October 13, 2019: “1619, not 1492”

Sunday, October 13 10:00AM Rev. Dr. Barbara Coeyman

In the past decades, there has been much revising of recognition of the year 1492, marked this weekend by the holiday still called by many “Columbus Day,”  as we note this date not as a celebratory event of discovery but instead as the beginning of colonial European empire building. Another important “origins” date under current revision is 1776, to identify the founding of the United Stated. A recent project spearheaded by the New York Times revised the founding date of American culture we still live in as 1619, the year of the arrival of the first African slave ship to the Virginia shore, placing slavery and racism at the center of the American story. What we define as our origin stories and what we leave is significant for how we see ourselves today and move into the future Four hundred years after the arrival of that first ship, defining who belongs in this country is still a hot topic.