Module 1: I Am From...
Now that you understand the history of the 400 years project, we’d like to share an excerpt of our Call to Observance read by members of the 400 Years National Organizing Committee. This call stems from our own hope for the future if we can truly engage and reflect on these 400 years of Inequality. Play the audio link below and read along as members of our Organizing Committee read The Call to Observance.
We call on everyone to prepare observances for the 400th Anniversary of the arrival in 1619 at Jamestown of the first Africans to be sold into bondage. Soon after this event, colonialism and slavery were codified into laws and practices that facilitated the dispossession and occupation of lands, and exploitative and oppressive life and work conditions. By marking this anniversary of Jamestown we come together to continue the work for full emancipation, equity, and justice. In doing so, we prepare to meet the challenges ahead, including climate change, decaying physical infrastructure, rapidly evolving jobs, under-resourced schools, uneven access to health care, and a lack of affordable housing. We call on everyone to prepare observances for the 400th Anniversary of Jamestown. We do this to denounce structures of inequality. We do this to foreground our fundamental and unconditional equality. We remember and in doing so refuse to participate in and reproduce structures of dehumanization, exploitation, oppression, and inequity.
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