BARBARA DOMER: Valparaiso City Council District 3

The President “calls upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.” (source White House proclamation)

Here are some things I plan to do this month!

1. Rewatch my colleague Robert Cotton’s documentary From Sundown to Sunrise, which can be viewed on the Indiana Humanities Facebook page. 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)
2. Watch the documentary airing on PBS entitled Exit 207: The Soul of Nashville. A thriving majority black neighborhood in North Nashville was gutted with the building of interstate 40.
3. Attend a Black History event hosted by the Northwest Indiana African American Alliance.
4. Visit the Naomi Anderson Sculpture at Westcott Park 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.