Record-CourierRecord-CourierFebruary 2, 2015

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The history of African American History Month

Every February, Amer-icans celebrate National African American Histo-ry Month. African Amer-icans have made many notable contributions to the United States over the years, and those achievements are a fo-cal point of celebrations throughout the month of February.

Despite the many contributions of African Americans, black histo-ry was largely overlooked until the 20th century. National African Ameri-can History Month, once known as Black History Month, is the result of an idea from noted historian

Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans.

While the concept of a time devoted to honoring African American histo-ry evolved as early as the mid-19th century, when the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, more for-mal celebrations started as “Negro History Week” during the 1960s civil rights movement. Such

celebrations ultimately grew and became more widely recognized.

February was chosen to be the month to com-memorate African Amer-ican history because it already featured the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two individu-als instrumental in fur-thering the antislavery movement. In 1976, Pres-ident Gerald R. Ford of-ficially recognized Black History Month, calling on the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected ac-complishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

METRO CREATIVE CONNECTIONSFebruary was chosen to be the month because it featured the birthdays of Abraham Lin-coln and Frederick Douglass, both important in the anti-slavery movement.

PORTAGE NAACP OFFICERS SWORN IN

SUBMITTED PHOTO

New officers for the Portage County Chapter of the NAACP were recently sworn in for 2015. Taking their oaths of office are, from left, Renee Romine, secretary; Jim Geisey, trea-

surer; Arthur Johnson, second vice president; Eddie Renfroe, first vice president; and Dr. Geraldine Hayes-Nelson, president. Ad-ministering the oath was Portage County Auditor Janet Esposito.

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Black History MonthWin a $50.00 Cash Prize

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Kent, OH 44240Entries must be received by Friday 2/28/15.

1. Which U.S. President officially recognized Black History Month?

2. Why was February chosen to celebrate it?

3. Who was recently named president of the Portage County NAACP?

4. Which two NAACP chapters merged to form the Portage County chapter?

5. What is the name of the Portage NAACP full scholarship to Kent State University?

6. Who is speaking on Feb. 25 at Kent State University?

7. What movie is driving interest in visiting an Alabama city?

8. The father of which abolitionist leader was likely a white plantation owner?

9. What was Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth name?

10. Who was the Portage County NAACP president in 1991?

Sponsored by PARTA, NAACP & Record-CourierOne entry per person with parental consent if under 18. Record-Courier and PARTA employees and their families are not eligible to win. All entries must be received no later than 5:00PM, Friday February 28, 2015. Three winners will be chosen at random from all entries with the most correct answers. Each winner will receive one $50 cash prize. Winners will be notified by phone, and their names and photos will be published in the Record-Courier after all winners are notified. Neither this newspaper nor any co-sponsors is responsible for any lost, late, misdirected, incomplete or illegible entries. Entries will become the property of the Record-Courier and judge’s decision of the most correct answers is final. No purchase necessary to enter.

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‘Education is the most important’

The Portage County chap-ter of the National Associa-tion for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in the 1970s, a merger of sep-arate chapters in Kent and Ravenna that had existed for decades.

The local NAACP, both as separate Kent and Raven-na chapters and as a county-wide organization, has been active in working for an end to discrimination on all fronts.

Dr. Geraldine Hayes-Nel-son recently succeeded Rev. Eddie Renfroe as president of the Portage County chapter. Renfroe, who has served sev-eral, who became vice pres-ident for 2015. Jim Geisey remains as treasurer and Marcia Grair is secretary.

Other past presidents in-clude Raymond Moore, Claude Moore and Richard Anderson.

Joshua Brown, who was a member of Kent City Coun-cil and a longtime employ-ee of the Kent City Schools, served as president of the Kent branch and later as vice president of the county chap-ter.

The county chapter is a member of the Ohio Confer-ence of the national NAACP. Founded Feb. 12, 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. Its mem-bers throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil

rights in their commu-nities.

The Portage chapter sponsors several events each year, including the Freedom Fund celebra-tion and has been spon-soring the Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast for more than 20 years.

The Freedom Fund cele-bration honors people for their activities in commu-nity building, education and social justice and ad-vocacy for education ex-cellence.

The chapter also has an annual scholarship program each May. Frank Hairston, ed-ucation chair for the chapter, said the Por-tage chapter is “prob-ably the only NAACP branch” to sponsor a scholarship for a non-minority high school student. The schol-arship is named in honor of Nancy and Bruce Hansford who were decades-long members and supporters of the local chapter.

