“Black Survival, Joy and Community at America’s 250th” was the theme last Saturday, when the Descendants of Enslaved Communities of Virginia held their third annual Descendants’ Day Symposium in Albemarle County.
About 200 people attended the event, hosted at The Center at Belvedere by the organization’s University of Virginia chapter. DEC-VA looks to “collaborate with, advocate for, and support descendants and their families as we work to research, honor, and reclaim the narrative of our ancestors.”
DEC-VA Vice President Bertha French said the symposium was part of a larger movement to re-center the stories of enslaved people and their descendants in the conversation about the history of the United States…