“This National Black History Month, we celebrate the vast contributions of Black Americans to our country and recognize that Black history is American history and that Black culture, stories, and triumphs are at the core of who we are as a Nation…President Biden calls upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with relevant programs, ceremonies, and activities.” (source White House proclamation)
Here are some things I plan to do this month!
- Rewatch my friend and colleague Robert Cotton’s documentary From Sundown to Sunrise: Trace one man’s journey from sundown to sunrise as he and his family integrate an all-white Indiana town in 1968. By breaking the color barrier, they also helped transform the town and place it on a trajectory of inclusion. (on You Tube)
- Watch the documentary airing on PBS entitled Razing Liberty Square: Liberty City, Miami, is home to one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the U.S. Now with rising sea levels, the neighborhood’s higher ground has become something else: real estate gold. Wealthy property owners push inland to higher ground, creating a speculators’ market in the historically Black neighborhood previously ignored by developers and policy-makers alike.
- Attend the 30-minute screening of the documentary Gospel: A documentary about Black spirituality, sermon and song. The screening will take place at Faith Community Center-North in Gary, IN, on February 10 at 11 AM. Lakeshore Media will air the documentary in its entirety on PBS in February (and I will watch)
- Visit the Naomi Anderson Sculpture in Michigan City, Indiana. Naomi Anderson was an important and well known leader for women’s and African-Americans’ rights in the 19th Century. Yet she is barely known nationwide and hardly at all in her home town of Michigan City, Indiana. (excerpt from Michigan City Public Library) Naomi lived for a short time in Valparaiso, IN.
BARBARA DOMER: Valparaiso City Council District 3 
Leave a comment