Editor, Gazette-Journal:
Last week, the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition (Aug. 23rd) marked 233 years since African Haitians triggered the collapse of slavery in the Americas.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said all U.N. member countries should yearly honor “the victims and freedom fighters” of the transatlantic holocaust (Middle Passage) so new generations can “build just societies [ensuring] … equal … unconditional dignity of … every [person].”
My husband and I are transferring to an African American group a modest piece of historical land adjacent to the Rosewell Ruins. This peaceful site along Carter’s Creek includes an 18th century brick works wharf where, very likely, some of America’s earliest enslaved African ancestors first stepped foot on Virginia soil.
It also is a place of gathering for reflection and celebration for all of us to learn from our African American citizens and experts documenting their own, but shared, American...