The youth of the West Las Vegas Arts Center Performance Ensemble awed a full house Feb. 1 at the second annual Black History Month breakfast sponsored by and located within the Venetian.
Students from the West Las Vegas Arts Center move the audience with a drum performance.
Photo by Sergio Salgado |
During the ensemble’s performance, member Justin Martin delivered a powerful speech he wrote of the late Martin Luther King Jr. He described King’s assassination as a gain and a
Justin Martin, 11, delivers a speech he wrote about Martin Luther King Jr.
Photo by Sergio Salgado |
loss for the civil rights movement. The people lost a great leader; but the 11-year-old Martin said the people marched stronger together following his death.
“His dreams still lived on,” Martin said.
The kickoff breakfast of Black History Month raised money for higher education scholarships for the College of Southern Nevada, Nevada State College and University of Nevada, Las Vegas. But it was also the beginning of a month’s worth of events focused on diversity and African American history. Throughout the month of February, students had the opportunity to attend a fashion show, poetry slam contest, lectures and productions – including the Langston Hughes Project – and discussions about race, ethnicity and African American contributions. Between 150 and 200 students from the school district also got involved and attended “A Dialogue on African American Higher Education,” on Feb. 22, at the Cheyenne campus where Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly spoke. Dr. Art Byrd led a discussion along with student leaders from CSN, Nevada State College, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the school district. Dr. Byrd even led a game show, testing students’ knowledge of African American history.
 |
At the kick off breakfast, three CSN students took the stage to accept scholarships, including Shantae
Moore, a second-year medical coding/transcription major; Shereyll Epps, a first-year special education major and Kim Cordy, a sophomore in general studies.
Hannah Brown, President Emeritus of the Urban Chamber of Commerce, receives an award at the Black History Month breakfast on Feb. 1 for her years of service to minority communities.
Photo by Sergio Salgado |
Moore is a mother of two and a dedicated foster-care provider for neglected children. Epps wants to get her associate degree and transfer to UNLV to gain a teaching license. She grew up in the L.A. projects, watched her father die of a drug addiction and AIDS and now has three children and works for the City of North Las Vegas tutoring children in mathematics and reading. Cordy works with Autistic children as a teaching aide for CCSD and runs an antiques business on the weekend at the BroadAcres Swap meet. She also created the Myspace Web page “EntreprenuersforObama.”
Dr. John Valery White, Dean of the William S. Boyd School of Law, takes the podium to address the audience as the key note speaker.
Photo by Sergio Salgado
|
“There is power in each and every one of us to obtain the dream,” said breakfast keynote speaker Dr. M. Christopher Brown II, Dean of the UNLV College of Education.
He spoke about an America drunk on “ingrown preoccupation of self,” “ruthlessness,” and “in Las Vegas, materialism.” Stating that this country’s education system is in shambles and our classrooms the dumping grounds for the underprepared, Brown asked the crowd to remember each individual has the power to start a movement and to make a change.
“We often don’t realize how much power each one of us has,” he said.
Black History Month began as “Negro History Week” in February 1926 through the work of African American scholar, Dr. Carter G. Woodson to encourage a greater awareness of the African experience and contributions throughout the world. The week served as a supplement to the school curriculum. In the 1960s, the week expanded into Black History Month to commemorate, through community activities, a more balanced and accurate picture of Black History. The month coincides with the birthdays of great black leader Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
The breakfast’s other keynote speaker, Dr. John Valery White, Dean of the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, also talked about King and the history of the civil rights movement. White criticized those that hold up African American entertainers and athletes as today’s heroes and called for a more sober reflection of the culture’s contributions. White also emphasized the support Dr. King received from others that allowed the civil rights movement to change America.
King’s legacy is a major theme of Black History Month, but as the two keynote speakers and 11-year-old Martin pointed out: There is a long road ahead.
In spite of all of the work that many great civil rights leaders accomplished, Martin told the crowd there are still struggles to prevent black and white students at schools from segregating themselves. We have to continue King’s work or risk facing “drastic consequences,” he said.
“I know I can make a big difference,” Martin said, “one freedom at a time.” |
