By Joelle Fishman, People’s World
This year’s 38th annual African American History Month Celebration hosted by the People’s World will highlight the theme, “‘We who believe in freedom cannot rest’ – Reclaiming the Struggle in 2012.” The event will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26 at the Peoples Center, 37 Howe St. The program will include awards and recognition to all participants in the high school arts and writing competition. Deadline for entries is Feb. 17 at 5 p.m.
Guest speaker Raglan George, Executive Director of AFSCME District Council 1707 in New York which represents home health care and child care workers, will address the challenges of extreme inequality in our nation, the rising fight back and the 2012 elections.
He will also share recollections of Henry Winston on his 100th birth year. Winston, who grew up in a sharecropping family, organized African American youth in the South in the 1930s and later served for 20 years as national Chair of the Communist Party USA. He was among the national CPUSA leaders jailed for their ideas in the 1950s who were later exonerated. Winston lost his eyesight while in prison, unable to get health care due to racism. He declared, “they have taken my sight, but they can never take my vision.”
Pictures drawn by children on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday celebration at Peabody Museum will also be on exhibit. Donation is $5, with buffet included. For more information call (203) 624-8664.
The People’s World is also sponsoring a coach bus to New York on Sunday, Feb. 19, for a special Henry Winston centennial program including Angela Davis, Jarvis Tyner and more.
