This article first appeared in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 31, 2019
Four hundred years after the first slave ship arrived in Virginia in 1619, African-American migrations will be the topic of an event this weekend that kicks off Black History Month in the city.
The event comes at a time when other migrations — from Central America to the U.S., and from the Middle East to Western Europe — often seem to drive world events.
Of course, the African-American story has its own unique and tragic element that differentiates it from those migrations or the European American path, noted Ronald Saunders, president of the Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which is holding the event at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Downtown & Business, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday.