Black History Featured During SIUE East St. Louis Learning Resource Center’s Grand Reopening

For original article by Pat Merritt of SIUE  click here http://www.siue.edu/news/2017/02/LRCGRandOpening.shtml#.WJt5pBs2pzc.facebook

8 February 2017, 10:01 AM

ReginaldPettyA collection of historical facts, like famed black history figures W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells coming to East St. Louis after the 1917 Race Riots, were presented Tuesday, Feb. 7 as part of the weeklong grand opening activities of the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Learning Resource Center.

“Our open house began on Monday, and we have many interesting and educational events planned throughout the week to celebrate the reopening of the library and Black History Month,” said Lara Jennings, director of the Learning Resource Center.

“It’s important that the Resource Center is open,” said James Young, freshman at the SIUE East St. Louis Charter High School (CHS). “My English instructor (Colin Neumeyer) requires us to read a book each quarter, and with the library open, it will really expand our choices.”

“When I read that the library was opening again, I had to come out,” said Bettye Brown, who was the reference librarian from 1972-1997 at the same location when the library was operated by State Community College. “The library is extremely important to the community, but a lot of people come to use the computers and study. I think it’s a very good idea for the Resource Center to offer computer training and other services.”

During the open house on Tuesday, Reginald Petty, historian, civil rights activist and former Peace Corps director, along with Tiffany Lee, TiffanyLeeSIUE alum and communications instructor at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, talked with a group of CHS students and others about black history and their native hometown of East St. Louis. Petty and Lee co-wrote the book, Legendary East St. Louisans: An African American Series. Lee’s company, TiffanyRose Publishing, published the book in June 2016.

“There’s so much to tell about the history of East St. Louis and its people,” said Petty. “Did you know that the current Second Chance Shelter at Sixth Street and St. Louis Avenue was once the first black public school in East St. Louis?” It was news to everyone in the small group who had gathered around the 81-year-old.

Lee sat at a table with CHS students and queried them about their interest in the City of East St. Louis, which was founded April 1, 1861, and about black history in general.

Petty, a commissioner of the East St. Louis 1917 Centennial Commission & Cultural Initiative, and Lee, who serves on the Commission’s Educational Committee, spoke in detail about the East St. Louis 1917 Race Riots. They also handed out material and documentation about the East St. Louis Riots, including first-hand accounts written by Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

“Some of the history is hard to hear, like the race riots and slavery,” said CHS freshman Jessie Body, “but black history is important to learn because, it tells us how we got to where we are and why we have to do the things we do to get to a better place.”

The grand opening included a poetry and essay contest submitted by area students. Kimbriel Williams, a CHS junior, wrote the following “I Am Black History” poem:

I am BLACK.

I am YOUNG.

A gift from God to an unholy earth.

I have done some wrongs and some rights.

I have won and lost some fights.

I am FREE.

Black History is important to me,

Because it resembles our history today.

Why should we only celebrate

Black History for one month, instead of in

Our everyday lives?

I AM BLACK HISTORY.

I make history. I don’t let it make me.

BettyeBrownGrand opening activities continue today at 8:30 a.m. The featured speaker at 1:30 p.m. is Dr. Eugene B. Redmond, SIUE emeritus professor of English and poet laureate of East St. Louis.

Photos:

Reginald Petty, co-author with Tiffany Lee of Legendary East St. Louisans: An African American Series, shows a SIUE East St. Louis Charter High School student a glass bottle made in East St. Louis 100 years ago.

Tiffany Lee, SIUE alum and communications instructor at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, talks about the 1917 East St. Louis Riots.

Bettye Brown was the reference librarian from 1972-1997 at the same location when State Community College operated the library.

She Built a Theater, a Community, Devoted to The Celebration of Blackness

“Black Art is a healing art, and It has the ability to heal the world.” – Dr. Barbara Ann Teer

 

She was an actor, a dancer, a producer, a writer, a director, a cultural ambassador, and an iconic visionary who saw beyond her station as a young Black girl born in the segregated, Blacks only, south-end section of E. St. Louis.  Even at a young age, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer showed promise.  She graduated high-school early, and went on to major in Dance at the University of Illinois, where she graduated magna cum laude. She would go on to study Dance in Berlin and Paris, and toured with the revolutionary modern dancer, Martha Graham.

After her studies, she moved to New York to further her career.  There she starred in numerous shows both on Broadway and Off-Broadway.  She was dance captain in the Tony Award nominated, Kwamina; and won a Drama Desk Award for her role in Home Movies. Her acting earned her many accolades, and despite her great success, she decided to leave ‘mainstream theater’ due to its lack of diverse roles for African-Americans.

In 1968, Dr. Teer wrote in a New York Times article, “We must begin building cultural centers where we can enjoy being free, open and Black.  Where we can find out how talented we really are, where we can be what we were born to be and not what we were brainwashed to be, where we can ‘blow our minds’ with Blackness.” That same year, she founded the revolutionary National Black Theatre in Harlem, an institution devoted to the support and promotion of Black Art, Black Artists, and the Black Community. Her theater was an influential institution during the Black Arts Movement, often referred to as the artistic branch of the Civil Right Movement. Those in the Black Arts Movement through artistic expression: poetry, dance, theatre, etc. fought against injustices by celebrating the multifaceted nature of Black Culture and History.   Though the Black Arts Movement began in New York, its influence would spread nationwide. Dr. Eugene Redmond, also of E. St. Louis, is a noted leader of the Black Arts Movement in the Midwest.  The National Black Theatre was a success, touring in Haiti, South Africa, Trinidad, Bermuda, Guyana and throughout the United States.

dr teer from website picDr. Teer sought to uplift not only the image of the African-American, but also the Harlem Community.  She succeeded in both. Because of her success, she has been awarded several honorary Doctorate degrees.  The National Black Theatre is currently in its 47th season, and thriving under the tutelage of Dr. Teer’s daughter Sade Lythcott.  If you visit New York try to visit the theater started by one of your Legendary Locals, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer.  For more on the theater, visit nationalblacktheatre.org.

Legendary East Saint Louisans by Reginald Petty and Tiffany Lee. Available on at http://amzn.to/29Bs21o.