By Deb McKee
TERRE HAUTE — Black History Month went out in style in Deming Elementary on Wednesday afternoon as students and guests shared, in words and song, some of the lessons of the monthlong celebration.
Members of the fourth-grade choir, led by music teacher Monica Allaben, were joined by guest singers Aida Anderson and the Rev. B. Michael Lyle.
Anderson sang the solo part to “Free at Last,” as the children’s voices joined in chorus.
Lyle, who serves as the music pastor at Cross Tabernacle Church in Terre Haute, sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” with the children, his rich baritone carrying to the back of the auditorium.
After the program, Lyle spoke with the Tribune-Star.
“Growing up in Terre Haute, we didn’t always honor black history month in our schools – I’m so happy that the Vigo County School Corporation is honoring that now,” he said.
Lyle, who also has worked as a surgery scrub nurse in Terre Haute Regional Hospital for 28 years, said he believes in giving back to the community and acting as a role model for children.
“If we do well, and our children see us doing well, that provides a great influence,” he added.
Deming principal Susan Mardis said 2007 was the first year for such a program at the school.
“Today is a culminating activity,” she said. “They’ve learned about different people all month and they’ve learned about the Civil Rights Movement, slavery, the Underground Railroad and freedom.”
Guest speaker Vanita Gibbs, Ph.D. discussed the poetry and life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a black man whose parents were slaves who escaped to Ohio from Kentucky along the Underground Railroad.
Guest poet Renate Whitlock, whose son Lamar Whitlock is a third-grader at Deming, read a poem from her 2005 book “Beyond the Tears: Poetry of Love and Pain.”
“Let the nation come together, all colors come together as one race,” she read from her poem “Waterfalls.”
Deming students Elexis Sickles, David Weger, Ashley Slaven, Chelsea Miller, Emonie Ford, Kierra Porter and Tommi Weger performed a reading based on the book “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” by Jeanette Winter.
The story is about a sailor who teaches slaves a song about following the constellation of the Big Dipper, or the Drinking Gourd, to escape on the Underground Railroad. After the reading, the choir sang “Follow the Drinking Gourd.”
David Weger, 10, talked to the Tribune-Star after his performance. Weger said he enjoyed learning about “slaves traveling on the Underground Railroad, following the drinking gourd to help set them free.”
The students of the fourth-grade choir sang a song inspired by the tragedy of 9/11, called “Something for you, something for me.”
“Gotta learn to discuss the beauty in all cultures,” the kids sang. “Then overcoming can turn into come over and be friends.
“Since we’re the future, we’re telling you now, all the racism and hatred, we’re shutting it down … we’re gonna make better what was given to us.”
Deborah Myers, intermediate reading coach at Deming, Cheryl Soules, media specialist and music teacher Allaben coordinated the program, Mardis said.
Deb McKee can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@tribstar.com.
