Sankofa: Going Back and Getting It - a Historical and Comparative Analysis Fifty Years after the Assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

In the Twi language of Ghana, Africa, the word Sankofa is translated as “to return, to go fetch, to seek and take”, and this is symbolized by the heart shape, or a feet forward bird with its head turned backward, as it carries an egg in its mouth. Sankofa is associated with the African proverb which is translated as “to go back and get which you have forgotten” (University of Denver, 2011).

April 4, 2018 marks the fiftieth year since the assassination of the “Drum Major for Justice”, the U.S. Civil and Human Rights leader, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Given the Rev. Dr. King's global social justice legacy, this Africentric historical and comparative qualitative social work research “sankofas”, i.e., as it goes back to get what has been forgotten, by examining historic and contemporary records to ascertain the current holistic “State of Black America”, and the African American community.

These workshop panelists will address these topics in a prepared statement and will lead discussions about selected primary time-series data sources, and secondary narrative material records from the 20th Century U.S. Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and from the 21st Century Black Lives Matter Movement, to illustrate the continuing deleterious impacts of racism and white supremacy, as evidenced by past and present racial disparities, poverty / income inequality, police brutality, mass incarceration and genocide.