Two events this weekend in Springfield will focus on community and resiliency. Timmons Hall and the Community Church Collaborative will host the D.A.S. Baton Honors Award and the Living Histories Freedom Ball Fundraiser.
The awards event has free admission and will be held at 2 at Washington Avenue Baptist Church. Tickets for the ball are $50 (limited scholarships are available). That event will be held at the Library Center’s Hatch Auditorium in the evening from 6:30 to 9.
KSMU’s Michele Skalicky talked with Timmons Hall events coordinator Christine Peoples as well as Kevin Smith, CIG park/historic site specialist for Missouri State Parks in Jefferson City, who will have an exhibit at the evening event and with Dr. LaGarrett King, professor, author and scholar of Black history at the University of Buffalo in New York.
Christine, you're getting ready for some special events this Saturday in Springfield. First up is going to be the D.A.S. Baton Honors Awards. And that's going to be from 2 to 4 at Washington Avenue Baptist Church. Now, those awards you told me, Christine, are built around the Baton Creed. Can you talk more about that?
Peoples: Yes, the Baton Creed. It’s especially for passing on the knowledge of self. Those that have built the baton have come before us. Those that have learned from the builders of the baton, they're getting ready to pass off the scene. And now we're sitting here thinking, okay, the responsibility of the creed, of the Baton Creed, is that the relay must be assured. The race must keep being, you know, being met. And so, it's responsibility to others to share your knowledge, to be able to encourage, to be able to support being there, just like, you know, your neighbor as yourself. But for the culture of the African American community in times where things were not, you know, so easy, it was apparent that if the next generation was going to make it in your family, you had to come together. So, it's really about community coming together.
And the baton is engraved with the letters D, A and S. What do those letters stand for and what is their significance?
Peoples: So, the first letters of the last names of each of our lifetime achievers that were literally batons themselves. Duncan is for D. So, it's Norma Duncan, then it's Calvin Allen and he's for the A and then Jim Smith he's the S on the end. And so, these folks, they've lent their talents and their innate spirits to the community at large and to the city of Springfield, so I really wanted them to be the spark that caused the fire. You know, for people to understand that, hey, this is what it takes to raise, you know, a village. This is what it takes to make a strong community. So, Calvin Allen has lent himself to service other wrap around services for families for through the community center, like for 50 years. Norma Duncan, a journalist, she has been building on the archives that her mom has left her, and she's telling the story, the African American story, on the historic Sherman Avenue Street that she lives on. And then also we're talking Jim Smith. He is like an icon with the libraries, and he has a heart for the north side. So, he's always making sure the patrons have what they need. So, you can't get any better than that.
And Dr. King and Mr. Smith, we’ll get to you in just a moment. But, Christine, this award is given out every two years. And you said before our interview today that it's not just about recognition, it's about responsibility. What do you mean by that?
Peoples: Because a lot of folks have asked me will, Calvin Allen be there, Will Norman? And I said, no, this is the spark. They’re the spark. And they want to see it passed on to the next generation. So, we're going to honor those awardees that are already working hard, but we expect them to even work harder because we've got two years. That's why the D.A.S. is only going to be offered every two years because we give them two years to make a difference. When they come back, they will be the story for the next award.
So, the folks you just talked about, they are the batons. They have passed the baton on to others and continue to. And you're hoping that the award recipients will take the baton and then carry it and pass it on to others. How can someone take a baton and carry it?
Peoples: In so many different ways. I mean, just like you're here at the radio station, this is your love. It's your innate spirit. So, you're bringing me on. You're passing the baton. You're giving me a piece of what I wouldn't even have. I would not have a platform, but it's a helping hand. It's support, and it always is aimed toward education and making a difference.
How did you choose the award recipients? What do you look for?
Peoples: They were iconic in everybody's lives. When I started talking to people and searching out there, it was unanimous that Calvin Allen was, you know, at the top of the list. When we talked about Jim, oh my gosh, he was at the top of the list as well. And Norma was at the top of the list because she kept like any time history would happen, like if someone would pass, they would bring archives, programs, anything, they would go to Norma Duncan. And so how is that? What is, you know, how does that happen? But the community trusts her. And she's building on from what her mom left. So, all of these folks, these three folks have built onto what they were given. And it's apparent in the lives of everyone in the community that they came in contact with.
