Our children need to know about the Holocaust and slavery so history isn’t repeated

To me, it is no coincidence that Holocaust Week and Black History Month share a part of the same calendar (Holocaust Week is from Jan. 26-Feb. 1; Black History Month starts Feb. 1).

Both Jews and blacks have lived through dark periods in the history of the world.

While some of the stories from those times are too painful to remember, to forget is much too dangerous.

Alex Haley’s book “Roots” told the story of his family’s African heritage. I was happy that a black man told our story through the eyes of his own African family.

When the television series came out, my two sons and I watched it together. It was a history lesson for us, but some of the scenes were so horrific that I couldn’t bear to watch and had to leave the room, sometimes in tears.

Watching the show, I imagined the hundreds of bodies chained in the hold of a ship. I smelled the stench of human waste, and the odor of death of those who died along the way. I heard the howling and wailing of the men, women and children pining for their homeland, crying for someone to break the shackles that bound them.

I felt the same way when the movie “Schindler’s List” came out. I never saw the entire film — too painful to watch the immoral acts the Nazis perpetrated against the Jews. It still hurts whenever I hear the story of any of the Holocaust survivors, of how they lost entire families to the gas chambers.

But as horrible as those times were, the evil horns of anti-Semitism and Jim Crowism are beginning to surface again.

We must combat these evil movements before they take hold again in our society.

We must say, “No” to those who want to forget that slavery, or the Holocaust, ever happened. No, we cannot forget the atrocities of those times. Nor shall we forget the impact anti-Semitism and slavery had on the human mind back then, and still affects us today.

We must remember how our foreparents taught us to have pride in our heritage. We must continue to stir up the curiosity in our children about our history. We must continue to teach them our culture, to love our stories and the old Negro Spirituals.

We must tell them how the songs were our way of communicating with each other. We must teach our children that the music in our souls and the faith in our hearts are what has kept us going all these years.

Finally, we must let our children know that although February is a short month to celebrate our history, it doesn’t have to stop when the month ends. We can tell our stories over the months and years. This way, we will never forget.

Church celebrates its 119th birthday

The Rev. Wendell H. Paris Jr. and the Mount Tabor Baptist Church congregation will celebrate the church’s 119th anniversary at 10 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, at 10500 NW Seventh Ave.

Established in 1901 as a “New Testament Church,” Mount Tabor grew to be a pillar of spiritual strength in the black community. At its former home at 1701 NW 66th St. in Liberty City, the church became a home for the outcast as well as the spiritually minded, establishing one of the first, church-based substance abuse and HIV/Aids programs in the area.

The community is invited.

COSMOS dinner

The Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations (COSMOS) will have its 10th Annual Community Appreciation Dinner at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, at the Hilton Miami Airport Hotel, 5101 Blue Lagoon Dr.

The organization will recognize Yvette Colbourne, Miramar city commissioner, and Dr. Eduardo Diaz, former director of Miami-Dade County Independent Review Panel, for their “distinguished contributions to promote and advance peace and goodwill in South Florida.”

The keynote speaker will be Eric Treene, special counsel for religious discrimination to the U.S. Department of Justice. Calvin Hughes, WPLG Channel 10 anchor, will serve as the MC.

For tickets and information call 305-283-2261.

Concert honoring local women

Orchestra Miami will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, with a concert honoring four prominent Miami women, who have contributed greatly to the city’s culture.

They are: Aida Levitan, chairwoman of U.S. Century Bank; Arva Moore Parks McCabe, historian, author and preservationist; Enid Curtis Pinkney, the first African-American president of Dade Heritage Trust; and Ruth Shack, a former Miami-Dade commissioner and former president and CEO of the Miami Foundation.

“Miami Mujeres: Discover Miami Through Music” concert, will be at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, at the historic First Miami Presbyterian Church, 609 Brickell Ave. It will feature a musical work by Florence Price, the first African-American woman to have her work performed by a major orchestra. Asiya Korepanova will be the guest soloist.

V.I.P. tickets are $60 per person and include a post-concert reception and a reserved seat. General admission tickets are from $5 to $40 each. Call 305-274-2103, or go to, www.OrchestraMiami.org.