Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1094881
B M & T ••• November/December 2018 ••• www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 19 H istorians tell us that for many thousands of years Africans travel within and beyond the continent of Africa. However the Major connection to Africans in the Americas began in the 1600s with those 20 Africans brought to Old Point Comfort, the present- day site of FORT MONROE in Hampton, Virginia. This Historic site, is a part of the National Parks Service, and is one of the many National Park locations that help to tell the story of Africans in this country. That story takes on new meaning with today's pres- ence of top industry execu- tives such as Rita McCle- nney, President/CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corpora- tion, and Patricia Wash- ington, President-/CEO of Visit Alexandria!. Travel for African-Americans in Virgi- nia, and everywhere, has come a LONG way from where we started those many years ago. D uring the first 200 years of slave importation travel for Africans in this foreign land was totally non-voluntary—we went where we were sent or where we were taken. Generally without our family members and in fact, literally, with only the clothes on our backs. The lucrative slave trade brought a steady work force of Africans to U.S. soil, mainly to the Southern region of the country. Because so many African-Americans can trace their family roots to those states, they are the destinations that remain high among the ones most visited by Black travelers. In states such as Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana, recognized as having the largest populations of enslaved Africans, time has brought extraordinarily changes to the faces that represent TRAVEL. From the anguished, brutalized people of color having absolutely no control over their lives or destiny, we now see faces such as those of Rickey Thigpen, president and CEO of Visit Jackson, Bennish Brown, president and CEO of the Augusta CVB, Shanitra Finley, executive director of Visit Yazoo, Timothy P. Bush, president and CEO of Louisiana's Cajun Bayou, Essence H. Banks, executive director of the New Orleans Multicultural Tourism Network, and Monica Smith, president and CEO of the Southeast Tourism Society. Having these capable indi- viduals in their positions of leadership serves to demonstrate the powerful role of Travel in implementing possibilities for positive change in our nation. Rita McClenney Patricia R Washington THE 1600 & 1700s ARRIVAL – SURVIVAL RICKEY THIGPHEN TIMOTHY BUSH BENNISH BROWN SHANITRA FINLEY MONICA SMITH ESSENCE H. BANKS