“Our goal is to keep peo-ple informed of the nation-al interests of the NAACP,” Hairston said. “But here in Portage we have really tak-en on the scholarships to get young people to go to col-lege. Education is the most important thing.” The chap-ter awards several $1,000 and $500 scholarships each year

along with the Albert Peo-ples Scholarship, a full schol-arship to Kent State Uni-versity.

The award is named for Albert Peoples, who was a

founding member of the Por-tage NAACP and a mentor to many African-Americans in Portage County, Hairston said. In his obituary, it was noted that Mr. Peoples was a

dedicated NAACP member who “focused his efforts on improving employment op-portunities for minorities, particularly within the ranks of organized labor.”

By MIKE SEVER | STAFF WRITER

n PORTAGE NAACP, FOUNDED IN THE 1970S, SPONSORS SCHOLARSHIPS AND EVENTS

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Portage NAACP officers in 1991 were, from left Treasurer Sleda Brown of Kent, the Rev. Bobby Grant of New Mount Calvary Baptist Church, secretary Annie

L. Anderson of Ravenna and president Richard Anderson of Ravenna.

NAACP board members in 1991 included, from left, Renea Spane of Ravenna, Robin Turner of Kent, and Shelley Evans of Kent. They were welcomed by Vice President Josh Brown of Kent.

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Reflection and empowerment

In the month of Febru-ary, members of Black Unit-ed Students at Kent State University plan to uplift the black community and hon-or the month of reflection, service and empowerment.

Several events are sched-uled to mark the occasion of Black History Month, starting with a poetry work-shop at 3 p.m. Thursday, hosted by the Sister Out-sider Poetry duo, made up of acclaimed slam poets Dominque Christina and Denice Frohman. The work-shop, titled “What Does it All Mean?” will be in Oscar Ritchie Hall’s Multi-purpose room on KSU’s main cam-pus. Christina and Frohm-an have appeared on several national poetry slam stages and hold six championships between them.

Sister Outsider uses per-formance poetry as a tool for social conversation and cultural dialogue on iden-tity, inclusion, race, gender, violence and LGBT issues.

Following the poetry and writing workshop, Sister Outsider will perform their thought-provoking poetry at from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the Kiva at the KSU Stu-dent Center.

K S U ’ s Kiva will also host author and educa-tor Dr. Steve Perry at 7 p.m. Feb. 25. Perry is the founder and principal of the Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., as well as a regular contributor

and TV personality on MS-NBC and CNN.

“Dr. Perry is one of the leaders in American Edu-cation right now,” said BUS President Matthew Thomp-son.

In addition to the two special guest appearances planned for Black History Month, Thompson said BUS members will dedicate their time in February to empow-ering the black student com-

munity in smaller ways.“This year for us, we defi-

nitely want to bring the fo-cus to students on campus to highlight the black com-munity and individual stu-dents within our community on campus and uplift them in their talent and academic work and their organizing,” Thompson said. “We want to uplift each other and make sure we’re coming together and strengthening our com-

munity and celebrating each other’s accomplishments.”

KSU kicked off Black His-tory Month with a week-long celebration of Dr. Martin Lu-ther King Day, with involved several student engagement events and a keynote speech by renowned civil rights leader Julian Bond on Jan. 22. During his talk, Bond re-minded nearly 1,000 attend-ees that the struggle for ra-cial equality is not yet over

and challenged the next gen-eration of civil rights activ-ists to carry on the fight.

While taking time to com-memorate the accomplish-ments of historic civil rights leaders during Black History Month is important, Thomp-son said uplifting the current generation is equally vital.

“We understand the his-torical perspective and we definitely want to pay hom-age to the work that has been done through Dr. Mar-tin Luther King (and others) ... and we definitely want to uplift them as well in the work they’ve done, but I think it’s important for us to celebrate each other as well,” Thompson said. “We have a lot of talented, smart and beautiful students here on campus and we want to make sure we’re empower-ing them throughout the month of February.”

Contact this reporter at choward@recordpub.com or 330-298-1126

By CONNER HOWARD | STAFF WRITER

ROBERT J. LUCAS/RECORD-COURIER FILE PHOTOBlack United Students at Kent State University marched down the Lester A. Lefton Esplanade to raise awareness during the university’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in January.

n BLACK UNITED STUDENTS AT KSU HOLDING EVENTS THROUGHOUT FEBRUARY

SUBMITTED PHOTOA poetry workshop at 3 p.m. Thursday will hosted by the Sister Outsider Poetry duo — Dominque Christina and Denice Frohman. The workshop, titled “What Does it All Mean?” will be in Oscar Ritchie Hall’s multi-purpose room.

