The year 2019 marks the 400th year since 20 Africans arrived in Jamestown, Va. as indentured servants in 1619, representing the earliest documented record of Blacks in, what is now, America. This system of indentured servitude rapidly gave way to the enslavement of Blacks which would endure until 1865 and was followed by almost another 100 years of Jim Crow racial segregation. This 400-year history of racial oppression created a racially-stratified society in which racial inequities are deeply embedded in virtually every structural institution and system in American society, bolstered by a philosophy of White supremacy and Black racial inferiority.
As a means of actively engaging the CSU Community in commemorating the 400-years of Blacks in America, proposed that through the collaborative efforts of a number of the city’s anchor institutions, Project 400: Our Lived Experience, be adopted as a city-wide, year-long observation.
