“For our ancestors, there wasn’t an opportunity to give up. Every situation for them was life and death. And for us, we’re lucky that it’s not that extreme, but at some point we have to draw the line and say, ‘After today, this is no longer an acceptable outcome”. I feel the most connected to my ancestors through the disappointment of fighting for some of these freedoms that we should be already experiencing,, and then falling short." -Alx​
“My ancestors never really had a chance and I feel almost obligated to be better and to use the opportunities I've been given to be a better person and to just flourish, to grow, and just be me.”  -Abigail
“I'll give a little bit of history about Haiti, being that I'm Haitian descent. Haiti was the first black country to gain independence and so my ancestors fought for independence and so that gives me so much pride that we did not settle for slavery and that we rebelled. we had the most successful slave revolution in the world and that's why we are resilient people and so through my ancestors fighting for our freedom, that gives me the push that I need to always do better and to thank them because of them I have freedom and I have other opportunities in this world because of my ancestors and I'm saddened that my fellow black African Americans here in this country had to go through slavery and I feel for those people that their ancestors were slaves. and so with my ancestors we are able to conquer being enslaved and just opening the doors for other black countries. Because of our example other black nations were able to gain their independence and freedom Haiti was able to help other Latin American countries as well to receive their freedom and so that's how I am connected to my history is because of my Haitian ancestors who fought hard for our freedom." -Gina
“ Obviously I could never really understand everything that my ancestors experienced, but we all carry a part of our ancestors with us. These are men and women that I will not meet in this life, but my mom always tells me that I look exactly like my aunt. She always says that I have Carmen’s hands, and I have Carmen’s face, and I’m sure Carmen looks like her aunt and her aunt before her. In that way I feel a physical connection to my ancestors.  I won’t experience the hardships or pain that they experienced but I can take pride in the fact that they were strong and resilient. I’m here because of them and because they were willing to go on and I’m so grateful for that." -Austen