Black History Month

When Deborah Johnson's mother was a child, she had a doll -- but didn't love her."Topsy," named for a slave child in the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin," had white features painted dark brown, three tufts of hair sticking from her head at odd angles -- and was one of the few African-American dolls available in the decades before World War II."She hated it; she thought it was ugly," said Johnson, a Catonsville resident and vice president of Charm City Dollings, a doll club whose members specialize in collecting African-American figures.

After a hiatus of more than a year, Soulful Symphony re-emerged last month to perform for a packed house at the Hippodrome Theatre, inaugurating a concert series that continues there Friday night. Thanks to support from the recently launched Hippodrome Arts Fund, the ensemble of predominantly African-American and Latino musicians became the first resident ensemble at the Hippodrome , the flagship of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. "It's a new chapter, a new home — but the same soul," said Darin Atwater, the composer, pianist and conductor who founded Soulful Symphony in 2000.

The second-grade students at Johnnycake Elementary in Catonsville have discovered that without George Washington Carver, there might not be peanut butter, and if the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had not spoken out, schools might not be integrated. In their Black History Month research, they found ordinary men and women, who struggled and won Nobel prizes, Olympic medals and a firm place in the annals of American history. The 7- and 8-year-olds turned their efforts into a museum for their schoolmates Thursday.

For the past many months, Cable TV's History Channel has been using a rather clever tag line that notes History is made every day. Historians, academics and anyone with a basic knowledge of what came before can have spirited discussions for hours on end as to what history entails, what parts of it are significant, whether people are thrust into positions that make them noteworthy or whether they affect history because they are noteworthy....

"Night Catches Us," Tanya Hamilton's complex treatment of the Black Panther legacy, is perfect viewing for Black History Month. Just released on a Magnolia DVD, it is an emotion-charged memory play and a film noir in more ways than one. It contains one human time bomb — a trigger-happy street kid with delusions of political glory — and several characters carrying scars from a fatal police-Panther showdown. It's a personal work of art, not a docudrama. It's a stirring debut for Hamilton as a keen, intuitive writer-director.

The viewers stand transfixed, leaning in again and again for a closer look as they inspect 32 panels of photographs that capture both the everyday and the celebratory moments in the lives of Howard County's early black families. Many pull out their cellphones and snap a shot of a relative or someone they know. The exhibit they scrutinize illustrates the tightly interwoven stories of African-Americans who settled in the county from the late 19th century to the mid-1900s, some as many as 90 years before Columbia had even begun to appear.

A story for Black History Month. Bryan Stevenson is director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery, Ala.-based organization he founded in 1989 to provide legal representation for the indigent and incarcerated. The EJI ( www.eji.org ) doesn't charge its clients but, says Mr. Stevenson, he will sometimes require them to read selected books. Last year, Mr. Stevenson sent two books to prisoner Mark Melvin, who is doing life for a murder he committed when he was 14. One was "Mountains Beyond Mountains," about a doctor's struggle to bring medical services to Haiti.

In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, through his organization, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (later renamed the Association for the Study of African American Life and History), founded and promoted Negro History Week. He selected February because Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthdays fell during this month. His desire was for Americans to recognize and celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of black people. The response was overwhelming, as black schools, black churches and black and white community leaders around the country rallied behind this call and pushed Negro History Week to the forefront.

Sunday, Jan. 22 Concert and dinner "It Was A Very Good Year," a tribute to Frank Sinatra starring Tony Sands, will be held at 2 p.m. at Laurel Mill Playhouse, 508 Main St. in Laurel. Tickets are $15; $40 for admission and dinner at Salute's Restaurant (next to playhouse). Information, call 301-452-2557 or go to laurelmillplayhouse.org. Theater Candlelight Concert Society's CandleKids presents "Henry & Mudge" at 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. at Howard Community College's Smith Theatre, Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia.

Giant Food is now accepting entries for its sixth annual Black History Month Essay Contest, which commemorates the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in Maryland; Virginia; Delaware; and Washington, D.C. schools are asked to write on "Making a difference - What can you do to help fight hunger in your community?" Each submission will be judged on originality, creativity and adherence to the essay topic. Two winners will be selected from every grade level.

The second-grade students at Johnnycake Elementary in Catonsville have discovered that without George Washington Carver, there might not be peanut butter, and if the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had not spoken out, schools might not be integrated. In their Black History Month research, they found ordinary men and women, who struggled and won Nobel prizes, Olympic medals and a firm place in the annals of American history. The 7- and 8-year-olds turned their efforts into a museum for their schoolmates Thursday.

"Night Catches Us," Tanya Hamilton's complex treatment of the Black Panther legacy, is perfect viewing for Black History Month. Just released on a Magnolia DVD, it is an emotion-charged memory play and a film noir in more ways than one. It contains one human time bomb — a trigger-happy street kid with delusions of political glory — and several characters carrying scars from a fatal police-Panther showdown. It's a personal work of art, not a docudrama. It's a stirring debut for Hamilton as a keen, intuitive writer-director.