LeMoyne Center celebrates black history
Students collaborated on posters highlighting dramatic events in black history. “They couldn't believe this actually happened. The kids thought it was fake at first,” Joyce Ellis said of the story of Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana in 1960.
Dr. Anthony B. Mitchell, left, and Anthony Mitchell Jr., second from left, led a drum circle at the LeMoyne Community Center that played beats inspired by music from West Africa and Ghana to accompany student dancers led by Beatrice Y. Mitchell. The young drummers, from left, are Jonathan Berumen, 12, Xavier Turner, 14, Taviaire Vereen, 12, and Katrae Smith, 13.
The LeMoyne Community Center celebrated its 60th birthday Thursday by educating youth and the community about black history and its unsung heroes.
Director Joyce Ellis was among those giving tours highlighting the local connections to history, but the stars of the programs were the kids. “We took our students to the ‘Races’ exhibit at the Carnegie Museums. Every part of human life began on this planet in Africa. It’s all of our history,” Ellis said, explaining that the themes of diversity and discovering a person’s own genesis were the inspiration for students’ displayed shadow boxes, posters and illustrations of black American heroes.
The evening’s educational elements were given a break by musical interludes of Al Green and Ghanaian drum rhythms on Djembe and Conga drums played by students and teachers. But education was still at the forefront, and sometimes a shock to students.
“They didn’t believe that a kid like Ruby Bridges, that when she went to an all-white school in Louisiana for the first time, that she was treated so poorly. They thought it was fake,” Ellis said, pointing to one of the collage posters.
Students of all ethnic backgrounds and genders participated in a call-and-response biography of notable black historical figures, where a cryptic clue was offered and the student would then identify the historical figure in a first-person narrative. Black influencers highlighted included Sojourner Truth, Matthew Henson and Henry Ossian Flipper, the last of whom was the first former slave to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy and go on to lead the “buffalo soldiers” of the 10th Calvary.
The audience of about 70 people clapped after each skit, song and biographical testimonial. But most were quiet during essay readings from Washington Hospital Teen Outreach’s Black History Month essay contest. The runner-up, Toni Maurer, read an ironically titled essay called “Being Black.” The 16-year-old from Washington High School is not black.
“In the world today, calling someone black is almost an insult … You would think that in 2016 people would not mind (racial differences). Maybe I do not understand because I am not black. But as an ally, I believe that Black History Month amplifies segregation … I believe that those who are black do not celebrate their culture and heritage only in the month of February. Why can’t we do what (most Americans) do and celebrate their culture every day and when they want,” Maurer said.
The winning essayist, 18-year-old Koron Harris, a student at Trinity High School, read a testimonial of perception and personal experience called “Being Mixed,” an autobiographical examination of being multiracial.
“Because I am mixed, people think I am more one color than another. People ask, ‘Do you think you are more black or more white?’ I am both. I am Native American as well, but no one ever sees that. I am one who is blended. Gray is not visibly black or white; gray comes in different shades. When I see light gray, I don’t think that gray is more white,” Harris said.
“Being mixed means racism is still directed toward me … People say, ‘You don’t act white; you don’t act black,’ Harris continued, before ending her essay with self-depreciating humor and optimism.
“Benefits? I have a year-round tan …And when I have children I hope they are as proud as to be mixed as I am.”