Ringing the Bells
August 25 marks the 400th anniversary of the first landing of enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America. They arrived on the White Lion, an English privateer ship sailing under Dutch authority, at Point Comfort in Hampton, Virginia, now part of Fort Monroe National Monument, a unit of the National Park System.
The anniversary is being used as a day of healing and reconciliation at Fort Monroe and other locations across the country. All 419 national parks, National Park System programs and community partners plus all of us are invited to come together in solidarity to ring bells simultaneously across the nation for four minutes — one minute for each century — to honor the first Africans who landed in 1619 at Point Comfort and 400 years of African American history.
Bells small, big, old or new will ring at 3pm. Find a public event at www.nps.gov/subjects/partnerships/bell-ringing-for-400th.htm