Black History Month Celebrations in Pocahontas, Arkansas

The Eddie Mae Herron Center, formerly the Pocahontas Colored School and AME church, will present several activities during February, Black History Month in Pocahontas, Arkansas. The Eddie Mae Herron Center is located at 1708 Archer Street, Pocahontas Arkansas. To contact the museum the phone number is 1-870-892-4433.

The first week of February will bring Sue Ness to visit the center. She will demonstrate making aprons and how to use them on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday February 5, 2010. This event will take place from 6-8 pm.

The second week of February will bring Mac Hackworth. Hackworth will demonstrate how to milk a cow and a goat.

The third week of February, on Monday and Wednesday, demonstrations of how to make bird feeders will occur from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm and George Washington Carver's story will be told. Also during the third week of February, on Saturday February 20, 2010 the annual Hog Butchering and Pot Luck Dinner will occur. Singers from St. Louis are coming and church will be held in the center on Sunday along with lunch. Church will begin at 8:00 a.m.

The final week of The Eddie Mae Herron Center's annual celebration of Black History Month will bring an event to be held on Friday, February 26, 2010. This event will be a community pot luck dinner with a speaker who has yet to be confirmed.

Additional events to those listed will be occurring at the Eddie Mae Herron Center during Black History Month but they have yet to be announced.

In 2009, I visited the center for the first time and saw pictures of past hog killings so I may stay home for that one but I do plan to be actively involved. The Eddie Mae Herron Center survives on donations and is an important part Pocahontas, Arkansas as it reminds us of when blacks and whites were separate and unequal. To avoid the same mistakes in the future, it is important to remember the past. These celebrations do more than remind us of mistakes we have made in past years, however; they preserve respect for the African-American culture. Preserving African-American culture should be done all year but Black History Month places a special emphasis on this so hopefully many people will be involved.