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Contact: Julie Navejar
kajam03@tamuk.edu or 361-593-2590

Black Heritage Month activities range from lectures to exhibits

KINGSVILLE (February 3, 2006) — The Black Heritage/Awareness Celebration Committee has been hard at work planning a host of events in February to honor Black Heritage Month. This year’s theme is A Past of Dignity, A Present of Pride and a Future of Hope.

The month kicks off with a reception in the Ben Bailey Art Gallery at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6. The reception will honor Earlie Hudnall Jr. and his work that is on display in the gallery through Tuesday, Feb. 28.

Hudnall is currently university photographer at Texas Southern University in Houston where he received his bachelor’s degree in art education. He is a member of the Houston Center for Photography board and the Texas Photographic Society executive board.

He was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and spent two years in the Marine Corp before starting his degree work at Texas Southern. His photographs are in numerous collections including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the National Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum for Kunst and Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas.

The first of two Brown Bag Lectures will be held at noon Tuesday, Feb. 7. Myrtle Morris, a long-time businesswoman in Kingsville, will talk about, Black Businesses in Kingsville. The lecture begins at noon in room 219A of the Memorial Student Union Building (MSUB). Those are attending are encouraged to bring lunch.

The Campus Activity Board will feature the film Diary of a Mad Black Woman at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, in room 100 of the Biology Earth Sciences Building.

As part of Ranching Heritage Days, the John E. Conner Museum will feature the Texas Buffalo Soldiers who will do reenactments and discuss the history of the Buffalo Soldiers.

The second Brown Bag Lecture will be at noon Tuesday, Feb. 14, in the Alumni Room of Honor in the MSUB. Candace Jefferson will discuss the years she spent in Saudi Arabia and Tel-Aviv while working for the government in her lecture My Middle Eastern Experience. She is currently a human resources officer for Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi.

A pool tournament will begin at 6 p.m. in the Cue Shack Game Room Thursday, Feb. 16, in the MSUB.

The highlight of Black Heritage Month is the annual banquet that this year will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, in the ballrooms of the MSUB. The keynote speaker is Dr. Gloria Scott, former president of Bennett College, a Historically Black College of women in Greensboro, North Carolina. Scott has distinguished herself as a leader in higher education and as an advocate of women’s issues.

She began her career as a research associate in genetics and embryology at Indiana University’s Institute for Psychiatric Research and instructor of biology at Marian College.

Scott received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology and her doctoral degree in higher education, all from Indiana University.

An oratory contest will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, in the Javelina Café and a talent show will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in the MSUB ballrooms.

The final event will be a fashion show at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 26, in the MSUB ballrooms. A $2 admission will go toward a scholarship fund. For more information on the fashion show, call 361-593-2611.

For more information about the Black Heritage Month events, call 361-593-3606.

This page last updated 3 February, 2006