On Friday, May 10th, La Rochelle hosted the national commemoration ceremony for the Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade, Slavery, and Their Abolitions. This ceremony brought together, notably, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, Ministers Nicole Belloubet, Minister of National Education and Youth, and Sarah El Haïry, Minister Delegate for Children, Youth and Families, former Prime Minister and President of the Slavery Memory Foundation Jean Marc Ayrault, Haitian Ambassador to Paris Josué Pierre Dahomey, Karfa Diallo, member of the Slavery Memory Foundation, regional elected officials, artists, and members of the Haitian community in France. In total, nearly 400 people attended this ceremony.

Like Bordeaux, the city of La Rochelle was, for two centuries, from the 17th to the 19th century, a slave port. It was the second largest in France, after Nantes. In his remarks, Karfa Diallo expressed satisfaction with the choice of this port city for this year's commemoration. "For several years, we have been advocating for a decentralized ceremony because the issue of the slave trade is primarily the history of slave ports in the provinces where racist ideology has been nurtured," he said.