Magness Library will be celebrating Black History Month this Saturday, Feb. 13. The event is open to the public.
“We are going to celebrate black history in McMinnville and Warren County,” said Magness Library director Brad Walker. “We had to move up our celebration by a week. It was scheduled for next Saturday. I hope everyone comes out and celebrates Black History Month with us.”
Never-before-seen pictures from the Beasley-Brady-Hughes Photographic Museum and Archives will be on display. The collection was donated to the library in 2013.
Walker says some people in the pictures need to be identified and he is hoping the public can assist in this effort.
“We know who some of the people are, but not others,” Walker said. “We will be asking visitors if they know who any of these people are to please write the names down, even if it’s just one person in the picture. We are trying to get the pictures labeled.”
The pictures will not be the same ones displayed last year.
“These are modern prints from the archives using primarily digital files created from glass plates, after having been cleaned and in some cases repairing shattered plates,” said Walker. “Digital work has also been performed to repair several of the prints themselves by library volunteer Carol Kennedy Caldwell. We couldn’t have done this without her. She has been wonderful.”
There will be a performance by Global Education Center, a nonprofit multicultural, anti-bias education center that uses the arts of diverse cultures to highlight the commonalities of all people. The performance is, in part, provided by Main Street McMinnville.
Other activities:
• Willie Cameron will offer a prayer.
• Guest speakers will be Wayne Wolford and Loretta Evans.
• Willie Cameron, Maxine Weeden and Bobby Knox will perform black spiritual songs.
The library’s Black History Month program will be held on the second floor and begin at 10:30 a.m. An exhibit of photos will remain up during the month.