FEBRUARY
Vol 19, No. 9 • February 2020
WRIGHT-DONNELL PG 9
News You Can Use
Upcoming African American History Banquet Celebrates the Contributions of Local African Americans and celebration," Richmond says. "As a By Angela Rogalski part of our ministry efforts in 2019, I The Second Annual African wanted to start this event where we American History Banquet will recognized the contributions of be held on Saturday, February African Americans locally and 8, 2020 at the UFCW Union have that highlighted by a banHall in West Point. Doors quet and a keynote speaker of open at 5:30 p.m. some renown. It was my idea; Orlando Richmond is my vision and I framed it senior pastor at Northside up and then appointed a Christian Church in committee that work West Point, Miss. with me to execute and also the it. founder and "We began director of the last year with annual a communityAfrican wide program American that's specifiHistory cally designed Banquet. to focus on Each year he the Golden tries to Triangle area. expand or Last year's improve upon program his ministry involved a and the church's keynote address by outreach and for the former Secretary of second year he is Agriculture, Mike Espy, doing it through the and included what we banquet. Bern Nadette Stanis call the Difference Maker "This is our second Award. It went to two people last year: annual African American History Banquet retired Judge Dorothy Colom and the principal of West Point Return Address: P.O. Box 1292 Corinth, MS 38835 High School. And this year we've continued that. We honor Dorothy Colom with this event, the first Difference POSTAL PATRON Maker. And you get a better sense of that with this year's see BANQUET pg 4
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Visual Learning for Black History Month With A Harriet Tubman Quilting Fundraiser By Angela Rogalski Mary Hearnton is a Corinth native and a member of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Corinth. Mrs. Hearnton recently led a visual learning fundraiser for the church's youth group. "The youth department in our church held a raffle to try and raise enough money to take our youth to Noah's Ark and Creation Museum in Williamstown, Kentucky," Hearnton says. "So, the quilting project was a fundraiser for the church." The fundraiser involved a series of Harriet Tubman quilts, which Hearnton explained in a program that was held about the quilts. "To a certain degree, the quilts were handmade, but we did use the sewing machine as well," she says, "We're modern-day quilters. These are teaching quilts more so than quilts that would be taken to the National Quilting Association Convention. We put on a program where I explained what each of the Underground Railroad symbols meant, and how they helped to navigate Harriet Tubman's way from as far as New Orleans to the Ohio River and other points north to freedom. And she also led
Mary Hearnton
over 300 slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad, which wasn't really a railroad at all, of course. The Underground Railroad was a system by which people would display signs on quilts, on houses, in the mud, to tell her what services they had available to her and her efforts to help slaves get to the North. And many of these people who were agents, as they were called
in the Underground Railroad, were white people; many were Quakers, and many were freed blacks and sailors. So, there were many abolitionists who didn't believe that slavery was right." Hearnton says this secret code of symbols that people used during that time to communicate with Tubman on her journey was very special. And see HEARNTON pg 4