KHS presents Black History Month Live Museum
Also, Lantern publisher speaks to League of Women Voters; candidate forum March 23
Imagine a concert with the greatest musicians of African American heritage all in one place at the same time. Pop singer Beyoncé with Aretha Franklin. Rap artist Ice Cube with crooner Ne-Yo and more. Visitors to Kokomo High School on Feb. 22 were able to meet, and in some cases listen, to these artists perform as KHS presented its 6th annual Black History Month Live Museum.
Organized by faculty sponsors Jennifer Luckey, Autumn Johnson, and Cherresa Lawson, and student organizers J’Lan Stewart and Tazariana Davis, the lunchtime presentation featured more than 20 KHS students portraying famous Black musical artists in the foyer of the KHS South Campus.
The Black History Month Live Museum began in 2018 when KHS Mathematics teacher Monique Simpson organized the inaugural museum with volunteer students portraying famous civil rights activists, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. Luckey worked with student organizer April Jewellean in 2019 and chose famous Black athletes as the theme for volunteer KHS students.
In 2021, the pandemic forced the Live Museum to go virtual, creating an online, video version in collaboration with KHS video production classes, featuring students portraying Black entrepreneurs.
Event student organizer Davis, a junior and veteran performer in the last Live Museum, was recommended to help by one of the organizing teachers who, “saw that I really enjoyed it, and that I could be a leader,” adding that she was already, “excited to do this again next year.”
Stewart noted that, “We have had a great response. Our student volunteers have chosen a variety of music artists, like Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, TLC, and a couple artists from the 1950’s and 1960’s as well.”
Also, every morning in the month of February, KHS student volunteers read a “Black History Month Fact of the Day” following the Pledge of Allegiance.
Stewart added that, “It is so inspiring to see all these students come together. It’s just awesome to be a part of this. I really hope the live museum will grow awareness about black history while inspiring our younger students to participate in the coming years.”
Lantern publisher speaks to League of Women Voters
The Howard County League of Women Voters met Feb. 16 to hear a presentation from Kokomo Lantern Publisher Patrick Munsey, discussing the recent history of local political redistricting and some specifics of the Kokomo Common Council’s acceptance of a paid consultant’s plan for the realignment of city voting districts in November 2022.
Being introduced as “the only local journalist with experience in reporting on three cycles of the redrawing of political lines in our county,” Munsey began his presentation with a nod to the process that Kokomo Common Council went through in late 2022, proposing that it was “the closest to fair we have done in this community,” in the time that he started covering the local elections in the late 1990s. He added, however, that last year’s redrawing of traditional African American districts might cost those areas some of their political power.
Munsey noted that in the 1960s and 1970s, due to the large amount of unionized worker residents, it was hard to carve out “Republican” districts since at that time most rank and file union members supported Democratic candidates.
Local county district lines held steady from the 1990s on, according to Munsey, with no measurable change in the political lines until 2010. The same didn’t hold true at the state level, which has seen blatant gerrymandering over the past three redistricting processes.
“On the state level … there is severe gerrymandering and has been for 30 years … done by Democrats and Republicans in equal measure,” said Munsey. “That’s how you get districts that grab part of Kokomo and part of Marion for a single representative that just used to be Kokomo (area) proper.”
Munsey noted that, on the state level, since Indiana has “shifted to one side significantly” with a more conservative voter bloc, there is “no will at the Statehouse … no will among the people to bring suit” that would combat the gerrymandered districts.
“It (gerrymandering) runs counter to the whole principle of redistricting, which was to evenly allocate the population so they have a voice, and to try to keep neighborhoods of similar interests consolidated,” Munsey stated. He pointed to 2012 as a turning point where local redistricting started to have an effect on elections.
“We had just gone through annexation,” said Munsey. “Our population variation mandated an update.”
Areas were carved out to give the party in power more influence, putting together a political district stretching from one end of the city to the other, and according to Munsey it backfired.
“You could easily argue that those were not neighborhoods of common interest,” he said.
Munsey claimed the shift in Kokomo’s citizens to voting more Republican has made redistricting irrelevant.
“Redistricting doesn’t matter today,” said Munsey. “There is no way you can draw those lines to make it even for Democratic or Republican voters. You could have drawn those lines anywhere and still ended up with a Republican majority on the council.”
Primary Candidate Forum is March 23
The League of Women Voters Howard County Area President Christine Paszkiet announced that a forum featuring candidates running for municipal office in the May 2 Primary Election will be held on March 23 at the IUK Kresge Auditorium from 6-8 p.m. A reception will follow. The LWVHCA, the Kokomo Tribune and the Greater Kokomo Area Chamber of Commerce are forum co-sponsors.
For more information about this or other LWVHCA events email president@lwvhca.org.