PERRY

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Hayes-Nelson named Portage NAACP headGeraldine

H a y e s - N e l -son, execu-tive director of employee engagement, climate and outreach in Kent State University’s Division of Human Resourc-es, has been named presi-dent of the Portage County NAACP. Portage County Au-ditor Janet Esposito swore her in at a ceremony earlier this month.

Hayes-Nelson, who has

been deeply involved with the Portage County NAACP for years, was pleasantly surprised by the honor but quickly thought of the work that needs to be done.

“I love the NAACP, but in light of today’s times, I thought to myself, ‘This is go-ing to take some work,’” she said with a laugh. “It’s a chal-lenging time, and as I began to contemplate more, what really set in is that this is all about us working together for justice and equality.”

In her employee engage-ment role, Hayes-Nelson

brings together the Division of Human Resources in col-laboration with campus divi-sions and units in the deliv-ery of employee appreciation and recognition programs. As an educator, Hayes-Nel-son is proactive in engaging higher education and Ohio citizens at all levels in work-ing together for change, and seeks avenues to address discrimination and social in-justice.

Hayes-Nelson, who joined KSU in 1993, has held various leadership roles, including serving as a board member

of the Kent State President’s Commission on Inclusion, President of the Ohio Edu-cation Association Program Personnel for the Federal TRIO programs, and chair of the Educational Commit-tee of the Portage County NAACP, among many others. She has been the recipient of numerous honors including the Portage County NAACP Improving Educational Ex-cellence Award.

Despite daunting challeng-es, Hayes-Nelson is anxious to get to work. She is committed to the overall mission of the

NAACP. She joins the contin-ued struggle to eradicate the tough issues related to rac-ism, sexism, classism, and all the injustices that impact the forward progress of equality and justice for all mankind.

“At the recent MLK prayer breakfast, we had nearly 20 Portage County ministers of all faiths come together,” she said. “To me, that was im-portant because our future is with the young people, so working through faith-based organizations and their youth is one way to break down bar-riers.”

HAYES-NELSON

Movie ‘Selma’ sparks interest in historic Ala. citySELMA, Ala. — The

50th anniversary of the civil rights marches in Selma and the movie that tells the story are expected to bring thou-sands of visitors to this historic Alabama city this year.

Visitors can still walk across the bridge where voting rights marchers were beaten in 1965 and see the churches where they organized protests.

“There are certain place names in American history where significant, history-making events took place, like Gettys-burg, Valley Forge and Vicksburg, and I think because of this film, Sel-ma becomes one of the place names that stands as a significant milestone in American history,” Al-abama tourism director Lee Sentell said.

Oprah Winfrey, other actors from “Selma” and hundreds more marched to the city’s Edmund

Pettus Bridge this past weekend on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But a bigger event is expected to attract more than 40,000 people — in-cluding present and for-mer government officials — in Selma March 5-9 for the annual Bridge Cross-ing Jubilee, including a walk across the bridge March 8.

The event marks the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday,” when law enforcement used billy clubs and tear gas to rout marchers intent on walking 50 miles (80 kilometers) to Montgom-ery on March 7, 1965, to seek the right for blacks to register to vote. A new march, led by Martin Luther King Jr., began March 21, 1965, and ar-rived in Montgomery on March 25, with the crowd swelling to 25,000 by the time they reached the Capitol. Those events and others helped lead to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which opened Southern poll-

ing places to millions of blacks and ended all-white rule in the South.

The movie “Selma” won Oscar nominations for best picture and best song.

Today, the bridge and adjoining downtown business district look much as they did in 1965, except many storefronts are empty and govern-ment buildings are occu-pied largely by African-American officials.

Attractions related to the protests are all within walking distance of the bridge. They in-clude the First Baptist Church, where many pro-tests were organized, and Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, where march-ers congregated before going to the bridge and where they sought safety after being beaten.

Near the bridge, a free tour of an interpretative center built by the Na-tional Park Service of-fers photographs of the events and emotion-al video interviews with

people who were on both sides of the issues.

