To the editor:

Upon reading the letter to the editor from Mr. Manny Manezes, published on March 24, it became clear to me that there is an opportunity for education in regard to the Middle Passage project proposed by a group of community members in Bristol, Rhode Island.

This project is not a monument to slavery. It is a memorial marker/monument to honor the African ancestors and mark disembarkation sites of captive Africans who were sold into slavery. It also provides a platform to acknowledge the sacrifices and contributions of these ancestors and their descendants.

The American experience is seldom explored in a way that sheds light on the true history and heritage of Americans of African descent. This has made us too comfortable, as a society, with the notion that Africans and African Americans were slaves, and that’s it — end of story: a story of slavery, oppression, and helplessness.

Although slavery was a part of history, it is not the history. African people were not slaves — they were enslaved. Before they were enslaved, they were just people — African people. They were people just like you and me; mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. They were engineers, mathematicians, healers, watermen, astrologists, historians, government leaders, and so much more.

We rarely endeavor to think that African American history is a story of intelligence, strength, and resilience; but that is their story. The Middle Passage project helps to tell this story and give community members and descendants a place to go and reflect upon the true history and connect with their ancestors.

I would encourage community members to go to www.middlepassageproject.org to learn more about this project and the work of Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project.

Heather R. Walker
Director of Operations
Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality