27th Annual Dance and Drum Conference and Concert
Washington, DC • September 3 - 5, 2010

KanKouran’s annual African dance and drum conference offers attendees a chance to experience the sights and sounds of West Africa.  KanKouran invites you to become part of its wonderful community. Hundreds of participants from across the country will visit the nation’s capitol to partake in three days of intense workshops in traditional African dance and drum, taught by master dancers and drummers from Mali, Senegal, and Guinea. Read more…

Washington, DC • September 4, 2010 (Noon to 7:30 PM)

The DC Blues Society will host its free 22nd Annual DC Blues Festival on Saturday, September 4th at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre, 16th St. & Colorado Ave. NW, from Noon to 7:30 P.M. This year's festival will feature: Bryan Lee & the Blues Power Band; Diunna Greenleaf & the Blue Mercy Band; Cheryl Renee with Them Bones Blues Band; DougMacLeod; Big Boy Little Band and others. Read more…

The Belton Family Reunion has agreed to have a combined reunion with the Edmond-Belton Reunion to be held in Stafford, VA. The Belton Family Reunion voted at the 2010  Reunion to accept the invitation from the Edmond-Belton Reunion. The dates for this reunion are not available at this time. In 1998 and 2000, The Belton Family Reunion participated in combined hosted reunion with the Edmund Belton and Mississippi Reunion groups. Share your ideas with the family in making this reunion a memorable event using Contact Us. The hotel accommendations and the reunion planned activities will be posted when they become available. The Belton Family Reunion elections were held at the 2010 Reunion for all Board offices. The new Family Belton Board Members are now posted for your viewing. The Belton Family hopes everyone had a very nice and memorable time at our last reunion.

The Belton Family Website

The Belton Family Website mission is to assist and support the heritage of the Belton Family Reunion and provide the family with the best information resources for improving the quality of life for our family. Our successes in life are directly related to our knowledgebase and to improve our knowledgebase will require us to have the best information possible for making good decisions. The Belton Family Website is an 1-Stop information resource to support the family in making the best decisions possible for improving our lives. This 1-Stop information resource is a collection of information in a single location on this site providing an excellent starting place for building your knowledgebase with the latest information on topics i.e., Belton Family History; African American History; national and international news; African American news; health news; relationships news; entertainment news and college preparation and assistance. Read more...

Spring 2011 Program: Things to Know

The application period for the Spring 2011 program is now open. Applicants have until October 3, 2010 to apply for a Spring 2011 White House Internship. All White House Internship Program participants must be:
* A United States citizen
* At least 18 years of age on or before the first day of the internship
* Currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at a college, community college or university OR graduated in the past two years from undergraduate or graduate program at a college, community college or university
OR
* A veteran of the United States Armed forces who possesses a high school diploma or its equivalent and has served on active duty at any time over the past two years Apply Here and using online application.

                                   Portsmouth, VA • September 17-19, 2010
In 1991, the City Council of Portsmouth, Virginia affirmed its commitment to understanding cultural diversity and created the Umoja Festival. It was most appropriate the City of Portsmouth selected the Kiswahili word UMOJA as the name of its African-American Festival. Festival visitors are introduced to Africa through sights, sounds and smells. Ethnic foods such as jambalaya and larderbout, and a marketplace of sculptures, paintings, prints, baskets, quilts and other assorted hand-crafted wares contribute to the ambiance of the Festival. Nationally acclaimed musical guests perform jazz, reggae, gospel, rhythm and blues. Children's activities are a specialty at the festival. Storytelling, games and crafts with origins in several African countries are all participatory. Read more…

Staunton, VA • September 18 -19, 2010

Historic Slave Artifacts Uncovered In South Carolina

Digging for a new development yielded a variety of artifacts, some related to slaves, at Dean Hall Plantation in Berkeley County. A little bit of water and the gentle scrub of a toothbrush is all it takes to remove the soil that entombed thousands of slave artifacts for nearly a century and a half. With each cleaning, another clue to slave life at Dean Hall Plantation becomes clearer: A foot from a porcelain doll. A bone toothbrush with boar bristles. A lead weight used for fishing. These are among the roughly 50,000 artifacts that were excavated from a Dean Hall Plantation slave settlement earlier this year to make way for a new DuPont Kevlar fabric plant.

Read more and Watch video...

Rare Photo Of Slave Children Found In North Carolina Attic

An undated rare photo provided by Keya Morgan, found in a North Carolina attic, depicts two slave children, art historians say. In April, the photo was found at a moving sale in Charlotte, accompanied by a document detailing the sale of John for $1,150 in 1854 (AP Photo/Courtesy of Keya Morgan, LincolnImages.com) A haunting 150-year-old photo found in a North Carolina attic shows a young black child named John, barefoot and wearing ragged clothes, perched on a barrel next to another unidentified young boy. Art historians believe it's an extremely rare Civil War-era photograph of children who were either slaves at the time or recently emancipated. The photo, which may have been taken in the early 1860s, was a testament to a dark part of American history, said Will Stapp, a photographic historian and founding curator of the National Portrait Gallery's photographs department at the Smithsonian Institution. Read more...

Walking With Dinosaurs Worldwide Tour!

After years of planning, Walking with Dinosaurs comes to life in a stunning theatrical event. Internationally renowned designers have worked with scientists to create 15 life-size dinosaurs, including the terror of the ancient terrain, Tyrannosaurus-rex! Be amazed and thrilled as the greatest creatures ever to walk the earth return before your eyes. It’s a dazzling 10 million pound arena spectacle of unprecedented size and quality set to captivate young and old alike. Marvel at the story of their 200 million year domination of life on earth. Watch them walk. Hear the roar and see the ripple of their skin to the glint in their eye, you will know the dinosaurs have returned! So make sure you see the return of the dinosaurs! The US tour will be held in limited locations through out the country. Read more and many videos to watch…

Through The Wormhole

Hosted by Morgan Freeman, Through the Wormhole explores the deepest mysteries of existence — the questions that have puzzled mankind for eternity. What are we made of? What was there before the beginning? Are we really alone? Is there a creator? These questions have been pondered by the most brilliant minds of the human race. Now, science has evolved to the point where hard facts and evidence may be able to provide us with answers.  Read more and Watch video...

 August 9, 2010

• Belton Family Website – this website was upgraded to a later version of the Joomla CMS application with a new look and improved content. This upgrade allows new features to be added to this website. Future plans include a Genealogy Tree and a Family Business Directory. These new features will have a user interface, where users will login and enter their information directly into these applications.

• Content Improvements – new and updated content were added to this website. New information resources and improvements in the organization of existing content were made. House cleaning was performed on all content making the content as current as possible.

• NewsFinder Selector - this news selector was added to improve the organization of the respective news headlines. Each news headlines now has its own content page, where users no longer have to search thru a single news headlines page for the content you seek.
• New Information Resources – new content was added for the following information resources: African American Newspapers; Alternative News; Financial News; Consumer News; and Health News. These information resources provide an 1-Stop resources on their respective topics. These information resources provide users with a good starting place to obtain the latest information on the respective topics. New content is added to many pages on this site daily. Please check back periodically to view your favorite content.