MCJ 2023 DC Reunion Reflections

Hey family, we trust everyone made it home safely from our annual lovefest, aka MCJ Family Reunion. Wow, just wow! Now every family reunion is special, each one is tons of fun and each one is memorable for various reasons and in various ways. But this one here, MCJ 2023 in Washington D.C. put on by our very own superwoman Ms. Tameka Law and team, was in my opinion in a league of its own. Why do I say that, well since you asked I'd be glad to enumerate.

First, we all had high expectations already because of the location, Washington, DC. Undoubtedly the location had considerable impact on the record turnout in numbers of attendees at the reunion (right at 250 people). With the many historical sites to see, a premier African American University (Howard), a subway system to get you around, tons of restaurants and shopping, we were all just excited to be there. We were fortunate enough to arrive early so we were able to do three tours total including Howard University, the Pentagon, and of course the highlight of tours, the African American Museum.

Next, when you look at the itinerary our host Tameka put together for us, it was singularly focused on advancing our knowledge of how we're related, our family ties. That inspirational idea was reflected not only in our itinerary, but also in this years tee shirt design, a truly classic design by our esteemed artist, Lee Collins that quickly sold out. We had our usual productive business meeting after breakfast Sat. morning and we have now locked down our next seven locations for the reunion! In order they are: Phoenix 2024, Chicago 2025, Indianapolis 2026, Memphis 2027, New Orleans 2028, Austin 2029, Las Vegas 2030.

Following breakfast and the business meeting, we headed over to the subway for the ride over to the still fairly new National Museum of African American History and Culture and it was a very moving experience. Even touring roughly only half of the museum, checking out the food served there in the soul food cafe, which was actually very good, we were able to get back to the hotel well before our family tree session at 7:00. The family tree session was incredible and represented the result of a serious amount of work to put those visuals together and do it in a way that allowed family members to update their branches of the tree on the spot. Shout out to Carolyn, Vincent, Judith, Terrilyn and Tameka for their hard work, particularly Carolyn's previous work on the booklet produced and shared at the reunion in Texas. Our goal is to get this information, the entire family tree to everyone in some form whether it be access to ancestry.com or somehow on our MCJ website. Wouldn't that be amazing!

For those who were able to make it to church, Sunday service at the historic Alfred Street Baptist church was spiritually alive and included a moving sermon by pastor Rev, Dr. Howard John Wesley. Our main event was an all white affair brunch on Sunday at noon and it was packed with excitement. We were treated to a very talented performer (Asia B (sp) and band) that both Tameka and Jali performed with at various times and they rocked the house! The young people were all excited to receive their scholarship awards after submitting their report cards to our Dean of Scholarships Pamela Johnson Fields and she worked very hard to create the roster of awards and certificates for the scholarship recipients. Of course you guys stepped up big as usual to quickly raise the funds (over $3,100.00) for the scholarships including a generous $500.00 contribution from the tee shirts and we raised approximately another $800.00 for cost overages due to the extra number of attendees (more on that later).

So based on content and programming this reunion achieved some very unique and meaningful things along with a whole lot of fun and the usual after hour shenanigans (what happens at the reunion stays at.....). We'll give our host Tameka some recuperating time, a week or so should do it, and we'll look for her wrap up that includes the financials and official attendance numbers. I'll also attach the report from Pam, our Dean Of Scholarships along with a few notes from the business meeting which includes a reunion dues increase and we'll close out this years reunion. That's about it fam, just a few reflections while they're still fresh and you can look for the final report in the next post.

Much Love,

MCJ Reunion Planning Committee.