POTUS & FLOTUS look out doorway where slaves departed from Goree Island

[Triana]

Last edited Fri Jun 28, 2013, 09:08 AM - Edit history (2)

[silvershadow]

1. A very poignant pic indeed. nt

[bigwillq]

2. Great pic.

K and R

[KittyWampus]

3. Door of No Return/Portal of Sorrow > I had to look up Goree Island on Wiki & got choked up reading:

Despite the controversy over whether it was truly an important hub in the trade. It's still the memories in our collective consciousness that get stirred up by the photos and memorial, IMO.


Door of No Return

[demmiblue]

4. Haunting. K&R

[AtomicKitten]

11. Yes it is. It's a picture for the history books.

[JohnnyLib2]

5. "One picture is worth..........."

Rec.

[navarth]

6. We've come so far

and we have so far to go. Very historic pic, thanks.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. So is this...

[navarth]

27. Yup. The Rosa Parks bus at the Henry Ford Museum. I was there last year a couple of times

and their civil rights exhibit is pretty impressive. I talked to one of the curators and she told me this bus had been sitting in somebody's back yard rusting for decades. After the museum located it, they spent hundreds of thousands purchasing and restoring it. It really is something to see if you're ever in Detroit.

They also have the chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot. Pretty spooky.

[Iliyah]

7. Damn, ugly part of history

and just think that Clarence Thomas, Allan West and more blacks think that slavery need to return for blacks because it was the best thing tht ever happened to them.

UGH

[FreedRadical]

17. It isn't just those two, or a few blacks

In some non-black communities, that is a prevailing attitude.

[Hekate]

8. Just so stark...

Thanks for the post

[Recursion]

9. Named after my ancestor

Sometimes our family history sucks.

[dbackjon]

10. That has to be emotional

[arely staircase]

12. wow

that is really moving.

[4Q2u2]

13. Emmitt Smith

I remember Professor Gates taking Emmitt Smith back to Africa and showing him the Doorway. Smith's roots traced right back to that village. He saw the Gate and broke down. A very emotional and transending experience. It almost acts like a time portal now when you look into it.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. It must cause White Supremacists pain to know they will NEVER be able to own slaves again...

To that. I say, "Good."

[grahamhgreen]

15. Bad spot for the roof drain

[TinkerTot55]

16. I'm wondering how one goes about....

...getting a poster-sized enlargement of a photo like that? I certainly wouldn't want to violate someone's copyright of the original photo.

Btw, it's very sobering and sad to see how quickly our POTUS is going grey.

[Triana]

24. Here is a larger version of the photo, credited to

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1384556.1372371089!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/obama-senegal.jpg

[TinkerTot55]

25. Many thanks.

Thanks, Triana.

[kentuck]

18. A fantastic photo!

Thanks.

[JI7]

19. where did most of those slaves end up ?

[jaysunb]

20. Enslaved forever far from home.

[Turbineguy]

22. I visited there in 1985

It was like a series of medieval dungeons but without the luxuries.

[Triana]

23. White House Diary entry on this visit:

. . .

Many people lost their lives here on Goree Island; many more died during the Middle Passage. And it is difficult to fully describe the heartbreak and despair I felt standing at the site of such unthinkable cruelty and suffering. It was almost hard for me to breathe as I thought about the terror and grief these men, women and children must have felt as they took their last steps through that doorway, knowing they would never again see their families or their country.

There is no way to undo what happened here at Goree Island and no way to erase the stain of slavery from our nation’s past. But there is also no denying the course that history has taken since that time. Since then, we’ve seen so many brave men and women rise up against slavery and segregation – folks like Harriet Tubman who led an underground railroad to freedom; and William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglass who spent their lives speaking out against slavery; and Dr. Martin Luther King who sacrificed his life working to fulfill his dream of a more just, more free America.

People who came through this island could never have imagined how history would unfold. And they certainly could never have imagined that someone like me – a descendant of slaves – would come here with her own family, and look out through that door of no return. And maybe, in the end, that is an argument for hope even in the face of the most unspeakable horrors, because time and again – both in America and around the world – we have seen that cruelty and oppression are no match for people of conscience who commit themselves to the cause of freedom. So I hope that in your own lives, instead of being overwhelmed by the tragedies of our past, you will take inspiration from the triumphs of history’s heroes – and I hope you will follow in their footsteps to create a better future.

(Michelle Obama)

. . .
THE REST:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/06/27/flotus-travel-journal-visiting-goree-island

?itok=uJa-TMY6

[JustAnotherGen]

26. That's gotta be a chilling

Place for our my First Lady to stand.