Regional News
Brief Connections The official newsletter of the Southeast Region
April 22, 2009
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
February events at the Timucuan
Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole gave the keynote address at the Kingsley
The choir from Edwater Waters College, the historically Black college in Jacksonville, Florida.
Photographs above: NPS/Paul Haftel
Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, former Presidentof Spelman and Bennett Colleges, and descendant
of Anna and Zephaniah Kingsley, presented the keynote speech at the 11th
Annual Kingsley Heritage Celebration. Held at the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve’s Kingsley Plantation site on Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 2:00 p.m., the event also featured a musical presentation by the
Edward Waters College Choir, a historically Black college in Jacksonville, Florida.
Dr. Cole’s presentation was entitled “Sankofa: Looking Back to Go Forward.” An anthropologist
by training, Dr. Cole used the concept of sankofa during her speech. Sankofa is a
Adinkra symbol of the Ga speaking people of Ghana, in West Africa. The word is tied to the
idea that we need to know our past in order to move forward and understand who we are as a
culture today.
Throughout her speech, Dr. Cole referred to her ancestors and how events in their lives
shaped her life and work today. Dr. Cole is a descendant of Anta Madgigine Jai, a
Senegalese woman purchased by Zephaniah Kingsley in Havana, Cuba in 1806. He wrote
that they were married according to her customs in a foreign land. Anna Kingsley, as
she became known, was freed by Kingsley and became a land owner, businesswoman,
and slave owner. Dr. Cole’s lineage also connects her to Abraham Lincoln Lewis,
who married Mary Sammis, a descendant of Anna Kingsley. Lewis was Jacksonville’s first
Black millionaire, and co-founded the Afro American Life Insurance Company, the first
insurance company in the state of Florida.
Johnnetta B. Cole assumed the role of Director of the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of African Art on March 2, 2009.
Cole has served on the Scholarly Advisory Board of the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of African American History and Culture since its inception, and has worked
with a number of Smithsonian programs since the mid-1980s. Contributed by Carol S. Clark, Park Ranger,
carol_s_clark@nps.gov
Events each Saturday Afternoon in February 2009
The Kingsley Heritage Celebration recognizes the rich culture that evolved
amongst slave communities despite the severe oppression of slavery and celebrates
the determination and strength of those men, women, and children.
These events also examine cultural aspects of modern American society that
originated in the plantation period. This year’s event brought individuals
and families, after school programs and church groups, and National Park
Service dignitaries and partners to Kingsley Plantation. Special guests
included Regional Director David Vela and commissioners from the Gullah/
Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Activities for February 2009 included
storytelling and workshops with Xhabbo, an African American griot
from St. Augustine, Florida. His story of Anna Kingsley highlighted the complex
life of a young woman from Senegal, who survived the Middle Passage
and was purchased by the man who would become her husband. He told
the story of her life as a free African woman in Spanish Florida during a
time of change in Florida.
The musical legacy that came out of the horrors of slavery was the focus
of “The Art of Music: The Roots of Gospel.” Florida-based choirs
performed music under a large tent on the plantation grounds.
Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole’s speech highlighted the power of perseverance and
the ways in which our history shapes our lives as private individuals, citizens in a
democracy, and family members.
The final Saturday event focuses on recent archaeological work at the slave
quarters. Park visitors learn about discoveries at Kingsley Plantation that
provide clues about how slaves maintained African identity and culture.
Kingsley Plantation is a unit of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic
Preserve. Today, the public can visit the grounds, which include the oldest
standing plantation house in Florida, the kitchen, barn, slave quarters and
waterfront. The annual event is free and open to the public, co-sponsored
by the Florida Humanities Council.
Commissioners of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, which spans from Florida
to North Carolina, listened as Dr. Cole inspired the audience with her words.
- NPS/Katy Ruder
The Culture of the Sea Islands and the Legacy of Slavery 2 Kingsley Heritage Celebration
With the slave quarters as a backdrop, Xhabbo, an African American griot, told
the story of Anta Madgigne Jai Kingsley.
- NPS/Katy Ruder
Children participated in Xhabbo’s
percussion workshop on February 7, 2009.
- NPS/Katy Ruder
The Living Truth Ministries Choir from
Daytona Beach, Florida, mixed gospel and
storytelling on Febrary 14, 2009.
- NPS/ Sarah Ackerman
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Good Job Carol and to all those involved in making this a successful event.
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