The Vermont Commemoration of First African Landing Day will be August 23, 2025 at the Richard Kemp Center and Roosevelt Park!

Come experience the speakers, music performances, dancing, spoken word, exhibits, drumming and soul food! There will be Double Dutch, a Bouncy House, yard games, skate-bounce, 3-on-3 Basketball Competition, a Youth Hang-Out Area and more. The Richard Kemp Center will host the Diaspora Series, the Black Legacy Wall, the 1619 Traveling Exhibit and a Wellness Drop-in Spot. We are excited to invite the Community to join in with us and our friends at Juniper Creative as we build a MURAL on the east (Hyde Street) wall of the Richard Kemp Center. The mural will be unveiled during the Annual Richard Kemp Center Back-In-School Block Party in October. Don’t miss our special guest Miss Black Vermont, Harmony Edosomwan!

The 2025 theme “STAND” is inspired by the Adinkra symbol Wawa Aba which means “seed of the wawa (tree).” This seed is reputed for its hardness. Thus, Wawa Aba alludes to hardness, strength and endurance. This year’s theme speaks to the remarkable strength possessed by our ancestors that enabled them to STAND against slavery, convict leasing, segregation, lynchings, Jim Crow and so much more. Yet slavery and its legacy persist and the fight for the rights for the least of us continues to be the fight to protect democracy for all. So, having done all that we can to stand, we STAND!

The civil rights that our ancestors bled and died for are no longer being enforced and the tools that we have used to address desperate impact are being suppressed. We can not allow our ancestors to have suffered and sacrificed in vain. As the winds of mean spirited policy violence blow, we know that we were built for a time such as this. This First African Landing Day we embrace the difficult challenges ahead and understand that there has never been a civil right won in the United States that didn’t require a fight. There is a remnant that is prepared to STAND for justice in the fight for the soul of this nation.

The Vermont Racial Justice Alliance established First African Landing Day on August 24, 2019 by inspiration of the 400 Year African American History Commission and the 1619 Project. Vermont First African Landing Day was established to recognize and highlight the resilience and contributions of African-Americans since 1619; to acknowledge the impact that slavery and laws that enforced racial discrimination have had (and continue to have) on the United States and to educate the public about the arrival of Africans in the United States.” On August 24th, 2019 the Governor proclaimed that the 4th Saturday of August “shall be henceforth recognized and commemorated as First African Landing Day in Vermont”