By: Shelley McKinley, Ed.D. August 20th, called Slavery Remembrance Day, is fast approaching and commemorates the day that the first 20 enslaved Africans arrived to American shores on the slave ship called the White Lion at Point Comfort, VA in 1619, near what is today called Norfolk. Unlike Juneteenth which celebrates the liberation of enslaved African American people, August 20th is intended to annually observe African American contributions to America while enslaved. It also memorializes those who did not survive the deadly middle passage, and honors the generations of people of African descent who were born to and died in slavery between 1619 and 1865. “We were brought here to be a permanently, identifiable caste of enslaved people,” clarified Congressman Al Green. Slavery Remembrance Day, a component of the Conscience Agenda and considered our moral imperative, also observes the victories of an enslaved people in spite of the seemingly invincible challenges. The Conscience Agenda involves five points. “Dr. King reminds us that the time is always right to do what is right. More importantly than the right thing to do, is the righteous thing to do. This is what we must do if we are to be respected in this country because we are disrespected. The conscience is that thing that tells you the rightness or wrongness of something. The moral imperative emanates from the conscience. If there is something you know is wrong, then you are to correct it,” explained Rep. Al Green. The first point is to expand Slavery Remembrance Day to prevent the evils of slavery from fading from our collective memory so as to prevent it or its discriminatory practices such as mass lynching, black codes, lawful segregation, and institutional racism from making a comeback. This is extremely important in the current political climate. Slavery Remembrance Day, sponsored by Rep. Al Green and co-sponsored by 77 others, passed in the U.S. House, but not the Senate. However, it was acknowledged by President Biden in an August 2022 press release. Slavery Remembrance Day seeks to recognize slavery as we recognize 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the […]

The post THE CONSCIENCE AGENDA appeared first on African American News and Issues.