On Saturday, August 6; 2022 a local nonprofit - Kemetic Cultural Science and System of Unity (KCSSU) sponsored 31 school age students to an overnight field trip to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. Executive Director, Kevin Kip Bobbitt,  and the KCSSU team works to ensure that children in Southeast Raleigh are exposed to history and travel.

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KCSSU is an Afrikan-centered culturally-based organization that understands the importance of the knowledge of self and knowing one’s true culture, history, values, and traditions. KCSSU realizes and recognizes that the majority of the issues and problems faced by Afrikan people throughout the diaspora (and even on the continent), include, but are not limited to, self-hate, Afrikan-on-Afrikan violence, lack of self-motivation, lack of self-love, disrespect, and others, all stem from a lack of self-knowledge. Brother Bobbitt felt that exposing the youth of Southeast Raleigh to the architectural genius of Phil Freelon, elevation in spirit would occur; inspiring the children to follow their higher self into greatness.

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The trip begin before the break of dawn when the KCSSU bus rolled through the streets of Southeast Raleigh picking up students from home. The bus arrived in the parking lot of Roses on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd around 4:30a.m. Children got off the bus and walked right into a hot breakfast of chicken biscuits and hash browns while they waited for the fifty-five passenger charter bus to arrive. Parents greeted each other while sleepy children gathered luggage in preparation for the four hour bus ride to the nations capital. The bus arrived as scheduled to load chaperones and children. Brother Bobbitt  began the trip by calling on his mother Matriarch, Janie W. Green to say a word of prayer. Brother Bobbitt called the children to attention with the african word "ogo" which means listen up, listen attentively the children respond with "omay" which means we are listening. 

National Museum of African American History & CultureKCSSU is an Afrikan-centered culturally-based organization that understands the importance of the knowledge of self and knowing one’s true culture, history, values, and traditions. KCSSU realizes and recognizes that the majority of the issues and problems faced by Afrikan people throughout the diaspora (and even on the continent), include, but are not limited to, self-hate, Afrikan-on-Afrikan violence, lack of self-motivation, lack of self-love, disrespect, and others, all stem from a lack of self-knowledge.

KCSSU has numerous Afrikan-centered programs which focus on teaching all age groups the values of MA’AT, which embody the principles of truth, justice, order, balance, harmony, reciprocity, and righteousness. These principles help to develop an Afikan-centered consciousness in the individual and they help to restore love, unity, peace, and order in our families and communities. The "ogo-omay" call and response seemed to calm to the passengers from the morning hustle and bustle of breakfast, loading and boarding.

National Museum of Natural historyKCSSU visits the National Museum of Natural history
 

The four hour bus ride seemed to be a breeze to everyone on the trip as they slept their way to the nations capital. Participants arrived in the District of Columbia around 9:30a.m. and received a snack bag in front of the National Museum of Natural History.  Brother Bobbitt is keenly aware of how to wake the children up before exploring the four story museum that records the journey of enslaved African brought to America.  While parent volunteers were busy hydrating the children, Brother Bobbitt expresses his desire the to expand his summer excursions to Africa.  "I believe it is important for black children to understand the teachings of the original people to elevate to a higher self" exclaims Bobbitt has he instructs his team to gather the children to board the bus.  "KCSSU is standing in the gap for children and we are encouraging others to assist with their time, talent, and or resources to expose these children to the Motherland Summer 2023" asserted Brother Bobbitt as the happily fed children boarded the bus.

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Upon arrival students learned how a local architect of the Raleigh, Durham community, Phil Freelon won the international competition to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa, Freelon, graduated from North Carolina State University's College of Design with a Bachelor of Environmental Design in Architecture in 1975 and earned his Master of Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) two years later. Freelon was tasked with taking the pain, triumph, and perserverance of the African American experience and forming it into a structure. The team looked to African sources, such as Yoruban architecture, for inspiration. They sought to connect the building’s design to the geographic and cultural roots of African Americans. Their choice to envelop the building in bronze-colored lattice work also references the contributions of enslaved and free Black metalworkers in the American South. Their goal was to make the museum an extension of its contents, and an expression of the stories told inside of the museum.