Reaching Back to March Forward
Our extended family came from every direction—Texas, Michigan, Florida, and Georgia; Virginia, Illinois, and California; from the East Coast, too, and across other parts of the U.S.A. — and for four days last weekend, we claimed Manhattan as our ground to stomp the blues.
The photographs that follow trace those days: the first embraces at the Westin Grand Central, the Circle Line cruise sailing through the Big Apple, the bus rolling through Harlem while cousins pressed close to the windows to see famed places in Harlem history, while hearing a narration of where our family fit into that history. Those buses stopped at Abyssinian Baptist Church and Grant’s Tomb in Morningside Heights to snap shots in our reunion t-shirts.
Elders held court. Children learned names we hope they'll carry for decades. Somewhere between the banquet speeches, the clapping, the delicious meal, and the after-dinner dancing at the historic Riverside Church, five generations became one in the spirit of our remembered ancestors and the generations to come.
Our family’s progenitors, Mimmie Carter-Hightower and George Hightower Sr., never saw this city, never saw these faces. But every frame here is part of their legacy, and proof that reaching back is how a Black American family finds the strength to march forward in these turbulent times.
On day one, with family coming from far and wide to register and meet-and-greet at the Westin Grand Central hotel, Jewel and I shared time with my favorite cousin, Angelyn Johnson.
On the Circle Line Cruise.
A photo within a photo, with family from Georgia and California, after getting of the bus to walk to Abyssinian Baptist Church.
The 2026 Hightower Family Reunion organizers: myself, Lawrence Hightower, and Kemp J. Reaves.
Stylin’ in the Westin lobby, before heading to our banquet, Horace Thomas Jr. (my dad), Carol and Charles Holmes (hosts of the 2022 reunion in Dallas, TX, and Marian Solomon Gaines (one of the hosts of the 2017 reunion in Waycross, GA).
Beginning the banquet in the 9th floor tower at Riverside Church.
Passing the mic to my daughter, Kaya Thomas Wilson, who shared a poem by Ben Okri with the family.
Pamela Elizabeth Riddick, who on Sunday gave the sermon at our morning prayer service in her capacity as a Minister of the Gospel.
Zaneta and Daniel Oska with their son Jaxson. Zaneta was a key member of the reunion committee who hosted the reunion in Atlanta in 2024.
Lydell Woods, a proud member of the 2019 host committee in Detroit, sharing our 160+ year history as a family.
Rev. Norman Thomas Jr., also a member of the Atlanta host committee in 2024, giving an eloquent, soulful keynote.
Banquet family photo.
Closing out the banquet, groovin’ and stompin’ the blues through family joy, gathering the strength to march forward.