We came from all over.

From California. Florida. South Carolina. Right there in Georgia.

But more than that, we came from the earth. The earth our anscestors worked. From the land. The cotton. The tobacco. The beans.

We came from hard work, sweat, sacrifice. Their sacrifice. For us.

We came from the long months on the road, traveling from one farm to another, from Florida to South Carolina to Maryland and back.

We came from poverty, even if it didn’t seem that way.

And, by the grace of God, it made us family. No matter our names, we are all family, bound together by a spirit of love that still echoes today.

Ours was, is, a celebration of family, of reuniting our far-flung family, reconnecting, strengthening, growing, not only with one another, but with our ancestors. By blood, by spirit, by faith, by love.