Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Youth Council of the Freeport-Roosevelt chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a Black History Month celebration last Saturday at Choice for All, a social services organization in Roosevelt. Organizers of the fourth annual event focused on honoring local community members who contribute to modern Black history.
The Youth Council is an organization that aims to help young people “learn the importance of giving back to the community” and standing out as leaders, according to Allois Douse, one of the chapter’s adult organizers. This year’s theme was Celebrating Our Living Legends, and Douse tasked the youth members with recognizing Black local legends as an important way to give back to the community and appreciate their contributions.
“We always celebrate legends who passed away 10, 20, 30 years ago,” Douse said. “This time I told them to identify living legends in our community, Roosevelt and Freeport … and they came up with the list, and it was amazing how they did that.”
The honorees were Denton Watson, a Freeport educator and activist who was a part of the original NAACP and served as their national director of public relations; Christine Waters, of Freeport, a retired state academic administrator; Marie Houanche, a Freeport military veteran and nurse practitioner, Frank Abel, a musician from Roosevelt, and Emily Moore, a Roosevelt educator and member of the Roosevelt Board of Education.
Douse expressed pride in the young members and contributors, who, she said, “run this program from beginning to end.” The young people helped secure hundreds of dollars in donations for the event. Jacob Dixon, the founder and chief executive of Choice for All, was a major contributor in addition to hosting the event.
Youth Council member Shawn Flowers, 19, one of the program’s masters of ceremonies, spoke of the benefits of being involved in the NAACP. “Being a part of the organization made me realize my potential to do great things in society for the ones who need it most,” Flowers said. “The NAACP as a whole is one of the many groups that fought for me and many others like me to be here today. It’s also an incredibly educational group, sharing experiences, events and everything else that paved the way for us to be standing here today.”
In addition to honoring Freeport and Roosevelt Black legends, the event recognized the contributions of others across the country, including Lonnie Johnson, 76, the inventor of the Super Soaker water gun, which is now worth over $70 million, and Stevie Wonder, 75, the legendary musician who was instrumental in making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a national holiday and is a longtime advocate of public accessibility. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the giant of the civil rights movement who died on Feb. 17, was also honored for his contributions to social justice and Black progress in the U.S.
Among the hundreds of attendees were Debra Mulé, the Nassau County Legislature’s alternate deputy minority leader, Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy and Board of Education President Sunday Coward.
