EVENTS SET FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Juanita Spicer remembers growing up in Fort Smith, Ark., when families on her side of town used different water fountains, attended different schools and couldn't eat at some restaurants or stay at some hotels.

Youngsters in the St. James AME Church youth choir don't remember those days, but they want to learn about them and the contributions made by African-Americans throughout history.

And they want everyone else to learn about them, too.

"I think everybody, if they don't know black history, they can always learn," said Jessica Spicer, 11, Juanita Spicer's granddaughter. "All Americans should learn, white and black."

February has been designated Black History Month to commemorate contributions by African-Americans to U.S. culture, science and history.

"I think Black History Month is a time that we learn about our ancestors," said Ray Fambro, 10. "We don't really learn much about them the rest of the year."

"We get to learn about them and feel special and teach the people beyond us, like our children and our grandchildren," said David Allen, 11.

Newton Conley III, 9, said he has learned about the progress African-Americans have made.

"I asked my grandmother about it," he said. "Things were a lot different from what they are today. People didn't get along as well then. Things have really changed. People get along much better and we can all live together a little better than we used to and we have a lot more things we can do now to make a living."

"My grandmother taught me a lot about how some things would be today if there weren't some African-American inventions, like the man who invented the stoplight and the fountain pen," said Felicia Conley, 11.

Juanita Spicer, 60, works with the after-school tutorial program at St. James and chairs the educational committee for the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter. She said she tries to teach her children and grandchildren about black history.

"I think we as individuals in our families and our homes really do get excited about Black History Month," she said. "It's a time when we kind of dig out our own books and talk about things with our children and our grandchildren.

"We don't ever want to forget those African-Americans who paid so dearly before us for what we have today," Spicer said. "They really operated against all the odds. It's not hard for us to get out today and make whatever changes we feel are necessary. But these people generations ago were really going against the odds."

She can share her own stories about growing up in a segregated society and the struggles faced by blacks throughout the civil rights movement.

"I really want them to remember, because they just have no idea," she said. "Sometimes even now when I talk to my grandchildren and children about what I experienced growing up, they just can't believe it. We could not go to some movies. We could not go to some parks. We could not go to public swimming pools. We got a pool in the black section of town, finally. It was just a very different world for black people. We're still complaining because we still want the ultimate American dream, but we have come a long way from where we were."

There was already a Black History Week while Spicer was in school.

"I attended segregated schools, and our black teachers back in those days talked to us about the contributions of our ancestors and forefathers, so we were well aware of who Frederick Douglass was and who so many, many African-Americans were," she said.

Several special events have been scheduled in celebration of Black History Month.

The University Museum at Southeast Missouri State University is hosting an exhibit, "Black Women: Achievements Against the Odds," which celebrates the creativity and accomplishments of women from colonial days to the present.

Dr. Shirley Jordan, a scholar and former university professor, will discuss the literary tradition of African-American women in a special lecture Sunday at 3 p.m., in conjunction with the museum exhibit.

On Saturday, St. James AME Church will host a reading and discussion of works by African-American authors, including Phyllis Wheatley, Nikki Giovanni and Toni Morrison.

The University Museum will also host a film series Feb. 27-29 at 7 p.m. at the museum. Southeast Professor Steven Hoffman, a scholar of African-American history, will moderate.

The NAACP will hold a celebration Feb. 24 at the Salvation Army.

St. James AME and the Second Baptist Church are also holding observances for their congregations and the community.