Nearby is the Ancient Africa, Enslavement and Civil War Museum, where visitors can see how slaves were cap-tured, sold and exploit-ed, including a depiction of what it was like to be on a slave ship bound for America.

“You have to know about slavery to know why we didn’t have the right to vote,” said Faya

Rose Toure, one of the museum’s founders.

Then tourists can re-trace history by walk-ing across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to a park and the National Vot-ing Rights Museum on the opposite side. Mu-seum artifacts include surveillance photos tak-en by state police. One feature that stands out is the white plaster foot-prints of the largely un-known participants in

the march and their per-sonal stories about being part of history, from fac-ing danger to treating blistered feet.

“Everybody has seen pictures of Dr. King lead-ing the march. Those people behind him are what we are focusing on,” historian Sam Walk-er said.

State Sen. Hank Sand-ers, Selma’s first black senator since Recon-struction and a found-er of the National Vot-ing Rights Museum, said Selma’s location an hour’s drive west of In-terstate 65, a major route to Gulf Coast beaches, will help attract more vis-itors to the museum this spring and summer.

After touring Selma, visitors can drive the march route along U.S. 80 to the halfway point in White Hall, where the Park Service has a much larger interpretative cen-ter about the events. Then they can complete the 50-mile trip to Mont-gomery.

By PHILLIP RAWLS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

AP FILE PHOTOMartin Luther King, Jr. and his civil rights marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on March 21, 1965, heading for the capitol in Montgomery.

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Abolitionist would fight for range of causesInfluential and inspiration-

al figures abound throughout African-American history. One of the more notable such fig-ures is the abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery but would grow up to become a noted in-tellectual and ardent support-er of causes ranging from the abolition of slavery to women’s rights to Irish rule.

Born in Talbot County, Maryland around 1818 (the exact year of Douglass’ birth is unknown), Douglass’ mother was a slave and his father likely a white plantation owner. Dou-glass was separated from his mother at a very young age, a practice that was not uncom-

mon at the time, and sent to live with his maternal grand-mother, Betty Bailey. That ar-

rangement did not last long, as Douglass was soon living in the home of a white plantation owner, who may or may not have been Douglass’ father.

Douglass eventually found himself living in Baltimore with Hugh and Sophia Auld, the latter of whom would begin to teach the young Frederick Douglass the alphabet, ignor-ing the ban on teaching slaves.

Once Douglass learned to read, he became an avid read-er, reading newspapers and political writings that would help shape his anti-slavery stance in the years to come. In addition, Douglass would use his literacy to help other slaves follow in his footsteps, teach-

ing them to read and write at a weekly church service.

In 1833, Douglass was tak-en from Hugh Auld and re-turned to work for Thomas Auld, who would send the teenaged Douglass to notori-ous “slave-breaker” Edward Covey, who routinely and vi-ciously abused Douglass un-til a physical confrontation between the two would force Covey to stop abusing Doug-lass once and for all.

In 1838, desperate to flee slavery, Douglass finally suc-ceeded in doing so on his third attempt, when he escaped on a train using a false identifica-tion with the help of a wom-an named Anna Murray, who

would soon become Doug-lass’ wife.

The couple would eventually settle in Massachusetts, where Douglass would become heav-ily involved in the abolitionist movement, sharing his story.

Douglass’ status as a run-away slave still put him in dan-ger of being recaptured, a re-ality that forced Douglass to depart for Ireland, where he would spend two years speak-ing of the ills of slavery.

Upon his return to the Unit-ed States, Douglass became even more heavily involved in the abolitionist movement, producing abolitionist news-papers and supporting wom-en’s rights.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

The life of Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. played a

pivotal role in race relations in the United States for nearly a decade. He helped secure the end of legal segregation of African-American citizens, created the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and served as a source of inspiration for black individuals across the globe.

Dr. King did not begin his life as a crusader or public figure. He had much more modest begin-nings in rural Atlanta. Born Mi-chael King, Jr., he was the mid-dle child of Michael King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. Michael King, Sr. served as pastor of Eb-enezer Baptist Church upon the death of his father-in-law, who was the church’s prior pastor. At this point, the elder king decided to change his name to Martin Luther to honor the famed Protestant re-ligious leader. His son soon decid-ed to adopt the name as well.

