Selma Institute

07/21/2026

Dorothy Jackson is a 94-year-old woman fighting to stop a massive data center from disturbing a centuries-old cemetery where her enslaved ancestors are buried.

"I don't like that idea," Jackson said. "I don't think it's right to dig up the remains of people who were slaves."

Jackson is an indirect descendant of Emanuel Johnson, an enslaved man from Stafford County, Virginia.

A 94-year-old woman is urging leaders to protect a centuries-old cemetery from a proposed data center, fearing the disturbance of her enslaved ancestors' graves.

07/19/2026

It is time to know them.
It is time to honor them.
The Selma Institute

07/09/2026

07/04/2026

1st confirmed descendants of enslaved person who helped build White House speak to ABC News

Calvert Ambush helped build the North Portico of the White House in 1829.

ABC News and American Ancestors found the first confirmed living descendants of an enslaved individual who helped build the White House.

06/24/2026

A federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration can remove and replace an exhibit at the President’s House site that detailed the lives of the nine enslaved people Washington held while living in Philadelphia during his presidency.

The proposed new display acknowledges that Washington and John Adams used enslaved labor and references Washington’s signing of the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act. It does not, however, carry the same direct focus on the people enslaved at the President’s House or the violence of the system that kept them there.

Source: The Grio / /

06/21/2026

The Selma Institute celebrated , also known as Emancipation Day and Freedom Day at Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City.

Thank you to everyone that stopped by our booth. We were delighted to be able to speak to so many of you about the Selma Institute, our mission, and plans.

Remember to stay engaged as we move forward in realizing the vision that connects living descendants with their ancestors.

The festival, held at The Gateway, is in its sixth year.

06/20/2026

As a graduate student at the College of Charleston, Lauren Davila found an ad for the auction of 600 enslaved people. A ProPublica story last year revealed her discovery and unearthed the identity of the family responsible for the sale.

06/18/2026

Come Celebrate with the Selma Institute at the Gateway June 19, 2026

06/14/2026

"U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston issued a preliminary injunction at the behest of groups representing park conservationists, historians and scientists, who argued that the U.S. Department of the Interior has been engaged in a “sustained campaign to erase history and undermine science.”"

President Donald Trump last year directed the Interior Department to make changes to parks, monuments and memorials to address any “false revision of history.”

03/25/2026

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, ​speaking in New York on Tuesday, criticized the U.S. administration for what he described as normalizing the ‌erasure of Black history, warning that such policies could have ripple effects elsewhere.