RICHMOND, Va. -- Much like the James River runs through the heart of Richmond, Black History runs through the heart of Central Virginia. And throughout this February CBS 6 has been dedicated to showcasing the stories of the black community right here in the RVA.
From a former enslaved person who made a daring escape inside of a box, to the former Virginia State University Cheerleaders still turning heads nearly three decades after they graduated, and a Virginia couple using their musical talents to teach life skills to their students, Black history has been made and continues to be written in Virginia.
Also important to CBS 6 this year was hearing voices from within the community about what Black History Month means to them. Here's what they had to say:
Cameron Patterson, Senior Partner for Strategic Initiatives, Robert Russa Moton Museum:
"Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the changemaker and those that have helped to advance our country. At the Moton Museum we celebrate the student strikers and the lockout generation: those that have helped to advance civil rights in education"
Senator Lashrecse Aird:
"Black History Month means to me that we will never forget the work of so many that have come before us. I've often been told by my elders that those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it. In the commonwealth, we've had a lot of questions about the value of teaching history and I think as I reflect on Black History Month, I reflect on that history, I reflect on how it's allowed us to get to where we are today as a commonwealth, but also how it must inform the work we have ahead of us to continue the fight that so many more before us began."
Tim and Daphne Reid, TV and Film Icons:
"Black History Month is important to me because it is just 1/12th of the year, but that is the section that they pay attention to our history. Our history is our foundation and our strength. We need to make Black History Month 12 months a year, but we'll take February to start."
"Black History Month to me is something that is needed more than ever, especially what's happening in our school systems and in this country with the deconstruction of the culture of Black America. It gives us and forces us in a way to pay attention to the ancestral strength. Maya Angelou said 'and still we rise.' We need to point that out every now and then within ourselves, not just the nation."
Mary Lauderdale, Director of Collections, Black History Museum:
"To me, we celebrate here at the Black History Museum Black History Month 365 days a year. The month of February is especially important to me because Carter G. Woodson who is from Buckingham County, Virginia founded Black History Week here in 1926, so for us to continue what he started here in Virginia is very important to me"
Sharon Yates, Chairperson of the Historic Southside High School Alumni Association:
"... it's not just great basketball players and musicians. That is all wonderful. I applaud those artists as well. But there are some common people in the community that have done some wonderful things to make sure that our children get the best that they can best. And some of those people are right here in some of these pictures. I don't know whether you're aware or not, but we do have a young lady who served as an ambassador for Djibouti. She was a graduate of Southside High School. And so a picture of her is here, Dr. Gladys West, who is responsible for part of the GPS system that we now use. She is a graduate from the Dinwiddie Training School in which was this school that the students attended before Southside High School was built. So she was a graduate from here as well."
Adrienne Gaines, Training Coordinator and Quality Assurance Coordinator, VCU Police:
"... for me, I actually live on the land that my father played on. And so for me, Black History Month is Black history for life. At this point in my life, I wish there was more than than just a month. However, if you get the information, look up the information and pass it on. It doesn't have to be specifically one particular timeframe. It can keep going on, just keep it continuing through the year. You know, it's just a matter of passing the word passing it on."
Dedongio Randall, VCU Police Officer:
"For me, Black History Month, I look at it as being a coach. That's my gift back to being in Black History Month. Or just like history in itself. It's about trying to progress. The generational wealth, mindset and knowledge of the kids has come behind myself, doesn't mean that it had to be African American, they could be any diverse, you know, background and age. I don't cater to that I just as a person, I love kids, and I love helping kids. My giveback is football. I feel like I've developed that love to grow kids into more diverse backgrounds. It doesn't have to be always black history, but you have to understand your history to understand where you're going. I use football as different tools like respect, understanding, love for one another, that brotherhood that bond. That's what I use. And that's for me. That's my Black history. I don't get into politics in the world, but I get excited to grow someone else or a young kid, but like, I want to be a coach. With that coach, that kid has turned around to help several other kids to get better. "
Faithe Norrell, History Coordinator, Black History Museum:
"So Black History Month is, first of all, Black history is America's history. So I always like to emphasize that for it to be reduced to a month doesn't do it justice. So we like to tell the stories all year long. But this is a time I remember when it was a week when we were in elementary school. But this is a week for a month now for people to really get to know these stories for other people outside of our black community to realize that they do need to know more about our story."
Wendell Moss, Producer of 2nd Annual Certified Independent Music Awards:
"In the public school, you get a teaspoon of Martin Luther King, a cup of this or that of Frederick Douglass. But you don't get the full scope of what Black people have done and have contributed to society. so It's very important to know that"
Velma Johnson Massey, 'Mama J' of Mama J's Kitchen:
"... every neighborhood tells a story. Every neighborhood. Jackson Ward is the biggest of them all. Because it's where Mama J's is. Jackson Ward is known as the Harlem of the South. It's where we went to the theaters, church, we bought our socks, and gloves for church. Broad Street was where we shopped. West End was where I lived. This was Richmond for us, Jackson Ward."
