THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 3, 1997 TAG: 9702030041
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 71 lines
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed aloud for it during his 1963 speech in Washington.
Sunday at Chesapeake Central Library, three 11-year-olds made it come true.
Black and white children were playing together.
James Haynes, Joel Bryant and Joey Balsamo ran, jumped and yelled in front of the building, not giving a thought to each other's color.
The three friends were aware that in past generations, playing together might not have been possible, because Bryant is black and Haynes and Balsamo are white. That's why they said February is an important month each year - national Black History Month.
``White folks back then shouldn't have put them into slavery,'' Bryant said. ``This lets them know things have changed.''
Students across the nation are learning about black history in school. And many came to the library to do some research for reports on specific civil rights leaders, entertainers, soldiers and others.
West and South African art, borrowed from Art Atrium II in Portsmouth, has been put on display at the museum. Visitors also can see a condensed history of black Americans in words and photos compiled by the Library of Congress.
The exhibit, sponsored by the Chesapeake library and the city's Parks and Recreation Department, opened this weekend and will run through February. Other events, many for children, are also planned.
``It celebrates our heritage and our pride,'' said Claire Askew, Chesapeake's parks and recreation director.
The artwork depicts many aspects of black history, including past struggles for freedom from slavery and present battles for equal education for black youths. Others show black people's contributions to society.
One piece, ``First Colored Senators,'' shows lawmakers in the 41st and 42nd Congresses from South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
The historical display outlines the past from black enslavement and torture to the end of the legal practice in 1865 with the 13th Amendment.
The time line explains strides and setbacks, including the 30-year period at the turn of the century when 2,500 black people were lynched; the 1909 creation of the NAACP; the 1955 bus ride by Rosa Parks that sparked an uprising against segregated public transportation; the 1965 assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X; and the 1992 death of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, an ardent desegregationist, as well as the ride the same year that marked Mae Jemison as the first black woman astronaut to participate in a NASA shuttle mission.
The pictures are what drew Stephen Shipp, an 8-year-old who was taking a break from work on his Black History Month report on actress and entertainer Oprah Winfrey.
He said the most striking was ``Tribute,'' a picture of a black man with his arms outstretched and his hands grasping American flags. The man has a tear in his eye and whip marks on his back as he stands in a cotton field.
Although Stephen said it made him sad, torture is a part of black history and a reminder ``of what we shouldn't have done.''
Many adults also filed past the displays Sunday afternoon, reminding people like James Maxwell about the month. Maxwell said learning about the contributions of black Americans - and all minority groups - is important for those who were denied a complete American history in school.
``In the black inner cities, Black History Month is important for morale, to show them how important they are,'' he said. In suburban Chesapeake, ``It's an awareness issue. All we learned about were kings and wars, and we forget that not everyone came over on the Mayflower.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
BETH BERGMAN
The Virginian-Pilot
Kimberly Hill, 8, of Virginia Beach, studies the exhibit, which
opened Sunday at the Chesapeake Central Library.
KEYWORDS: BLACK HISTORY MONTH