Inaugural International Liberation Gala to highlight history between Winston-Salem and Liberia, West Africa President of Liberia to attend as guest speaker

The Liberian Organization of the Piedmont (LOP) will hold its inaugural International Liberation Gala, “Champions of Freedom,” at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, at the M.C. Benton Convention Center, 301 W. Fifth St., in Winston-Salem. Special guest speaker will be His Excellency Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr., President of the Republic of Liberia, West Africa. The gala will be Boakai’s third visit to the United States after being sworn in this year as the 26th president of Liberia. He was vice president from 2006-2018 under Liberia’s first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Other dignitaries of Liberia expected to attend the gala are Monrovia’s Mayor, John-Charuk Siafa; the Minister of Education, Dr. Jarso Maley Jallah; and the chairman of the Liberian National Investment Commission, Jeff B. Blibo. The International Liberation Gala commemorates the release of enslaved Africans from Salem, North Carolina,, their return to Liberia, and the present-day collaboration between the two cities. Freed slaves from Winston-Salem were among the first settlers of Liberia. The connection between Salem  and Liberia began in 1836 when Moravian physician Dr. Frederick Henry Schumann facilitated the return of his 17 freed slaves plus six others, back to Liberia as part of the American Colonization Society’s program...