And by highlighting these people who are making such a difference, what do you hope especially young people will take away from this?
Peoples: That they have a friend, that they have support, that they have encouragers because the three awardees, they're going to leave understanding that they have a purpose, and they have supporters behind them. Dr. King is going to bring it to them when he starts to talk. He's amazing. He's going to talk about these baton builders. And if they can make it through those times, what's wrong with us? But the children today, they're smarter. You know how savvy they are. But they're weaker on the internal things. You can tell, you know, give somebody a name or a dirty look and they're ready to beat you up. You know, you have to have more fortitude than that. This is what I want people to take away when they hear about Carter G. Woodson from Dr. King, and when they hear about the Iron Riders, you know, from Mr. Kevin Smith, they're going to be like, I've got this in me too. I can do this if they can do it back then, so we want to encourage them, and we want to cause conversation. We've got to build relationships. People need to know each other. And then connecting with Dr. King and with Mr. Kevin because there's more resources out there.
And Dr. King, you'll be in town to give the keynote address this Saturday. Tell me about the work you do and also what you're going to be talking about this Saturday.
King: Yes. Thank you for having me, and I look forward to being in Springfield, you know, this weekend with wonderful people. And I'm so glad to be able to do this. I'm professor at the University of Buffalo and also the director for the center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education, which is a special development and research center dedicated to improving Black history instruction in schools and also highlighting how Black history is constructed within our society. This weekend, you know, I know Christine talked a little bit about kind of talking about Carter G. Woodson who is considered the father of Black history, but also the second Black, you know, person received their PhD from Harvard University as well as the founder of Black History Month. But he is so much more than those two particular facts that, you know, people always kind of…say in honor of him and, you know, hopefully I can kind of get to his family life, you know, born of…enslaved parents and living in West Virginia and working in the coal mines -- didn’t start high school to until he was 20 years old and just kind of tell his story a little bit and kind of connect it to the contemporary society in which we live in today.
What do you think that young people today can learn from his story?
King: You know, history is the bedrock for everything, right? I think people have history kind of mixed up, right? Like when we tell people or ask people why study history, they say cute phrases such as, you know, we don't learn history, we will repeat it, but we're constantly repeating history, so I guess we're not learning it. But history is a foreground to how we understand our humanity, right? The good, the bad and the indifferent…history is so important that everything in society is connected to history. When you go to the doctors, right, they ask for your family history…or your medical history. When you apply for a credit card or buy a large purchase. They look at your credit history, right? For those who are, you know, trying to date and get married and have long term partnerships, they always look at your past history, right? Because history allows us to understand who a person is…predict the future…it helps us really kind of understand who we are…it helps us understand where we're going, right? And it helps us understand the people that allow these particular things to happen in our society for long term. So, if we definitely don't know history, we don't know what's going on now, and history is more about the present and the future than it is about the past. So, a lot of those, you know, aspects are very important. And, you know, hopefully we can explore this this weekend.
And I know you may not view it this way, but I mean, the fact that you are doing what you do and, you know, really keeping that history alive for folks is really important, too, and hopefully will, you know, inspire young people this weekend as well.
King: Oh yeah. I really look forward, you know, to that and…hopefully people can get a lot out of me. I really enjoy, you know, talking to our different communities here and I can't just wait to, you know, go up there and see how we flow.
Christine, what does it mean to be able to have Dr. King here this weekend?
Peoples: Everything. I mean, I admire him a lot, and he’s very tough. I love the toughness, the reason why I say tough education, you're going to learn something. You're not. I mean, you're not going to go to his class and just, you know, goof off. You're going to learn something. And he has graced us with his presence before. And we had -- Timmons Hall was full of educators, professors, and they were delighted. And so, he has the knack of crossing barriers. He has a knack of being able to make it so clear from a child to an adult to a professor. And it's meaningful. So, it does mean a lot for him to be here.
Well, we're looking forward to having you here Saturday, Dr. King. So, after the awards from 6:30 to 9 Saturday evening at the Library Center's Hatch Auditorium, you're going to be holding the Living History's Freedom Ball. Christine, what's going to be taking place during that event?
