The People’s Organization for Progress (POP) broke ground with a new project this past Saturday at the Newark Public Library.
They call it “Black History Month Every Month.” It was the first installment of an effort to promote Black historical consciousness in children on a monthly basis.
The program spotlighted some key historical developments for the month of January culminating with a birthday cake for Dr. Martin Luther King.
It started with Baba Zayid Muhammad of the New Black Panther Party doing a ceremonial libation in which he spoke of some of the January “ancestors,” including those of the Haitian Revolution, those involved in the Rosewood Massacre of 1923 and the freed slaves who left the plantations of the South and went right into the Civil War following the Emancipation Proclamation.
Incidentally, Jan. 1 marked the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Everyone was also impressed with the well-written, on-the-spot welcome message from Al Sheron Dennis, a talented young singer who is often