Bundled up against the wind chill and holding handmade signs, more than 80 Vineyarders gathered at Five Corners on New Year’s Day for a march of solidarity. The event was organized by the Martha's Vineyard chapter of the NAACP.
On Thursday, Jan. 1, beginning at noon, a march will be held in downtown Vineyard Haven to draw attention to violence against African Americans as well as police officers. “People will be holding both signs: ‘All Lives Matter’ and ‘Black Lives Matter,’” said Erik Blake, Oak Bluffs chief of police.
As the result of interest shown at a meeting Monday night, the Island now has a chapter of its own of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
I have heard it said about the Martha’s Vineyard branch of the NAACP that it is the most ethnically mixed chapter in the entire country and indeed, since its inception 50 years ago its sense of mission has been equally appealing to both black and white Americans.
The Martha’s Vineyard Chapter of the NAACP held its annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Membership and Awards dinner, which was postponed a day due to weather, on Monday, Feb. 18, at The Grill on Main in Edgartown.
Awards went to three members of the Vineyard community for their outstanding commitment to public service. Rabbi Caryn Broitman of the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center was recognized, and acknowledged the collaboration between the Jewish community and the NAACP on the Vineyard.
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.
