The NPS Reflects On 400 Years Of The African-American Experience

Source: Will and Jim Pattiz / National Park Service

#BOSSIPBHM

The National Park Service Reflects On 400 Years Of The African-American Experience

The National Park Service is honoring Black History Month with an inspiring new short film. Titled ‘Twenty & Odd, the video developed by a group of NPS staff and interns explores the trauma, resilience, and beauty of the African-American experience in America.

The narrative for “Twenty & Odd” is Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise” and the film aims to highlight African American empowerment, remembrance, education, inspiration, and engagement in iconic places stewarded by the National Park Service.

If you’re curious about the title “Twenty & Odd” comes from English colonist John Rolfe describing the number of the first enslaved Africans brought to Virginia in 1619. The NPS says their creative team chose this title to reclaim power of Rolfe’s phrasing that suggested that enslaved Africans were so insignificant that they could not even bother to be properly counted.

As previously reported the NPS previously announced that more than $12 million in African American Civil Rights grants will be used to fund projects across 17 states and they recently gave embattled HBCU Morris Brown College a $500,000.

Watch Twenty & Odd below.