Upcoming Programs – Sankofa Collaborative

Part I: April 9, 2025, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.

After viewing the documentary “The Price of Silence, Part Three: The Search for Freedom in New Jersey,” Dr. Linda Caldwell Epps will be joined by Dr. Spencer Crew, who organized the first national exhibition about the Great Migration for the Smithsonian. They will discuss questions such as “Why did Black southerners come north and what did they find? What was the impact on those who migrated and the places they settled? What has been the legacy of this massive movement of people for America today?” Join this free on-line program via Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/SankofaPart1.

Part II: April 23, 2025, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Part II of the Sankofa Collaborative virtual program on the Great Migration will turn to a focus on how that experience has been recollected in personal memories, family stories, and artistic expression. More details coming soon.

The Unfinished Revolution and the African American Experience from Slavery to Today

In June 2023 the Sankofa Collaborative kicked off a four-year series of workshops on the theme of “The Unfinished Revolution and the African American Experience from Slavery to Today,” intended to further the Sankofa Collaborative’s mission to build the capacity of individuals, groups, and organizations to learn about, present, and discuss the complex and difficult issues in the history and current experiences of African American citizens of New Jersey.

Each year’s workshops will focus on an era of African Americans’ struggle for freedom and the inalienable rights promised in the Declaration of Independence at the founding of our nation. In spring and fall 2023 the Collaborative presented Part I and Part II of “Slavery, It Happened Here, Too – Stories from New Jersey.” In 2024, the topic was “Jim Crow in New Jersey – Policies, Regulations, and Practices Supporting Discrimination and Segregation in the Garden State.” The themes for coming years are “The Great Migration to New Jersey – Is This the Promised Land?” (2025) and “Civil Rights in New Jersey Then and Now – Will Black Lives Ever Matter?” (2026).