Roughly 45 cadets in The Cultural Affairs Seminar (CAS) and the African American Arts Forum (AAAF) took a joint trip to visit Washington D.C. They Participated in a tour of the US Capitol Building and received a closed-door briefing/Q&A with senior members of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s staff. The following day they went to Arlington National Cemetery to observed the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and attended a ceremony commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the 6th Army Group’s campaign in Europe.
Cadets also visited the newly opened National Museum for African American History and Culture. As a final stop, cadets visited “the yard” at Howard University, which Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “the Mecca of Black America” in his book Between the World and Me. There, the group discussed deep topics ranging from double consciousness to the significant of self-identity at West Point and the Army.