“Women, Power & Revolution”: Forte-Brown & Howerton Named Grand Marshals of Annual Black History Month Parade
Durham, NC – Spectacular Magazine is proud to announce that Durham School Board Member Minnie Forte-Brown, President of North Carolina School Board Association and Durham County Commissioner Brenda Howerton, Immediate Past President – North Carolina Association of County Commissioners will serve as Grand Marshals of the 17th Annual NC MLK Black History Month Parade & Block Party. The Parade & Block Party takes place on Feb. 2, 2019 on Fayetteville Street.
“Women, Power, and Revolution” is the theme of the 17th Annual NC MLK Black History Month Parade & Block Party. The title of a 1998 essay written Black Panther Party member Kathleen Cleaver, she states that “it is important to place the women who fought oppression within the longer tradition of freedom fighters like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida Wells-Barnett, who took on an entirely oppressive world and insisted that their race, their gender, and their humanity be respected all at the same time.”
Cleaver goes on to write that ‘the way Black women have sustained our community is phenomenal. Historically, we did not live within the isolation of a patriarchal world; we were thrust into that brutal equality slavery imposed. Our foremothers knew we would have to face the world on our own, and they tried to prepare us for that. What I think need to be examined and explained more fully are the powerful contributions women have made to our resistance against slavery, to our resistance against segregation, to our resistance against racism.’ Toward the end of Dr. Martin Luther King’s life it is reported that he more closely identified with the Black Panther Party than the NAACP.
Forte-Brown and Howerton are elected County officials who were selected by their peers statewide to represent North Carolina and their respective organizations on a national level. Both women, as Cleaver describes, are ‘able to be revolutionaries (i.e. work for or engage in societal and/or political change) while fitting the archetype for what a woman was supposed to be.’
From 11 am – 4 pm the Block Party will be set-up in North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Student Union parking lot with a DJ, Bounce Houses, Food Trucks, Vendors, Face Painting, Step Show and more, making this event “For the Entire Family For the Entire Day.”
The Parade kicks off at 12:00 pm. The Parade will line up at W. G. Pearson Elementary School (3501 Fayetteville Street), proceed 1.2 mile up Fayetteville Street (past the Block Party) and end at NCCU (corner of Lawson and Fayetteville Streets).
To be a sponsor, register to participate in Parade, and/or be a vendor, kid activity provider or face painter, click here. To become a sponsor, contact us at 919-697-0328.
About Minnie Forte-Brown
Minnie Forte-Brown, a member of the Durham Public Schools Board of Education since 2004, served as its chair from 2006 to 2012 and Vice-Chair from 2012 to 2015. She was sworn in on November 15, 2018, as president of the North Carolina School Boards Association, where she has served on the Board of Directors since 2010.
For full bio, click here: Minnie Forte-Brown Bio.
About Commissioner Brenda Howerton
Brenda Howerton was elected to the Durham County Board of Commissioners in 2008 and reelected in 2012 again in 2016, presently in her third term. On August 12, 2017, Commissioner Howerton was sworn in as President of the North Carolina Association of Counties. She is the first Durham County commissioner to be elected to a statewide senior leadership office. Her tenure as president will focus on the initiative announced on her installation night “100 Counties Helping Our Children Thrive.” She now serves as Immediate Past President.
For full bio, click here: Brenda Howerton bio
Read essay “Women, Power and Revolution “ by Kathleen Cleaver
Photos submitted