We stand with you.

2021 marks six years since the establishment of Discovering Amistad, and four years since we started offering our communities insights into our nation’s racial and social justice history through the lens of our floating classroom, the Amistad.

In that time, our mission has remained ambitious and unchanged—to bring experiential lessons on racial and social equity to our classrooms and communities.

Still, this past year has brought new & unforeseen challenges to our communities, including the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It required that we look out for each other like never before and that we find new ways to lift ourselves and our neighbors up as we continue to navigate uncharted waters.  

At Discovering Amistad, preserving the health and safety of our schools, students, partners and staff has always been our priority and state-mandated closings of our schools and businesses required we find new ways to share the story of the Uprising of 1839 and engage students virtually to apply its lessons to the fight for social & racial justice today.

The Spring & Summer of 2020 also bought tragedy and tensions reminiscent of decades past. The senseless murders of Ahmad Aubrey, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd among too many others ignited justifiable anger, mourning and resolve not just across the United States but around the world.

And it made the work we do as an organization more relevant than ever and strengthened our resolve even more to be a part of the solution to end systemic racism.

However, despite these challenging times, we also saw progress, unity and hope.

As an organization, we sailed our ship from Oyster Bay, NY to Mystic, CT to remind our communities who we are and why we are here. We proclaimed at every port and on the mast above our ship that ‘Black Lives Matter.’

We brought together a new generation of activists with our first Leadership Academy, encouraging young people to get involved right now. And empowering them with the skills, network and confidence to do so.

We agreed to partner with the esteemed Mystic Seaport Museum to combine our resources to fight racism and increase diversity in our communities. Together, we hosted our first Freedom Forum, bringing together leaders from across Connecticut to have courageous, open and informed discussions about race, privilege, justice and oppression.

And while we lost a true legend with the passing of the great John Lewis, we found progress, hope and inspiration in the world around us in the selection Kamala Harris as the first African-American Vice President of the United States.

As an organization and country, our work towards equality must and will continue.

While we cannot yet invite you aboard the Amistad schooner, we do invite you to discover the history and lessons of the Amistad you can find here.

Please know we wish you and yours the best of health. Especially now, there is so much we can do to bridge our divides. We are all in this together.

Len Miller
Chair
Discovering Amistad