By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – The Ferry Street School Community Resource Center will mark Black History Month with a number of events through February.
The first is a showing of a portion of the 14-hour documentary film "Eyes on the Prize" – with a discussion to follow – on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Ferry Street Resource Center, 620 Ferry St., Niles. The program, which aired on PBS in two parts in 1987 and 1990, archives the Civil Rights Movement.
"It is one of the best documentaries that chronicles the Civil Rights era," said Lisa Busby, director of the Ferry Street Resource Center. "It gives a lot of information … particularly for this [younger] generation."
The Valentine's Fundraiser Dance sponsored by the Ferry Street Resource Center is Friday, Feb. 16 from 7 p.m. to midnight at the American Legion La Rue Messenger Post 26, 1707 Miller Drive.
On Wednesday, Feb. 21, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Ferry Street Resource Center will host a Black History Fun Day. The day will include a Black History Trivia Bowl and an arts and crafts session, and people will be dressed up portraying significant figures of black history.
Former Niles resident Dr. Monica Bass-Swope will be the featured speaker Thursday, Feb. 22, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Niles High School. A Trailblazer Award and Heritage Award will also be handed out during the program.
Black History Month was first celebrated in 1976 by the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and was an extension of Negro History Week. Carter G. Woodson, the director of Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, established Negro History Week in 1926 as the second week of February to include the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.