NEW ORLEANS (April 4, 2017) - The 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in The United States will occur in 2019, marking a significant historic occasion for our Nation. We should be inspired to reexamine the description of the First Settlers to include the 23 Angolan Africans who were counted in the census of the first successful English settlement in North America. One year before The Mayflower arrived, and 113 years before the birth of George Washington, John Rolfe, widower of Pocahontas, confirmed the arrival of their ship on an official document in Jamestown Virginia. Though their arrival in 1619 was enmeshed in sinister purposes, they became a vibrant part of the prosperity of the early colonies. What wasn't noted, however, Sandra McCollum was that these urban Africans were accustomed to a more sophisticated environment than their surroundings in Jamestown. However, in only a few years, many of them owned land, had black and white servants, married whites and had children who were known as this Nation's first free people of color. Initially, the census documented them as Africans. The next generation was recorded as Mulatto, followed by free people of color in the subsequent generation. Within four generations, the U.S. Census records some of these same families as white.

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