Brandi Battlebrown, Founder of The Hive Market:
"This month means everything to me. I think this is the month where we praise our ancestors that allowed us to get to where we are now. Even though they should get praise 365 days of the year. But, just a month of knowing you're comfortable in your skin, and you know where you're coming from. And we're destined to do great things and we always will."
Randy Adams, Pediatric Dentist in Central Virginia:
"Richmond has a big and historical Black population. A lot of famous people are from Richmond and are still in Richmond. A lot of things that are important as far as Black people are concerned have started or are still going on as far as Richmond is concerned. So this is just a good time to kind of emphasize how important the Black population is here."
Brandon Allen, Pediatric Dentist in Central Virginia:
"It's important to me because Richmond in general is a historical place for the country and a historical place in race relations. I mean when you think back to the Civil War Richmond was the capital of the South. And so Richmond has seen a lot of changes throughout the years, for better and for worse, and we've come a very very long way in race relations and culture since being the capital of the Confederacy."
Brian Gordon, Artist:
"Black History Month is really another month. It kind of just comes, you get to look around and get that perspective of where we are as a people, as Black people and other races, where they are and different conversations come up. And it's a time to have those conversations and respond."
Maketah Wyatt, Former Cheerleader at Virginia State University:
"Black History Month means to me a time to honor our forefathers and the accomplishments they made to allow people like me to stand here today."
Tawanna Tynes, Former Cheerleader at Virginia State University:
"Black History Month means to me a month of excellence. and I feel like Black is beautiful. My Black is beautiful, your Black is beautiful. everything about Blackness is beautiful. and I feel like Black History Month should be celebrated 11 months out of the year as well as in February."
La Verne Burrus-Johnson, Former Cheerleader at Virginia State University:
"Black History Month is an opportunity for the world to stop and celebrate the contributions of Black Americans. It's also an opportunity for my family to stop and celebrate the contributions that we have made to the world."
Bonika Wilson, Former Cheerleader at Virginia State University:
"Black History Month for me is a time to honor the contributions of Black Americans to our country, and to our world. And also allowing me the opportunity to cement my own kind of legacy that I want to lead for my family and for our country as well."
Tyrone Nelson, Varina District Supervisor, Henrico County:
"I think it's a reminder of 400 years of us being here in America. And I see many elements of Black History amongst us right now. So I reflect on the great sacrifices people made in the past, but I also look now to African Americans who are doing some significant things right here in the community. One of my colleagues who just retired, Frank Thorton, first Black supervisor in Henrico County, I'm the second one. Our pastor, one of the oldest, most historic churches in the country. Our founding pastor John Jasper, a slave preacher known across America for his sermon 'The Sun Do Move.'"
Qadira Stewart, Richmond-Henrico Health District:
"There's so many more facts and things we can look at and learn, I'm a bit of a nerd so I'm always going to promote. I also want to look at how when I talk to my children about Black History Month to be proud of your heritage, and be proud of your nationality and show it on your face and promote it throughout our community groups and our society."
Hakim Christopher Hawkins Turner, Christopher Flowers owner:
"Was it intentional for my parents to instill in me the importance of Black History Month? My mother was raised, she was the first Black woman who was segregated into Binford Middle School here in Richmond, she later became a lawyer, and she is the reason why I picked up the mantle. Every day I was taught to celebrate my people. And it was brought to my attention more so from a school front, and the outside world. My parents made sure I was aware of it, but my mother most definitely made sure I knew who I was and where I came from and to be proud of that."
Sharmane Holeman, Former special education teacher:
"It just means that it's a time where we can celebrate our significance, our importance in the world, in the United States, and how we are blinded by so much we may have done and the struggles that we have overcome and just experiences that can always make us better as a people."
Steve Holeman Jr, VSU assistant professor of finance and economics:
"What does Black History Month mean to me? It means a time to reflect and think about what my forefathers, our parents have went through in America and learn more about what we may not learn in school."
Dr. Marcelle Davis, VCU Health vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion:
"... my parents and grandparents used their own life, to teach us values like education is the one thing that no one can take away from you. The second thing is mediocrity is unacceptable. And I absolutely live by that one. And the third is you have a voice and you owe it to yourself to use it. And the moment you don't you fail yourself and those around you. So those values really are a constant reminder for me of my history. And the fact that I really do stand on the shoulders of my ancestors."
Levar Stoney, Richmond Mayor:
"For me Black History is not just a 28 or 29-day thing, it's a 365 days thing for me, because in February we get to highlight and bring awareness of all the accomplishments of our Black leaders and Black giants, our heroes and our sheroes."
Dr. Laverne Spurlock, Retired counselor with Richmond Public Schools:
"Black History means everything to me. Because it makes the opportunity for us to learn and relearn all that's so good about what Blacks have done. If we look at the history of this country, we know it would not be what it became without the backs of Blacks."
Dr. Kimberly Battle, Family nurse practitioner, Clinical associate professor with the School of Nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University:
"Black History Month means to me it's a time of purposeful reflection, reflection on the past reflection on where we are now. And reflection on the future with our eyes always on how our ancestry and overcoming and achieving and building on past accomplishments and looking at continuing to look at where we are right now. And looking to To the future."
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