is present lies in the truth, a truth these days of mourning and retribution suggest.  This is something current Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam acknowledged each time he spoke this historic weekend.[3]

This nation’s violent and racist past is something elected officials whose own ancestry link to “The First American Landing” also acknowledged.  From Governor L. Douglas Wilder (66^th Governor of Virginia) to the current Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax, to of course the Tucker family, descendants of the first child born and Christened in captivity, William Tucker, child of Isabella and Anthony Tucker enslaved Africans from Angola traded for provisions at Point Comfort, now Ft. Monroe, a former military base in Hampton, VA.

I hadn’t known NASA was in Hampton as well. Hampton’s a military town, the largest perhaps in the nation. Kind of makes sense: First Landing, First Colony, now first state to recognize its role in the enslavement and exploitation of African labor and do something tangible about it whether this is housing development or educational and economic equity. Scholar Michael Eric Dyson, Ph.D., who gave the keynote addresses that Sunday said he had to commend Gov. Northam for being a standup white man whose politics mean tangible change for all citizens, especially African descendants in his state. Northam (who is seeking a second and final term) acknowledged the debt Virginia owes to its African citizens and as mentioned is enacting legislation to rectify this.

robertrobb.com order viagra online The medicine makes the best choice when a man takes alcohol in moderate amount only. All these issues together could be detrimental to the family bonding, thus breaking relationships and destroying close-knit tie-ups. 5. http://robertrobb.com/disingenuous-sustainability-argument-against-prop-123/ levitra 10 mg The build-up of anything in the body is rarely good, and in cialis without prescription this case, increased pressure causes pain that manifests in the middle or right upper abdominal pain after gallbladder removal is an alarm bell of possible spasm of the sphincter. Sexual issues can affect quality viagra online india of life. African history does not start with slavery, however, American history does. This is why national public acknowledgement and legislation like that enacted by Virginia Gov. Northam to change the way children learn American history, is so important. The American Evolution Challenge is for this nation to not just acknowledge the great sin or stain; the challenge is to invest resources into this work of repair or reparations. The events I parachuted in for were a part of a larger initiative which began earlier this year and continue past the National Day of Healing Sunday, August 25.

The current governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia said that Sunday that he’d visited with Indigenous people to return land rights. “The story of Virginia rests on subjugation of others: Africans and Native Americans.  . . . In order to heal we have to acknowledge the crimes of the past.”

Chief G. Anne Richardson, Rappahannock Tribe, said “forgiveness is for you. It releases energy trapped in one’s bloodline. [Forgiveness is a spiritual liberty that African people have demonstrated often towards this nation.]”

Virginia Lt. Governor Fairfax, the first African American to hold this seat shared another story that Sunday afternoon. He’d spoke at the Tucker Family Cemetery two days earlier and told us how he learned about his great-great-great grandfather, Simon Fairfax’s manumission just moments before his inauguration.  He carried this freedom document dated June 6, 1708 in his breast pocket the day he was sworn into office January 2018.  He told this story again on Saturday with a bit of a variation.

“We are at the intersection of 400 years of complicated history—tragedy and triumph, heartbreak and hope. We are at the intersection where we need to decide what the future 400 years will look like. There is power in truth. In 1619 Africans were forced to land here. Antoney and Isabella, William Tucker. They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.

“We built this country. Do not tell us to go back where we came from. We stand on the shoulders of the strongest ancestors in history.  (He then quotes from Maya Angelou’s poem: And Still I Rise).

“It is said, Antoney and Isabella had nothing. Not true. Love is how they survived. [Love was the oil in the lantern (psyche and soma). Faith its wick. Grace the flint].”

On Sunday LT. Governor Fairfax says “time does not heal all wounds. 400 years is not enough time [to heal the wounds of slavery.]”

He then tells people to turn to their neighbor and say: “Neighbor, I am ready to heal.” [True healing involves change.]  “Do you believe you have the power to change?” he asks. A follow up question for those giving all the speeches that weekend is: Will this nation change its policies that continue to criminalize Antoney and Isabella’s descendants? Are elected official willing like Gov. Northam to reevaluate and retool systems of oppression and exclusion to benefit everyone?

