Juneteenth and The Global African Family: Reclaiming Land, Language and Culture

As we celebrate Juneteenth, June 19, the official Independence Day for African Americans, the day that marks the day in 1885 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were finallly told, two and a half years after President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, that American slavery had ended, we also prepare to celebrate he power of our African heritage as Kings and Queens in the upcoming Exchange Ceremony Saturday June 22, 2024. At this annual event, to be held this year at 5628 West Washington in Chicago, outstanding men and women of the African diaspora will be crowned as Kings and Queens and bestowed the honor of their royal heritage. Today we will examine that royal heritage, and why have we persisted in defining ourselves as "ex-slaves" because of a brief unpleasant experience, and why are we behaving in such self destructive ways, when our vast history of thousands of years reflects a people who were creative builders, developers, scientists, healers, travelers, agriculturalists, astronomers, global merchants and spiritual teachers? We'll talk to organizers of a special Juneteenth celebration today in Chicago, the organizers of the upcoming 4th Annual Exchange Ceremony, the Crowning of the African Diaspora Kings and Queens, but first we'll talk to Chicago's 17th Ward Alderman David Moore, who is taking a courageous stand to combat the effects of people who, despite a royal heritage of thousands of years, despite freedom from legal enslavement in America, are still behaing like helpless, hopeless slaves, destroying their families and communities and slowly killing themselves.  How do we revive the spirit of African pride, power and self respect in the people living in depressed communities like Chicago's Englewood?