NAACP President and CEO, Derrick Johnson, along with a cohort of NAACP leaders will travel with a delegation of 40 young students on a transformative journey to Ghana as part of the Amos C. Brown Fellowship, from July 31 to August 10.
The fully funded 10-day experience will lead 40 young scholars ages 18 and 25 from the United States to Ghana. The students will be immersed in Ghanaian culture, gain deep insights into their ancestral heritage, learn about the historical connections between decolonization and the Civil Rights Movement and discuss current global social justice movements.
The program is the first of its kind to be powered by the NAACP. Selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, the fellows, current college students and recent college graduates come from communities across the country from New York, Georgia, and California to Michigan, Utah, and Texas. For many, this journey is their first visit to the Continent. The experience will prepare them to be global-minded social change agents on issues such as health equity, legal advocacy, education, and economic empowerment.
The program is in collaboration with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The Amos C. Brown Fellowship is taking place three years after the NAACP led another delegation of more than 300 people to Ghana for the Jamestown-to-Jamestown journey during the Year of Return in 2019. This immersive journey, organized by The Adinkra Group allowed participants of all ages to retrace the path of Africans who were sold into slavery in the United States from the year 1619 and the centuries that followed.
“We are pleased to work with the NAACP again on another historic trip to Ghana after successfully conceiving and executing Jamestown to Jamestown with the single largest delegation to Ghana in 2019. Our commitment to connecting people of African descent, especially young people such as the Amos C. Brown Fellows, has only strengthened and resolved more since the pandemic,” says Diallo Sumbry, Founder of The Adinkra Group and a Ghana Tourism Ambassador.
Building on relationships formed during that journey, the NAACP continues to strengthen its ties with Ghana, and the African diaspora at large.
“In the years since the Year of Return and the social uprisings in 2020, it has become ever more apparent that the global Black community must use our collective strength, power, and resilience to fight against oppression at every level, and at every corner of the world,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP President, and CEO. “NAACP remains committed to leading that charge and will do so by providing more opportunities for business investments, diaspora partnerships, and cultural experiences such as the Amos C. Brown Fellowship.”
Over the past three years, the NAACP has become increasingly invested in the African community, highlighting its music and culture through the NAACP Image Awards, and advocating for immigrant rights through its landmark supreme court win in NAACP v. Trump, which solidified the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
In 2020, the NAACP was one of the first major U.S. civil rights organizations to lend its support to the #EndSars movement, which spoke out against police brutality in Nigeria.
