We created this statement with the intention that it be read during your 400 Years observance. Download a PDF below.
Observance participants read the Statement of Observance in Inwood, Manhattan. Image by Miguel Garzón Martínez.
Today we gather in a place where inequality still prevails.
We gather here in 2019 to remember the story of this place, and to think of other times and other places.
We remember that 400 years ago Africans landed at Jamestown and were sold into bondage.
We remember that those Africans were forced to work land stolen from the Native People.
We remember that white workers, men and women, were forced into indentured servitude.
We see that from those roots was built an ecology of inequality, and we know we don’t want to live in the House of White
Supremacy.
Therefore, on this day, we lift up this place.
We acknowledge this land and the sovereignty of the people who have lived here.*
We lift up all the ancestors who have struggled for justice, and in their memory we proclaim that we are the history of a just future.
*We suggest you name the Native Peoples who lived in your area.
We gather here in 2019 to remember the story of this place, and to think of other times and other places.
We remember that 400 years ago Africans landed at Jamestown and were sold into bondage.
We remember that those Africans were forced to work land stolen from the Native People.
We remember that white workers, men and women, were forced into indentured servitude.
We see that from those roots was built an ecology of inequality, and we know we don’t want to live in the House of White
Supremacy.
Therefore, on this day, we lift up this place.
We acknowledge this land and the sovereignty of the people who have lived here.*
We lift up all the ancestors who have struggled for justice, and in their memory we proclaim that we are the history of a just future.
*We suggest you name the Native Peoples who lived in your area.