Lt. Gov. Fairfax then shared another part of his ancestral saga. The second part of the story was his travel to York in the UK this Spring to Leeds Castle to meet the 14^th Lord Fairfax whose ancestors enslaved his. “He is a conservative in the House of Lords. I am Lt. Govenor, Progressive Democrat.”  The two did not talk politics. However, Lt. Gov. Fairfax said, “We had something between us: Truth. 221 years later we were able to develop another relationship.”
That said, he asked those present to “commit to standing in truth. Reject the lies. Virginia belongs to [African Descendants, perhaps more, than those whose wealth African labor and genius increased].

There were a lot of speakers that final day, The National Day of Healing, which was also the 103rd (Aug. 25, 1916) anniversary of the National Park Service. Throughout the country entrance fees were waved; however, throughout the NPS’s patrons were not invited to observe a moment of silence – not even at the sites in San Francisco Golden Gate Recreation Area where Buffalo Soldiers are buried, in Sausalito, Sacramento or Richmond where Ms. Betty Reid Soskin, the eldest park ranger works at the Rosie the Riveter Museum.

David Vela, Acting Deputy Director for Operations, National Park Service, said “Black people survived and flourished, . . . that the 400^th Anniversary is a yearlong conversation [that should continue throughout the country whether the bells were rung or not.]

Dr. Colita Fairfax, co-chair of Hampton 2019 Commission, a dynamic speaker, said to keep the focus on “our African American ancestors who were [national] pioneers, while we attend to our MAAFA. We [African people] are the foundation of what would become America].”

The program featured youth speakers both Saturday and Sunday at Ft. Monroe at the big stage. The Fort had stages throughout with booths along the wall facing the Bay, while elsewhere by the moat there was an entire youth section with performance stages, activities and booths.

Sunday’s speaker was Jamel Diggs, student, Achievable Dream Middle and High School. He was dynamic, however, the Sat. speaker, Brycen Dildy (11), a student who needed a riser to stand on so we could see him was marvelous. He opened with an acknowledgment of the first Africans who landed at Ft. Monroe 400 years’ prior who “may not have known how their sacrifices and contributions would help shape our community and nation.”  He then saluted recent pioneers also a part of Hampton history, scientists: Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who is known for “calculating trajectories for many of NASA’s crewed missions” and Mary Jackson, who in 1958 became NASA’s first Black female engineer.”

Those present might not be African or scientists; however, Dildy concluded with a challenge to everyone present to be kind to people we don’t know and he shared a story of his teacher diagnosed with cancer and undergoing treatment. He wanted to cheer her up, so he asked his classmates and others at his school to make cards and delivered over 500 get well cards to her. He said the way to change the world is to change how we treat one another and kindness is a free service and is something everyone deserves. A smile costs nothing to give. Maya Angelou, he said, would say, “’People may not remember what you say or do, but they never forget how you make them feel.’”

Chief G. Anne Richardson, Rappahannock Tribe, began her talk Healing Day by acknowledging the extraordinary strength of African people in this land, who from 1619 to the present have demonstrated a humanity and generosity this nation’s founders did and do not deserve. She spoke about forgiveness and the spiritual grounding that allowed African people to remain human and not become trapped in animosity.  Indigenous people and African people share these values. She said “forgiveness is for you. It releases energy trapped in one’s bloodline. [Forgiveness is a spiritual liberty that African people have demonstrated often towards this nation.]” Other highlights on the main stage included the poetry ensemble: Donovan Pollack and Imagine, Teens with a Purpose and Ms. Addison Messick, gymnast and dancer’s performance to “You Are so Beautiful.”

This was followed by Dr. Michael Battle’s reflection: What does healing mean?

