In 1619 at Old Point Comfort, VA, 20 Africans were traded for food, setting in motion the slave system in this country. The first known African American child was born there, at what is now Fort Monroe in Hampton. Tell President Obama we have waited nearly 400 years for acknowledgment of these other “founders” of this country and its ideals of democracy and equality.
So I signed a petition to President Barack Obama, which says:
“As president, Barack Obama can designate a parcel of federal land as a national monument. Only three of the 100 national monuments in the nation address the legacy of its African American citizens–the birth homes of Booker T. Washington, and George Washington Carver, and the African Burial Ground in New York City. The site of the First Landing of Africans who would be the source of the North American slave system is far and away the most important site of the African American legacy to this country, and is sacred ground for the millions who consider themselves descendants of those brought here in chains.
Tell President Obama to ask for a parcel of land at Fort Monroe, VA to be named as the First Landing National Monument to Slavery and Freedom.”
Will you sign the petition too? Click here to add your name:
http://signon.org/sign/national-monument-for?source=s.fwd&r_by=144598