Gates notes the striking difference between the numerous statues of European colonists, and even the whitening of the image of Dominicans who have any African heritage in the Dominican Republic, and the statues of Black Haitian independence leaders throughout Haiti.
The Peace Corps and the Mickey Leland Center on World Hunger and Peace at Texas Southern University partnered to send 10 students to live with current Peace Corps volunteers in Haiti, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Panama and Bolivia. The program, which was started last year, aims to increase minority student interest in global service centers. To honor this year's interns, a reception was held in July at the Houston Urban League.
The month's activities organized include a Global Reggae Conference hosted at the University of the West Indies' Mona Campus, featuring musician Gilberto Gil, now Brazil's minister of culture, and a Reggae Film Festival hosted by Jamaica's Ministry of Information and Culture.
Congressman Charles B. Rangel (D-Harlem), who was instrumental in obtaining a license from the U.S. Treasury Department on behalf of the NAACP delegation for the trip to Cuba, hailed the planned trade link with Black farmers. Rangel said he considers the results of the NAACP's Cuba visit "an important breakthrough." Rangel is a longtime advocate of U.S. trade with Cuba, arguing that removal of the U.S. embargo would promote democracy in Cuba.
Human Rights in Haiti: A Work in Progress" is a 22-minute abridged Cliffs Notes version of the history of Haitian unrest. Though it is beautifully edited and has some rather moving imagery, the film ends suddenly, which quite frankly took the audience off guard. During the Q&A session following the films, the un-packed audience of 10 people (which included the filmmakers) had a few burning questions, some of which were not completely answered. "Who's the opponent? Who's the evil person here?" "It doesn't make that clear," "There are things that aren't really clear here" were just a few questions the audience members asked.