JAMESTOWN, Va. (WAVY) — Hundreds of NAACP members and citizens gathered at Historic Jamestown on Sunday for a commemorative ceremony.
The ceremony highlighted the 400-year anniversary of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
In 1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived on our shores, where Fort Monroe now sits.
Sunday’s ceremony retraced the painful history of slavery in America — and celebrated how far black america has come.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said, “We have young people who are here to learn their history. We have some of our elders to appreciate the journey that we’ve gone through. It is really an inter-generational opportunity for African people across the diaspora to get together.”
It also marked the beginning of the NAACP’s “Year of Return” trip where a group of 200 people will head from Jamestown, Virginia to Jamestown in Ghana, Africa to commemorate the 400th anniversary.
The 10-day trip will take the group across the country to meet Ghanaian people, visit the W.E.B. DuBois Center and embrace their culture.
“For African Americans, it’s a significant moment and it would allow us to continue to move forward and progress as we recall the root and the journey that brought us this far,” said Johnson.