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South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs to Host 2020 Black History Month Celebration

Published Date

For Immediate Release
January 10, 2020
Contact: Shireese M. Bell at 803-563-0283 or sbell@cma.sc.gov

Dr. Bernard E. Powers, Jr. of International African American Museum to Serve as Keynote Speaker

The South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs will celebrate Black History Month with a dinner and awards ceremony on Friday, February 7, 2020 at 6 p.m. at the Brookland Banquet & Conference Center, 1066 Sunset Blvd., West Columbia, SC 29169.

Dr. Bernard E. Powers Jr., interim chief executive officer and president of the International African American Museum in Charleston, SC, will be the keynote speaker.

The annual celebration will also include Civil Rights activist and former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives Mr. James L. Felder; the Center for Learning Children's Choir; Gullah artist Aunt Pearlie Sue (Anita Singleton-Prather); Allen University’s Jazz Band; and Spring Valley High School JROTC. WCBDTV anchor Octavia Mitchell will serve as the mistress of ceremonies.

Powers has worked in higher education for approximately forty years. For twenty-six years, he was a professor of history at the College of Charleston teaching courses in American, African American, and African diasporic history. In 2018, he became the College’s founding director for the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston.

Powers is a co-author of “We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel,” which contextualizes the city’s racially motivated murders of 2015.

Admission for the black tie optional dinner is $25 per person. To purchase your tickets, visit http://cmablackhistorymonth2020.eventbrite.com/.

For more information, contact Cynthia Haddad at 803-995-8553 or email chaddad@cfma.sc.gov.

View full press release PDF.

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