The Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum held a family history weekend to help locals track their genealogy, preserve important documents and record family stories.

The event was hosted by those who worked on the documentary film “Acts of Reparation”, which follows the stories of Selina Lewis Davidson and Mackey Alston. Selina spoke about how finding her genealogy brought her closer to one of her lifelong friends.

“We were interested in the conversations that were arising around discussing reparations, and we decided to ask each other, ‘What does reparations mean to you?’ And we both answered those questions differently, but it both took us to our ancestral lands.”

Alicia Jones, who worked on the film, says knowing your ancestry can be important when it comes to building your future.

“My grandmother, her family were sharecroppers, and so I wanted to know more about that history, and just for my own child, like to be able to tell her the stories and accurately represent it for her; so even for myself, like I’ve definitely been inspired.”

Andrea Woods, a participant says that through learning about their ancestry, her family has been brought closer.

“It just gave me a little more insight on family as a whole. You know how important it is for us to remain strong, for us to remain close and together so that we could keep what they worked so hard for, which was us being strong and being pulling together as a family.”

To learn more about the “Acts of Reparation” documentary, click here. 

For more information on the Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum, visit their website.