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.
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.
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.
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.
