Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Project (MPCPMP) 

Newsletter: April – July 2019

So much has happened since the last MPCPMP newsletter. Our focus now is tying up loose ends and organizing data, photos, and archival materials related to the Project’s eight-year history. We are projecting a completion date of 2020 or 2021 when documented U.S. Middle Passage arrival locations will have conducted at least one ancestral remembrance ceremony and installed a public marker that reflects this history.

UNESCO Slave Route Project: As of July 2019, 42 of the 52 documented U.S. Middle Passage sites are  designated “Site of Memory” associated with the UNESCO Slave Route Project. This raises awareness and strengthens the international connection. A listing of the approved sites is included in the July 24, 2019, Facebook post.

Healing Day, August 25, 2019, Point Comfort/Fort Monroe, VA: Many activities in the Hampton-Point Comfort area are planned to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Africans’ arrival in English colonial North America. Our involvement principally is to link that commemoration to all of the U.S. Middle Passage locations as shared history. National bell ringing on August 25, 2019, 3:00-3:04 pm EST is the demonstrated act acknowledging an African American historical narrative of resistance, freedom-seeking, and critical influence that extends from 1526 to the present.

We encourage you to visit our Facebook calendar to obtain information related to scheduled events at various Middle Passage locations.

MPCPMP participated in the UNESCO Slave Route Project Global Publication Launch, Legacies of Slavery: A Resource Book for Managers of Sites and Itineraries of Memory, Houston, TX, May 21, 2019;  Second Tuesday Race Forum, Denver, CO, June 11, 2019; and IGNITE NC Alumni Reunion, Whitakers, NC, July 20, 2019. We are also represented on the Advisory Board of the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission to assist with installing public history markers in five documented locations.

Camden, NJ placed a second ferry point marker of African arrival and sale on its waterfront on June 17, 2019. Middle Passage marker installations are scheduled in 2019 for – Algiers Point/New Orleans, LA; Pensacola, FL; Middletown, CT; West Point, VA; Africatown and Mobile, AL

Executive Board members and others continue to work with community members in Annapolis and Baltimore, MD; Fernandina/Amelia Island, FL; Sapelo Bay/Darien and Tybee Island, GA; Boston, MA; Biloxi, MS; Perth Amboy, NJ; Bristol and Newport, RI; Beaufort and Charleston, SC, to facilitate the process for text, placement, and installation of Middle Passage markers.

We appreciate the support that so many have provided, and we urgently request that you maintain your commitment to honor and remember ancestors. We have two publications that we are using as fund-raisers and are now available upon request:                                                                                                                          

Coming to America: Remembering and Honoring Ancestors 1526-1860 – $15.00, includes shipping            

Documented U.S. Middle Passage Locations – $25.00, includes shipping

Thank you.

Executive Board Members – Ann Chinn, Ann Cobb, William Hamilton, Jr., Edith Heard, Joseph Jenkins

Download this newsletter as a pdf here.