Remembering Ancestors
SNCC Legacy Project ally the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project Awarded Mellon Foundation Grant
JACKSONVILLE, FL, March 30 — The Mellon Foundation has awarded a 3-year grant to the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP) to support community-led research efforts, outreach, organizing, discussion, planning, and engagement with the Black Atlantic’s silenced and ignored histories. MPCPMP, established in 2011, is a national non-profit organization. Its mission is to honor the two million captive Africans who perished during the trans-Atlantic crossing known as the Middle Passage and the ten million who survived to build the Americas. Both the ocean and the arrival locations are sacred spaces. By re-centering the history of place and people, MPCPMP informs and assists local communities in more than 70 arrival locations from New Hampshire to Texas in publicly acknowledging with markers and remembrance ceremonies their connection to the trans-Atlantic human trade as well as the arrival, presence, and contributions of Africans and their descendants.
The Middle Passage was the ocean route traveled by over 12 million kidnapped Africans who were marched to the African coasts and transported to the Americas to begin their lives of enslavement. More than 2 million did not survive the voyage. It is the largest forced migration in human history. A Middle Passage arrival location is identified as a place where captive children, women, and men first placed their feet after leaving the continent of Africa.
The UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples: Resistance, Liberty, and Heritage project has designated 43 of these arrival locations as a “Site of Memory.” UNESCO recognizes these landmarks as internationally significant because of their cultural and historical importance to the collective interests of humanity.
Thank you for your continued interest and support which continues to make this project and milestones like this one possible.
Sincerely,
Ann Cobb
Executive Director
For more information about the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project view on the SNCC Legacy Project website or visit www.middlepassageproject.org
