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CULTURAL RELEVANCE:
Transgress * Transcend * Transform
To transgress is go beyond bound/limitations;
to transcend is to surpass beyond the range;
to transform is to make dramatic change
Transgress, Transcend and Transform. This year’s theme pays homage to our fortitude, resiliency and ability to enact social change. The Black American ability to persist and resist are marked indicators that characterize our power as a people. Our ability to not only survive, but to thrive, build and sustain community, create and re-create ourselves in spite of the circumstances. These attributes are a testament to the socio-historical legacy and our ability to transgress, transcend and transform.
We need only take a short stride down the corridors of history to see the ways in which the legacies of transgression, transcendence and transformation have manifested during the celebratory dates of Umoja:
In these politically polarizing and racially divisive times we must look to and draw from this legacy to help guide and strengthen of our families and communities. Ashe!
to transcend is to surpass beyond the range;
to transform is to make dramatic change
Transgress, Transcend and Transform. This year’s theme pays homage to our fortitude, resiliency and ability to enact social change. The Black American ability to persist and resist are marked indicators that characterize our power as a people. Our ability to not only survive, but to thrive, build and sustain community, create and re-create ourselves in spite of the circumstances. These attributes are a testament to the socio-historical legacy and our ability to transgress, transcend and transform.
We need only take a short stride down the corridors of history to see the ways in which the legacies of transgression, transcendence and transformation have manifested during the celebratory dates of Umoja:
- Monday, May 7th, 1955 - Rev. George Lee was fatally shot. Rev. Lee was a member of the NAACP and he was killed for daring to register to vote.
- Tuesday, May 8th, 2009 – Members of the KKK burned a cross in an American neighborhood in Ozark, Alabama to intimidate Black residents.
- Wednesday, May 9th, 1961 - Freedom Rider John Lewis, who later became the Congressman representing Georgia, was assaulted for attempting to enter the white waiting room at the Greyhound bus terminal in Rock Hill, South Carolina
- Thursday, May 10th, 1740 - South Carolina enacted the Negro Act of 1740, allowing plantation owners to whip and kill enslaved African Americans who violated the law by growing their own food, learning to read, assembling in groups or earning money.
- Friday, May 11th, 1868 – Convict leasing program began in Georgia when the governor leased 100 Black prisoners to Georgia and Alabama Railroad for $2500 a year. Sixteen prisoners died in the first year alone.
In these politically polarizing and racially divisive times we must look to and draw from this legacy to help guide and strengthen of our families and communities. Ashe!