Rich Lord, Pittsburg Post-Gazette
Ronald Saunders, president of the Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, sits in his Penn Hills home on Thursday. “The foundation of this country was built by African Americans. The roads, the bridges, everything that you can see. They even participated in the laying of the railroads,” he said. (Nate Guidry/Post-Gazette). Featured Image
Four hundred years after the first slave ship arrived in Virginia in 1619, African-American migrations will be the topic of an event this weekend that kicks off Black History Month in the city.
Ronald Saunders, president of the Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, sits in his Penn Hills home on Thursday. “The foundation of this country was built by African Americans. The roads, the bridges, everything that you can see. They even participated in the laying of the railroads,” he said. (Nate Guidry/Post-Gazette). Featured Image
The event comes at a time when other migrations — from Central America to the U.S., and from the Middle East to Western Europe — often seem to drive world events.
Of course, the African-American story has its own unique and tragic element that differentiates it from those migrations or the European American path, noted Ronald Saunders, president of the Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which is holding the event at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Downtown & Business, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
