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Leaders’ visits help highlight Black History Month locally |
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
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 Donna Terrell of Fox 16 News in Little Rock visits Pediatric Specialty Care in Benton on Friday to speak to children about Black History Month. She is pictured with Terrell are Dakota Dean, right, and Lanie Wright. By Jillian Duke Courier Staff In honor of Black History Month, some children in Benton are receiving special visits from community leaders.
Last Friday, Donna Terrell, co-anchor of Fox 16 News in Little Rock, visited Pediatric Specialty Care to speak to the children about the month’s significance.
“She spoke to the kids about following their dreams, to never give up and if you put your mind to it, you can do anything,” said Angela Akers-Rennels with Pediatric Specialty Care.
The clinic is a pediatric day treatment for children with developmental delays.
“The children enjoyed participating and telling Donna what they want to be when they grow up,” Akers-Rennels said. “Donna received answers like ‘princess, doctor, firefighters and Batman.”
Oveta Pledger, Ralph Bunche Community Development Corp. president, visits the center Tuesday. She will read to the children at 2 p.m. for Black History Month, Akers-Rennels said.
Black History Month was established in 1976 with the idea from Carter G. Woodson for the study of African-American life in the United States. The month-long celebration is an expansion of Negro History Week, which originally was celebrated by the historically black fraternity Omega Psi Phi. They chose the second week in February to correspond with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
Negro History Week was embraced by churches and schools in the black community, but it wasn’t until the civil rights movement and the Black Power Movement in the 1960s that people considered just a week-long celebration inadequate.
The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History then established Black History Month in 1976 in honor of America’s bicentennial.
Locally, the Ralph Bunche Community Development Corp. works to make such celebrations a part of Benton’s fabric with a Martin Luther King Jr. parade and other communitywide events. The group is named after Ralph Bunche, a 1950 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Harvard professor noted for his intellect and efforts before, during and after the civil rights movement.
Information for this article was obtained from the Nobel Foundation Web site and news stories related to Black History Month. |
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