I wanted to share just a few more photos I had but also circle back on the legacy of black people and how lucky I am to have these photographs and know as much history as I do. Slavery did a number on our people. Being able to trace my family back as far as I can is incredibly remarkable considering how often documents were “lost” or intentionally destroyed or most realistically not kept at all when it comes to the lineage of black folks. I remember my aunt telling me about an article when I was younger that was in a magazine about my family being traced to Nigeria. There might be a clipping somewhere. This was my grandfather’s side of the family who has its own mysteries and tragedies. That’s a whole other story I don’t know too much about, but I do know they were from St. Kitts (by way of Nigeria presumably) and came to NY to build a life. I’ll have to get more details about that side of my family, but again, very grateful to have relatives invested in digging into the past to uncover our history.

Though thumbing through these photos I felt a great sense of pride, it was also bittersweet because though I can see them I fear I will never know them or know how we’re connect or even if we’re connected. Like I said before, maybe I will someday, but not without dedicated time and resources. Things I don’t know when I’ll be ready to commit to at this point, but who knows what the future holds. I hope soon. In the meantime, I will continue to document what I know and gather what I can. It’s very cool that I now have these photos as well.

Here are some more beautiful pictures…