For more than 11 years, the National Center for Race Amity has developed projects to increase close cross-racial collaboration and friendship, to create the conditions for increased access, equity and social justice. Building on this premise – that justice has always started with racial amity or friendship – we’re now embarking on a new and exciting initiative to bring people of different races, ethnicities and continents together to address both ecological and social justice.
In collaboration with the European nonprofit organizations, Civic, Hopes Initiatives International, Pollen, and the Gambian government, we announce the Great Green Wall Atlantic Slave Memorial.
Imagine… 15m seedlings planted along the northern bank of the Gambian River.
From the Gambia to Senegal.
Joining with the Great Green Wall will grow across the entire continent.
• Reforesting the land
• Creating a canopy of green
• Leading to food security… livelihood, opportunity, and economic development
• Contributing to stabilizing the climate
And allowing all of us – around the globe – to breathe more deeply…
15 million trees.
One for every soul stolen from Africa and sold into slavery.
A living-breathing memorial to the Atlantic slave trade and those continuing the struggle for equal rights.
A forest symbolizes community, standing together… growing, protecting and sustaining each other.
With the planting of these trees we stand with the lives lost over hundreds of years of the Transatlantic slave trade and we stand with their descendants still facing the oppressive weight of inequities both in Africa and the United States.
The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in history. The Atlantic Ocean is a mighty highway that carried 12.5 million men, women and children in slave ships from Africa to the Americas. It is also a graveyard for over two million who never reached American or Caribbean shores, who perished or were thrown overboard.
While formal slavery ended in the United Sates in 1865, the descendants of those taken from Africa still struggle for social justice and equal citizenship today. And, all Americans, of all racial and ethnic backgrounds bear the brunt of this history.
We cannot change our past.
But we can grow a positive connection across the Atlantic Ocean, between Africa and America – between social justice and environmental justice today.
We invite your inquiry on this innovative project which addresses two critical issues, the dire environmental challenge the world faces and the advancement of equity and social justice on two continents.
For more information please Contact:
info@raceamity.org
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