With songs, original poems, youngsters shine at Bethlehem NAACP banquet

Bethlehem’s NAACP chapter recognizes Liberty High School principal on her retirement.

Ashanti Littlejohn’s poetry earned her a standing ovation from the audience.

“I shall continue smiling, I shall not change who I am,” the Freedom High School student read from her original work.

Littlejohn was among the youth who wowed the nearly 200 people who gathered Sunday for the annual Bethlehem NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

The program celebrated the milestones that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has earned since its inception more than a century ago.

Special recognition was given to the winners of this year’s NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, several of whom performed during the event.

Littlejohn and Rachel Anson impressed the audience with their songs and original poems.

Anson, of Liberty High School, delivered a heartfelt rendition of Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up” that brought goosebumps to several NAACP members.

 
Hilary O. Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington Bureau, was the event’s keynote speaker. But before he took the podium, organizers recognized Liberty High School’s principal, JoAnn Durante, for her contributions to local underrepresented children.

The moment also served as Durante’s farewell.  “I’m retiring from the Bethlehem School District,” Durante said, “but I’m never going to retire from the love that I have for kids. Our children are our most natural resource.”

Durante alluded to a recent blockbuster movie, “The Help,” to motivate students to be kind.

“You eventually will be beautiful for it, and you by far will become important.”

Shelton reviewed the organization’s history from the days it was founded 103 years ago under the leadership of W.E.B. DuBois. He emphasized the association’s initial struggles to persuade Congress to sign an anti-lynching law during the early 1900s and the NAACP’s battle to end racial segregation.

Those memories were painfully familiar to Esther Lee, president of the NAACP Bethlehem branch.

Lee, 78, remembered feeling angry as a 12-year-old when she tried to drink from a “whites only” water fountain in Virginia.

“Water is water,” Lee remarked to her mother, as her mom pulled her away from the fountain.

After making it clear that the organization has had great obstacles, Shelton spoke about the pride he felt when the same legislative body that resisted the anti-lynching initiatives swore in Barack Obama as president.

“When he sat down at that table,” Shelton said, “when he had been duly authorized by the great people of the United States of America to serve as the chief executive officer of our nation and he was able to sign those bills into law and provide that protection for all of our brother and sisters, I had to say that the tears began to well and I knew that America had stepped into a whole new generation.”

The City of Bethlehem Southside Recreation and Northampton Community College proudly present SAT Prep classes to meet your needs in: Math and Verbal

This course will provide an in depth look at what you need to know to prepare for the SAT test. The course includes strategies and techniques for taking the test and a review of Verbal and Math concepts. You will also work on how to tackle the essay portion of the test. Bring the calculator you will be using for the test.

All Classes are held at Northampton Community College Fowler Family Southside Campus.

Click link below to download a Form.

SATPREP2011

If you have any questions, call Mark Atkinson at 610-997-7971

PBS39 and United Religions Initiative Present:
Planting Peace at SteelStacks
Peace Pole Dedication & Celebration of Peace in the
Lehigh Valley and Around the World
September 11, 2011 at 3:30pm
PBS39 at SteelStacks in Southside Bethlehem

View Flyer Details here:

In the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr., Bethlehem’s Esther Lee has fought for equality and effected change

By Steve Esack, OF THE MORNING CALL

January 15 2011, 11:24 PM EST

Esther Mae Grimes didn’t want to be a domestic helper for the rest of her life. So when she spotted a newspaper ad for a front desk clerk, she decided to apply. She had the skills -; typing, filing and bookkeeping, which she had learned at Liberty High School.

The complete article can be viewed at:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-bethlehem-esther-lee-20110115,0,4655452.story

Visit mcall.com at http://www.mcall.com

The Bethlehem NAACP continues to PROTEST THE BETHLEHEM AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT.  The administration and secretaries in the district do not honor Dr. MLK Holiday, however the students are off.  Discussions with district and union personnel have been unfruitful.  We find this to be very disrespectful.  Is this because Dr. King was a Negro?  Our ongoing question is what can the district be doing on this particular Monday that can’t be done on another Monday?  Are district employees working on President’s day?

Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed in 1986. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. We still have local colleges and universities who do not observe the Dr.MLK Holiday on the given day.  The colleges and universities all should be closed.  Most are using the holiday for students to return from winter break and have classes. Lehigh University and Moravian College were contacted by the Bethlehem NAACP in January 2010 regarding closing.  Both replies were ambiguous.  WHY IS DR. KING, JR. ANY THE LESSER?

RE-ENTRY PROGRAM FOR INCARCERATED INDIVIDUALS

We have watched as more and more African American individuals are incarcerated.  The system seems content on budgeting more money to house these folks rather than rehabilitate them.  The system should be seeking ways to provide more training, on a larger scale to prevent recidivism.  We note that as individuals have been/are released from jail/prison it is increasingly difficult for these persons to find employment.  Our system must devise a way for released incarcerated persons to rejoin society.  Providing a way for them to raise their families and earn a living will assist in stabilizing their lives.  Our country is very slow in opening jobs for these people and help them reenter the workforce.  A goal for 2011.

EDUCATION

As we move forward into 2011 we must be more mindful of how education is being provided to youth . Especially African American youth today.  Bethlehem NAACP feels that guidance is not being provided as it could be.  We have become too generalized. The students that need assistance are “being left behind.” If a child has special education services are we going the “extra mile.”  In our quest to balance budgets … we must insist that all youth be provided the best education possible.  A CONTINUED GOAL IN 2011.

EMPLOYMENT

Almost daily, we [NAACP unit 2250] receive a call that an African American individual has lost his/her employment.  In our Bethlehem Area School District check the numbers of African American employees … personnel claim that they can’t get qualified individuals to accept employment here in Bethlehem.

REAL ESTATE

1. Local real estate finds red lining continuing.  Realtors refuse home mortgages or home insurance to areas/neighborhoods deemed poor financial risks.

2. To discriminate against by refusing to grant loans, mortgages, or insurance to.

3. It was reported today by the media, January 3, 2011, that the White House, Washington, DC has lost it’s value… is it because President Obama is African American?  This coincides with the local and national climate.  IT’S SHAMEFUL!!!