The City of Menlo Park hosted its annual Black Liberation Celebration at the Belle Haven Community Campus on Saturday to honor Black History Month. The event educated the community through booths and activities, showcasing key moments in Black history from the 1970s to the early 2000s.
Library and Community Services Manager Natalya Jones organized the event. Jones made the event fun and interactive by inviting different organizations. The main activity of the event was a decade walkthrough, which highlighted 100 years of black history being celebrated this month.
“Four years ago, I noticed there was no official Black History Month celebration in the city of Menlo Park,” Jones said. Every year, Jones looks forward to this event and continues to learn from it herself. “People should continue to celebrate Black history all year long, not just February.”
Staff member Judge Cantrell volunteered at this event for the showcase. “The more you can engage people in that talk [The talk of black history, black struggles], the more awareness you can spread,” Cantrell said.
Cantrell’s booth presented the significance of the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Migration with a poster and examples of the 1920s. “It is a beautiful reminder of why Black is beautiful, Black is successful, Black is power, Black is love,” Cantrell said. “We want to pay homage and pay respect and sort of just look back and reflect on everything we’ve done.”
Volunteer Raquel Harris showcased the 1950s. Her booth exhibited the many various changes that occurred in the decade. She showed various influential black figures, including Althean Gibson, who won Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958 and Floyd Patterson, who was the heavyweight champion of 1949. “I feel like this decade has a lot of firsts. This was a breakout year for a lot between the racial integration and sports,” Harris said. The Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, overturning decades of legal segregation.
Keisha Durham, who attended the event and watched her daughter perform in a dance group, emphasized the importance of bringing awareness to the community and supporting Black families. “Black History Month is kind of a month that gets glossed over,” Durham said. “My daughter performing here is new for me, but the event is definitely important. I think it’s really important to get the children involved.”
“I imagine it makes the folks feel proud,” attendee Kendra Sobomehin said. Her daughter participated in the festivities by dancing for the Step It Up program. Sobomehin has visited the event for years. “Good food, performances. It’s a whole programming situation,” Sobomehin said.
Ziara Matthews ran a stand promoting Cañada College at the event. Matthews believes it’s important to talk about Black history and to accept people and the communities they belong to. “Me being a part of the culture, I just feel like it’s always good to embrace the type of people we are,” Matthews said.
Jeanette Woods has attended this event for many years. “I think anytime I can reflect on myself and other people, children especially, it’s definitely worth it,” Woods said. She enjoyed seeing the presentation of the different years of Black history, along with watching the kids dance for the event.
The event united the community and honored Black History Month with a timeline of Black history. It showed the importance of celebrating Black history, not just in February but throughout the year.
