Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards says peo­ple of African de­scent must know and un­der­stand their his­to­ry and recog­nise that their an­ces­tors have made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to world his­to­ry in many as­pects of hu­man en­deav­our. He said they must be mind­ful that they are no less than any oth­er race and should be in­spired by the records of writ­ten or oral his­to­ry and not yield their en­ti­tle­ments as hu­man be­ings in any as­pect.

This formed part of the Pres­i­dent's Eman­ci­pa­tion Day mes­sage to the na­tion. Richards said, "While rit­u­al is as­so­ci­at­ed with the pro­ceed­ings of the day, the ob­ser­va­tion of this im­por­tant na­tion­al hol­i­day should be any­thing but rit­u­al­is­tic." He said the In­ter­na­tion­al Year for Peo­ple of African De­scent can be re­gard­ed as hav­ing done some good if it suc­ceed­ed in chang­ing the mind­set of those who prac­tise dis­crim­i­na­tion on the ba­sis of their per­cep­tion of the su­pe­ri­or­i­ty or in­fe­ri­or­i­ty of one race vis-a-vis an­oth­er.

He said, "That is one side of the coin and old habits die hard. On the oth­er hand, peo­ple of African de­scent must know and un­der­stand their his­to­ry and recog­nise that their an­ces­tors have made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to world his­to­ry." The Pres­i­dent added, "In Trinidad and To­ba­go, as I have sug­gest­ed be­fore, we are not im­mune to the neg­a­tive side of race re­la­tions, but, if we are will­ing, we are well able to take the high road and, with dig­ni­ty and aplomb, walk in the se­cu­ri­ty of free peo­ple.