SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – The Lowcountry community is trying to find ways to achieve racial justice. On Thursday, they did that by taking a look, centuries back, on Sullivan’s Island, where thousands of slaves first stepped foot in America.
The topic was reliving the African American experience, in three parts: past, present, and future.
Past:
“When the big boat reached America, she and the other surviving Africans were sold to the highest bidder, just like lamb, cattle, or a mule.”
Herb Frazier, Historian and Author
Present:
“John C. Calhoun. came down. John C. Calhoun. Never though I would see it. And look, as John C. Calhoun has come down, the International African American museum continues to rise.”
Dr. Bernard Powers, Historian
And future:
“I hope that you take what you heard, that you can utilize it in whatever way that you can, and when you do that, we will be better because of it.”
Pastor Nelson Rivers, Charity Baptist Church
Emotions ranged from cheerful singing to honor a culture, to sad memorials of those lost on the journey hundreds of years ago:
“We will drop them in the ocean, as a means of remembrance, to those who survived, those who perished, and those who thrived on this side of the Atlantic.”
Pastor Nelson Rivers, Charity Baptist Church
Event leaders say that while the past is painful, it makes up our collective story:
“This is our American history, this is our American story, this is our American legacy.”
Pastor Nelson Rivers, Charity Baptist Church
The event started and ended with greeting neighbors, and that was the big takeaway: coming together, to better understand each other’s history.
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