Some of the descendants met each other for the first time!
According to NBC News, Vice President Kamala Harris recently addressed the descendants of some of the most notable civil rights leaders from the 1950s and 1960s! The group gathered at the White House.
The families of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Emmett Till, Thomas Jefferson, and Sally Hemings, among others, were all scheduled to attend the historic event.
Harris spoke to the descendants of the “extraordinary American heroes” whom she said embody the promise of the nation. “They’ve passed the baton to us,” she added.
The group–who calls themselves The Descendants–honored their familial legacies as they celebrated the Black History Month event hosted by the Biden-Harris administration. One of the organizers of the event, Joshua Jordison, said planning began years ago. “It was amazing that many of them had never met,” he said.
“We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us,” Kenneth B. Morris Jr. said, a descendant of Frederick Douglass and his first wife, Anna Murray Douglass. “Freedom’s torch has been passed to us.”
Cover photo: Descendants of Black History Icons Gather in Historic White House Meeting/Shannon Lanier, a descendant of Sally Hemings, and his family at historic White House descendants gathering/Photo credit: @MrShannonLanier/Instagram