Welcome back to the African Roots Podcast! You can always reach me at AfricanRootsPodcast@gmail.com.
It is great to be back after two weeks in Arkansas! As you know I recently attended a Preservation conference in Arkansas and I also attended the dedication of a special monument to the first black Deputy Marshal on the western frontier.
Now that I am back I am able to prepare for some events including a conference tomorrow in Philadelphia hosted by the African American Genealogy Group of Philadelphia. The event takes place at the LDS Family History Center in Philadelphia on Chester Street and will last from 8:00 am till 3:00 pm.
While traveling I was able to document several aspects of my journey including the conference I atteneded and I am currently working on a video project about the young people–the children who also attended the conference and who are preservationists–speaking about their activities as well. How inspiring!
Lots of events taking place as well—-there are the many Juneteenth celebrations occurring around the country. This is the beginning of summer—when we celebrate everything from freedom to family. Check the events for your local area, join the celebrations–and document them! In addition to the holidays, the summer for me will include Samford IGHR, and the FGS Conference in late August.
I have been inspired by many in the past two weeks, and in addition, I was also inspired last night when I listened to Regina Mason who was a guest on Bernice Bennett’s Blog Radio program. Ms. Mason is a direct descendant of William Grimes, author of the First Fugitive Slave Narrative. His story is amazing, and a poignant read. This man suffered so much yet he told his story. What it took for him to tell his story when writing alone let alone publishing was not easily done by people of color in the early 19th century! Listen to the story—there are so many lessons there!! You can catch her show every Thursday evening at 9pm. Her shows are always immediately archived for later listening.
As I settle down now for a few days before my next trip I was compelled to note that I have been able to document fairly well most of my activities. If they were related in any way to my research interests, then I took photos, wrote a blog post, or captured footage for a video. The task at hand now for me is to edit the footage and to write the blog posts, so the trip in many ways is not over. This is not a burdensome task however, this is a commitment that I have made to telling the story.
I hope that many of your are also making that same commitment. We have the tools with us—we have the cell phones with cameras, recorders and video features built in. We have the ability to document all that we do. I think about the story of William Grimes that I heard last night and realize that this man did so much with so little—we owe it to the next generation to tell our story and to document that which we do as well.
Well in the meantime—back to the projects at hand. Have a great week of research and keep researching, keep documenting and keep sharing what you find!
