Marie Allen is at home in the comfortable study that she built at her Munroe avenue house in Oak Bluffs: a place to read books and listen to the blues, where a carved wooden giraffe peers from behind the couch, African figurines line a tall bookcase and her granddaughter's stuffed toy dog rests on a cushion.
Mrs. Allen also is at home on Martha's Vineyard: an Island where she was married, where her children took their first steps, where her own daughter was married and where she retired about six years ago.
On Sunday afternoon, a plaque will be unveiled in West Tisbury in celebration of a small group of town women who, nearly 50 years ago, took a little risk to play a part in a glorious, heroic and sweeping change in our national history.
The Martha’s Vineyard NAACP and the Oyster Bar & Grill are presenting a series of four summer luncheons with guest speakers who have made successful careers in broadcasting entrepreneurship, in organizational management and human resources, in writing, and in medicine. Lunch and dialogue is open to all. The events are at 12:30 p.m. at the Oyster Bar & Grill at 57 Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs. Cost is $30 per person per luncheon, to benefit the Island branch of the NAACP.
The day outside was cold. A real winter northeaster was blowing in and the gray clouds above promised snow. The door to Vera Shorter’s Vineyard Haven home, however, was open.
She had just indulged in what is quite possibly her only vice she said as she spread a stack of ginger snaps on a plate. She braved the cold so her home would not smell like the cigarettes she cannot seem to give up. She would hate for the smoke to offend the guests who stop in from time to time.
The Martha’s Vineyard NAACP has elected new leadership. They were sworn into office on Dec. 9, 2008, by Police Chief Erik Blake. Officers and committee members are: Laurie Perry-Henry, president; Marie B. Allen, first vice president; Carrie B. Tankard, second vice president, and executive committee members Francine James, Rev. Marcia Buckley, Elaine Weintraub, Don Goss and Vera Shorter.
The thing Martha’s Vineyard NAACP branch president Laurie Perry-Henry likes best about the jazz band Pieces of a Dream was their sense of togetherness and common purpose.
“That’s our theme for the NAACP, is One Nation, One Dream,” said Ms. Perry-Henry in an interview this week. “It’s almost prophetic in nature,” she said of the common values shared by the national civil rights group, and the smaller, musical one.
Juneteenth is the celebration of African American freedom and achievement and the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. The event dates back to June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers, led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Tex., with news that the war had ended and the enslaved were now free. This was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of Jan.
From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Barack Obama will be the theme of the annual Martha’s Vineyard NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Membership and Awards Brunch, on Jan. 18, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Deon’s restaurant in Oak Bluffs.
Steve Bernier, the Rev. Roger H. Spinney and Tobias Vanderhoop will be presented with outstanding service awards. Troy Small and Randall Jette, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School students, will be guest speakers.
The theme this year was youth, including youthful viewpoints and honors for people who work with youth, at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. day brunch, hosted by the Vineyard chapter of the NAACP. The event took place at Deon’s Restaurant in Oak Bluffs on Monday and was attended by over 100 people. It was a celebration both of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the work that the NAACP and those affiliated with the organization have done and continue to do.
For such a small place, the Island has a surprisingly diverse people — a native tribe, a long-established African American community, waves of Portuguese speakers — and so for its annual Juneteenth celebration, the Martha’s Vineyard NAACP has asked several Islanders to share their interracial experiences here.
