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Story Wall Commemoration
The annual commemoration of Kunta Kinte’s arrival in America will take place at 6 p.m. Friday, September 29, 2006 during a vibrant ceremony to be held at the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial at the Annapolis City Dock, the location where Kunta Kinte is believed to have arrived aboard the slave ship Lord Ligonier on September 29, 1767 and then sold into slavery.
The ceremony will include the dedication of the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial Story Wall Walkway to the memory of Leonard A. Blackshear, the founder of the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation and Kunta Kinte Celebrations who passed away in March of 2006.
Keynote speaker is The Honorable George W. Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to The Gambia, who is the late Alex Haley’s brother and direct descendant of Kunta Kinte. Other speakers and attendees at the ceremony will include Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer, members of the Annapolis City Council and Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation President Alan Hay.
As part of the ceremony, Mr. Blackshear’s widow, Dr. Patsy Baker Blackshear will also provide comments.
Kunta Kinte’s life was the subject of author Alex Haley’s best-selling book, Roots. Mr. Haley discovered that Kunta Kinte arrived in Annapolis while doing family genealogy research in Annapolis at the Maryland State Archives. Roots became a classic television mini-series and the Roots phenomenon inspired a national wave of enthusiasm for genealogy.
Following the ceremony speakers and audience members will gather at a reception with refreshments hosted by the Banneker-Douglass Museum, 84 Franklin Street. The public is warmly invited to attend both the waterfront ceremony and the reception.
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Link to: Story Wall
HERITAGE
The farthest-back person they ever talked about was a man they called the African.
~ Alex Haley, Roots
Link to: Story Wall
DIVERSITY
Though we are of different tribes and tongues, remember we are the same people!
~ Mandinka Elder, Roots
Link to: Story Wall
PERSEVERANCE
We all suffer.
If a man’s wise, he learns from it.
~ Boteng Bediako (Uncle Pompey), Roots
The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial
Located in historic Annapolis, Maryland, the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial symbolizes the triumph of the human spirit. It conveys Alex Haley’s vision for national racial reconciliation and healing, and stresses the importance of strong family connection and the preservation and honoring of cultural history and heritage.
Dedicated to our African ancestors whose names are forever lost in the oceans of time, and to any peoples that arrived in the New World in bondage, whose unpaid labor forged the foundation of this nation’s rise to greatness. Also, to the descendants of these ancestors who strive to foster a nation that celebrates ethnic diversity within the spirit of brotherhood, mutual respect, and understanding.
Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation
The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation, Inc. was incorporated in the state of Maryland in 1995, as a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) nonprofit profit organization.
Our mission is to spread the vision of Alex Haley, a world that celebrates ethnic diversity while honoring humankind’s common universal experiences.
The Foundation is dedicated to stimulating greater interest in African American culture, history, art, archaeology, anthropology, and genealogy, and to encouraging people of all ethnic backgrounds to search for their own “roots.”
Contact Information
Mailing Address
Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation, Inc.
Asbury United Methodist Church
87 West Street, 2nd Floor
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
Telephone
410.295.9395