“Ubuntu . . . [Black people] not only survived the slave Transatlantic slave trade, we stayed sane.  We have given the world human rights. We need each other to develop knowing. I cannot know myself without your participation in this identity. I am not conscious of what I am without you. [We are each other’s compass.] We need forgiveness, but not the cheap kind. [African people] have shown the world a communal way to be human again. Once evil is exposed it is deactivated. We have given the world human rights, resilience, holy spirit. We know a god killed, put in chains . . . a kingdom in heaven. We are afflicted, but not crushed. Slavery [was] not normal. Evil should never be normal.

“Love is the substance of healing. When we love, it is the running toward someone who is also running toward you.”

He introduced his friend, Dr. Dyson who begins with a quote from JayZ’s Made in America and compliments the governor: “Ain’t nothing better than a white man who knows he messed u and stays in office to [fix the error.]  As only the renown scholar can, Dyson speaks to Whiteness in America and the long nightmare 1619-2019 that African people have experienced. “We built this nation physically and philosophically.  We add color, character, and consciousness to this nation, [despite colorism in a creole America.] Everyone wants what we got.”

It was then time for the 400 Distinguished Service Awards. A lot of Californians were honored among them: Dr. Wade Nobles, Mayor London Breed, Hon. Willie Brown, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, but only yours truly, Ms. Wanda Sabir attended. It is the highest recognizable honor bestowed upon individuals by the 400 Commission. It acknowledges the individual and collective sacrifices, contributions, and achievements of African Americans fighting for justice and equality over the past 400 years.

Ashay, Ashay, Ashayo.

Terry E. Brown, Superintendent, Ft. Monroe National Monument, said he’d been praying for sunny weather for a year. His wish was granted.   After the solemn bell ringing at 3 p.m. ET led by Superintendent Brown, where he shared the ringing with members of the Tucker family.

This was followed by Blessing the Land and Iroquois Prayer by Chief Walter D. “Red Hawk” Brown, III, Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Nation, Libation with Ms. Chadra Pittman, The Sankofa Projects, Elegba Folklore Society Drummers and Dancers, aerial dancers, then on the main stage more performances by: the United States Colored Troop Ensemble, a wonderful acapella male vocalists, Gina Payne’s “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” was dramatic as she came from the rear of the seated audience working her way towards the front of the pavilion. This was followed by Healing Day Honors Guard and a 21-gun salute.  I don’t think I had ever seen this before. The shots made me jump. I wondered where the cartridges went. The presence of so much armament reminded everyone that this place was once a military installation and that we were surrounded by soldiers whether they were called superintendents or park rangers, secret police or retired and active military.

Before the bell-ringing and Moment of Silence, a sister, Dr. Verneeta Williams, played harp.
There were so many dignitaries present, among them one of the elite Tuskegee Airmen. I hadn’t known any were left alive.  It was a wonderful day, a wonderful weekend.  I appreciated

Beautiful photo essay: 

Daily Press: 1619-2019  Commemoration  of  the  First  Africans  Landing  at  Point  Comfort

[1] For a complete list of Iconic Figures in Hampton’s Legacy Park   Dr. Harvey has expanded university holdings during his 40-41 year tenure. Downtown Hampton is the site of a beautiful office building. There is a new Scripps School of Journalism, housing developments and more.

[2] A book about Virginia born missionary and advocate for Africans people, Sheppard’s life and work which I enjoyed is Pagan Kennedy’s “Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century Congo” (2002).

[3] It was an opportunity for Northam to clear a personal closet littered with a recently surfaced black face image alongside a person in a KKK hood on his college yearbook page. Which one is he, is the question asked. The governor did not remember the photo and said neither. However, he did recall darkening his face to impersonate Michael Jackson. Participating in behaviors that denigrate African people is something young southern white people do. It is a part of the air they breathe. Why question the air quality if your lungs are full? To resist is an act of consciousness only a few enlightened ones ascribe to. Most, like Northam just get caught up. For the story read
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-republicans-thought-labeling-democrat-ralph-northam-gov-blackface-would-help-them-now-they-think-otherwise/2019/09/06/85045cbe-d02c-11e9-b29b-a528dc82154a_story.html?noredirect=on