A religious family, the Kings tried to shield their children from the realities of racism that were alive and well in the country. They believed racism and segregation to be an affront to God’s will, and Martin, Sr. discouraged separation of class and taught these lessons to his children. Those lessons res-

onated with Martin, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. became

directly involved in the civil rights movement after the head of the lo-cal NAACP chapter in Montgom-ery met with him on the night that Rosa Parks was arrested for fail-ure to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. Dr. King helped institute the Montgomery Bus Boycott. During this time, Afri-can-Americans refused to ride the public bus system in Montgomery. The boycott lasted 382 days. Dur-ing that time, Dr. King’s home was bombed due to his involvement in the boycott, and he was arrested for conspiracy. His work paid off on December 21, 1956, when the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on public transporta-tion was illegal.

Dr. King promoted nonviolent protests against unfairness to the African-American communi-ty, urging civil disobedience and peaceful protests, tenets that formed the basis for the South-ern Christian Leadership Confer-ence, or SCLC, which he led. He participated in numerous nonvi-olent protests and was arrested several times. During one stint in jail, he penned his famous, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

Dr. King established a relation-ship with fellow African-Amer-ican civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who shared similar in-terests, including the teachings of Gandhi. Rustin would serve as King’s mentor and also was the main organizer of the March on Washington that took place on August 28, 1963. Approximately 250,000 demonstrators were in-volved in the march, and it was the largest demonstration in the nation’s capital up to that time. In front of the Lincoln Memori-al, Dr. King issued his famed “I Have a Dream” speech. He later met with President John F. Ken-nedy to appeal for greater rights for African-Americans and called for an end of segregation.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. monument is in Washington, D.C.

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A CENTURY OF BLACK LIFE, HISTORY AND CULTURE

Over the past century, African American life, history, and culture have become major forces in the United States and the world. In 1915, few could have imagined that the global community would appreciate African Americans in music, art, and literature. Fewer still could have predicted the prominence achieved by African Americans, as well as other people of African descent, in shaping world politics, war, and diplomacy.This February, we pause to remember these gifts and to celebrate the American heritage that benefitted for these contributions.

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TTY: 330-676-5100

The Portage Area RegionalTransportation Authority

Celebrates Black History Monthby honoring the

African American Men and Women who made a great impact on our

history in sports.

Muhammad AliCassius Marcellus Clay, Jr was born in Lou-isville, Kentucky on January 17, 1942. He was named after his father, Cassius Mar-cellus Clay, Sr. Muhammad Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964.  Ali was a professional boxer and social activist. He was the first fighter to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions. Nicknamed “The Greatest”, Ali was involved in several historic boxing matches and defended his title 19 times. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Fighting for a total of 61 fights, Muham-mad Ali’s last fight took place in 1981.

Alice CoachmanThe first female African American selected for the U.S. Olympic team, Alice Coachman became the first black woman of any nationality to win a gold medal at the Olympics with her victory was in the high jump at the 1948 Summer Games in London. Alice Coachman paved the way for hundreds of black fe-male Olympic champions. She was the only American woman to win a gold medal at the 1948 games. Her combination Olympic gold medal and 10 consecutive US championships have never been duplicated.

Julius ErvingNicknamed, Dr. J., Julius Erving is a retired African American professional basketball player. A Basketball Hall of Famer, he was the dominant player of his era, changing the way the game was played. A wizard with the ball, Julius Erving performing feats like midair spins and whirls punctu-ated by powerful slam dunks. Erving was one of the first players to make extempo-raneous individual expression an integral part of the game, setting the style of play that would prevail in the decades to fol-low. In his five ABA (American Basketball Association) league seasons, Erving won two championships, three MVP trophies, and three scoring titles.

Serena WilliamsSerena Williams is considered to be one of the greatest women’s tennis play-ers of all-time in a career hampered by numerous injuries. The Women’s Tennis Association has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on five separate occasions and and is currently Number five in doubles with her older sister Venus. Serena Wil-liams has won two Olympic gold medals in women’s doubles, and has won more career prize money than any other fe-male athlete in history. Serena has played older sister Venus in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches. The pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles together.

myblackhistory.net

Michael JordanMichael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players ever retired at age 40, for the third and final time in 2003. No player in NBA history has achieved so much in any amount of time. Mi-chael Jordan is a five-time league MVP, a ten-time scoring champion, a six-time Finals MVP, and a six-time NBA champion. Jordan finished his career with 32,292 points, his career average 30.12 points per game is the best in NBA history. Both the Bulls and the Miami Heat retired his number, marking the first time in sports history that two teams retired a player’s jersey in his honor.

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