Washington Wizards' Black History Month Celebration
As part of the Washington Wizards’ Black History Month celebration “Not Bound by One Month”, the team will recognize and celebrate the achievements, influence, and talents of individuals and organizations from the DMV area. As part of the campaign, Washington will highlight the lasting impact Benjamin Banneker has had on the District.
On Monday, February 26, Benjamin Banneker Academic High School will host an assembly for students to learn, celebrate, and honor Banneker’s legacy. Students will hear from Rachel Jamison Webster, a collateral descendant of Banneker through his sister, Jemima, and author of “Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family.” Webster’s book, which was published in 2023, shares the story of Banneker, a scientist, mathematician, astronomer, and writer, by researching eleven generations of family history. The event will take place from 2:15 p.m.-3:15 p.m.
Rachel Jamison Webster is Professor of Creative Writing in the English Department of Northwestern University and author of Benjamin Banneker and Us, which was chosen as a Best Book of 2023 by The New Yorker
In 1791, Banneker joined Andrew Ellicott and a team of surveyors to place forty stone markers to line the original boundary of Washington, D.C.
In addition to Webster, Banneker’s collateral descendants, Edie Lee Harris and Robert Lett, will be in attendance. Wizards Senior Vice President of Monumental Basketball, John Thompson III will also be present.
Edie worked with other griots in the family and did extensive research to compile nearly 40 years of genealogy and documented family histories. Robert Lett is a family historian who was entrusted by the elders with the Banneker-Lett oral and recorded histories, which he generously shared as part of this book.
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