Peoples: We're going to have, Kevin Smith will be there. We're so excited. He's got -- I'm stealing your thunder, Kevin. I'm sorry. He's got about six panels. He can tell you more about this, but he dresses in the official Iron Rider's uniform. He’s portraying the Buffalo Soldiers, and he has the bike, and I've met him when we were doing a conference or workshop, and he's amazing. So, he's going to be in full adornment. And then we've got two of the award winners for the Community History Award, which is part of the National History Day at Missouri State and very proud of them, first and second place winners. And we'll also be featuring a living history fashion show on Ann Lowe and her life story as far as her actually intermingling and crossing paths with her community, black and white, during the Great Depression from her moving in and out of her craft, which she was very talented of doing. So, we're going to really take liberties with that. She was an artist behind designs, making dresses. I can't even say enough about her, but I know that she was living her esteemed lifestyle because of the craft. She was so talented. She even at one point when she started to lose, she did lose her eyesight, but she was able to do a dress blind. She was able to feel and do the dress, but her craftsmanship came with her making embellishments and flowers out of leftover material. But her story is really unique. That passing of the baton, it came from an enslaved grandmother that was a seamstress, that her freedom was bought by her husband, which was a freedman. He bought her freedom, the daughter's freedom. And they started a dress shop in Montgomery, Alabama. So, it's going to be beautiful. So, we're going to walk through that and just those milestones in history through her life. And then everyone -- it's a social. Everybody's going to be dressed to impress. So, come in your best or don't come at all.
Sounds like a lot of fun and a great way to learn about Ann Lowe, who really had a huge impact. And tell me a little bit about the fashion show. I know it's all ages. Can you explain a little bit more about what we'll see?
Peoples: Well, she had different signatures like flowers was a signature embroidery and also like the inserts of the dresses themselves, the inserts of the bras in them. So, actually, it was told that if you got an Ann Lowe gown, that it was like skin. You don't have to worry about anything else. We have photographs of pictures of her actual gowns and everything. And then we have some that we have embellished to make look like hers. And so, we'll show the different aspects of the gowns. And then through her life, she always kept up like five decades that span, that she was relevant. And because she had sewn for the social register – so, debutante balls, so she’d do the gowns and then the wedding dresses she's mostly known for, if you know her at all, for Jacqueline Kennedy's wedding dress. But folks, they put that as like a novelty, but they don't tell you that she also made the whole, the wedding gown for Jacqueline, plus, the whole party, the bridesmaids. And then she also made the debut dress that Jacqueline Kennedy wore at 14. So she was just a magnet around her craft. So, we want to show, that even when the depression hit, she's able to go and make dresses for the fashion houses and do it wholesale. We meet some people there, you know, we meet all of the ways that Ann is resilient because the baton has been passed down to her brilliantly.
Yeah. And she wasn’t always recognized for her work, was she?
Peoples: No she wasn't. But society knew who she was. Society knew who she was. It only took one mention. And see, that is when I think about the baton being passed. Those folks back there, the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts. One word from them, she could have been set for life. Because folks talk about Langston Hughes. But Langston Hughes had a patron. Langston Hughes never had to work outside of his craft because he had a patron. It only took one person to step up. Anybody listening today can be that patron, right, today for one person that they know is amazing. Step up.
Kevin, tell me more about the exhibit that you're going to be presenting Saturday night and just what people will learn from it, because I know the story of, you know, the Buffalo Soldiers and the Iron Riders are both just pretty incredible stories to tell.
Smith: Yeah, sure. The story of the Iron Riders is actually -- the 129-year anniversary is coming up June 14th. That is the day that at 5:40 a.m. the Iron Riders took off. It was 23 riders, 20 African Americans. Lieutenant James Moss, who was the commanding officer. They had a surgeon because it was going to be difficult for these men to get medical help. And on this arduous 1,900 mile ride that they were doing from Montana to Saint Louis, but they took part in a bicycle experiment to see if the bicycle could replace horses in military troop movements. I will be dressed in 189 period uniform -- Buffalo Soldiers uniform. I will have a replica bicycle, five double sided pop up panels, one for each state that the Buffalo soldiers crossed in, as well as additional information on the back side of the panel that breaks down everything from the bicycle’s introduction to the popularity and how it became a pretty much a fad in the late 1800s. From the turn of the penny farthing bicycle, which was the large wheel bicycle in the front and had the small wheel bicycle in the back, the normal or standard size bicycle that we view now, or that we have now is the first safety bicycle that was actually put out, which turned the bicycling world into a big thing for women, children and people less experienced because the penny farthing bicycles, there were a lot of injuries and people falling off of those bicycles and getting really hurt. So, just having the lower wheels closer to the ground made that, you know, made it incredibly popular. But in 1897, Lieutenant Mosse, he traveled all around the country and wanted to try to incorporate bicycles in military troop movements.
