Black History Month the perfect time to spotlight contributions
Someone recently told a member of the Editorial Board that Black History Month is not just about the past — it’s about the history being created right now.
It’s important to recognize Black icons — Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, Langston Hughes — but it’s equally important to recognize that Black history was made and is being made by everyday people. History, in general, is made up of more than milestones; it’s all the little, ordinary things that laid the foundation for the extraordinary events and people that end up in our textbooks.
We’re doing our best to recognize the contributions of Black entrepreneurs in our area, and the Morgantown Public Library is featuring some Black creatives in its Dial-A-Story this month.
So far this month, we’ve featured teenage author Anna Brusoe, whose book, “Reaching for the Stars,” profiles West Virginia’s own Katherine Johnson as well as four other female STEM pioneers.
We’ve also had small business owner Chuck Penn, who founded Penn & Co., a fragrance company based in Westover. He handcrafts a variety of products from candles to oils to potpourri and concocts his own scents.
Friday, John Gaddis was featured front-and-center on our local pages for his IT business, GADDIS Group. Gaddis is not only a local entrepreneur, but a community figure. He served on Morgantown City Council from 2008 to 2011. Watch for Charlie Heard Sunday.
And we’ll be featuring more Black entrepreneurs and Black-owned businesses as the month continues.
The library’s Dial-A-Story features “Black is a Rainbow Color” by Angela Joy, a look at Black culture and history through the eyes of a child; “The Bench” by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, which “captures the evolving and expanding relationship between father and son and reminds us of the many ways that love can take shape and be expressed in a modern family,” according to Amazon; and “Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem” by Amanda Gormon, the inaugural poet, in which “a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, [and] they learn that they have the power to make changes — big or small — in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves.”
To listen to these stories, and others, all you have to do is call 304-826-2665. For “Black is a Rainbow Color,” dial 2; “The Bench,” dial 3; and “Change Sings,” dial 7. The Dial-A-Story line operates 24/7 and doesn’t require internet connection.
All the individuals mentioned above — and so many more, but we don’t have the space to name them all — are making history in ways big and small, nationally and locally. Their contributions last longer than Black History Month, but this is a special time for us to recognize how the work they do impacts our communities today and every day.