They offered bicycles to the infantry, which were the foot soldiers and not the cavalry, which were the actual folks on the horseback. That was what the bicycle was intended to do was to replace horses and military troop movements, but the cavalry was not giving up their horses, so they used the infantry. And these gentlemen took 41 days to go 1,900 miles and concluded their ride in Forest Park, Saint Louis. And so, they literally went from the west end of Missouri all the way to the east. So, for the 125th anniversary of this historic bicycle ride four years ago, it was Missouri State Parks sent me to Missoula, Montana where I did a presentation to the Buffalo Soldiers about the Buffalo Soldiers history. And then I rode the first five miles with the bicycle nomad, Mister Eric Cedeno, who actually did the 1,900 mile ride by himself. And then once he crossed over from rural Nebraska into Missouri, he was supported by Missouri State Parks all the way across the state into Forest Park where we had a culminating event that had the band from Fort Leonard Wood. We had a community, legislators, mayors, the mayor of Saint Louis and just a whole lot of fun and events that took place for the 125th anniversary, as well as a living descendant of one of the writers that actually took place. So, I will have tons of information, giveaway postcards, a bison hide and just all around information on this project that Missouri State Parks took part of for the 125th anniversary, which was four years ago.
Oh, I'm sure people are really looking forward to seeing that and learning more about these incredible men and, you know, talk about carrying the baton and providing that…story that people can really learn from. I mean, boy, those are the folks that definitely can do that. So, what do you all hope that people will take away from the events on Saturday, and I'd love to hear from all of you?
Smith: This is Kevin. I can go first. Okay, I hope to spread the word on what these Iron Riders did and try to open up Missouri State Parks to more of a community that wasn't necessarily or traditionally welcomed in park spaces, in remote places, to enjoy the outdoors. So, as an ambassador for Missouri State Parks and an African American historian for the organization, I definitely would like to see more diversity come out into our parks as well as visitorship and continue to tell the stories of African Americans that have done great things for the state of Missouri.
All right. And what about you, Dr. King?
King: Yes. I hope to educate on little known histories as well as inspire and, you know, see wonderful faces there.
All right. And Christine, what about you? What do you hope will come out of all of this Saturday?
Peoples: Relationship building. I am, along with being the education coordinator for Springfield-Greene County Park board, Timmons Hall, I'm also a minister. And so, starting the group, which we call the Community Church Collaborative, it started from Timmons because Timmons is in the park. It's a historic park that we're in Silver Springs Park, and that church was moved 600 feet. And people don't realize that this is the cornerstone. The church is the cornerstone of that park because that park is known for being segregated. It was actually created as a segregated park in 1918 for the African American community. But what they don't know is that Park Day, which is celebrated every year, and anyone that's come in contact with anybody in Springfield, they know about Park Day. But it was the community church that put on Park Day. They made sure that there were programs for kids in every way. The sanctuaries became these sacred spaces, became the place for freedom classes for education, purpose for reading. Libraries were in the basement. So, all of this, these churches are baton holders, but they need to get back to their original design. And we have to start with ourselves first. So, I'm hoping that my Community Church Collaborative folks that are helping to put this on, we're going to be putting on more things, but I want them to start feeling that joy so that we can start spreading that in every corner of Springfield that we're in because it's different from being happy. Happy is what's happening now. But joy is filled from the inside. When you really see that your calling and what you were put on this earth to do is coming to fruition.
Food and books
Food for Saturday evening’s event will be provided by Big Momma’s as well as farmers from Springfield Community Gardens. Desserts by Chef Angel in Belton, Missouri will be for sale, including peach cobbler cheesecake cups and caramel filled and chocolate dipped pretzels. And mocktails will be served.
Peoples will emphasize books and has asked the library for a few to display.
