The Town of Oyster Bay honored Black History Month on Wednesday night with music, prayer and reflections on both national and local history, drawing elected officials, clergy, educators and residents to Town Hall North for the annual celebration.
The program opened with a brief video presentation before Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino welcomed the audience and detailed the town’s efforts to expand cultural programming. He emphasized the importance of respect and kindness starting in the home, and how building that respect shapes the next generation.
“I believe people are taught hate, and that we’re not born with hate in our souls,” Saladino said. “Just the same way hate can be taught, love can be taught, respect can be taught.
The supervisor later shared a personal story about his father’s friendship with Edward J. Perkins, a former U.S. diplomat and ambassador to South Africa under President Ronald Reagan, who served with Saladino’s father in the Marine Corps’ Criminal Investigation Division during the Korean War. Saladino urged the attendees to continue telling the stories of African-American leaders whose contributions may not be widely known.
The Rev. Adika Roberts, of Mount Olive Baptist Church in Oyster Bay delivered the invocation, and members of the Black Voices of Nassau County led the audience in the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is also known as the Black national anthem.
Deputy Nassau County Executive Anissa Moore, representing County Executive Bruce Blakeman, gave a wide-ranging address that highlighted African-American history on Long Island. She emphasized that that history extends beyond well-known national figures.
“Black American history is American history, and Black History Month allows our nation to learn that we are more than just Dr. Martin Luther King and Barack Obama,” Moore said. “We have a rich history, and tonight there are many reasons to rejoice, for black Americans are a resilient people.”
Moore traced the presence of Africans in New York back to the 1600s, and spoke about the pivotal role that Long Island communities such as Westbury and Jericho played in the Underground Railroad. She noted that formerly enslaved people founded agricultural communities in areas including Glen Cove, Lake Success and Manhasset.
She also mentioned African-American inventors whose innovations continue to shape daily life, including Lewis Latimer’s work on the light bulb, Garrett Morgan’s traffic signal and Marie Van Brittan Brown’s early home-security system.
“Every time we stop for a light, that was a Black inventor,” Moore said. “Every time you use a hair brush, that’s a Black invention. That’s an American who did that.”
Moore reflected on her own family history, explaining that her great-grandparents were born into slavery in the Carolinas.
“I was still alive when I got to see my great-grandparents,” she recalled. “It’s only one generation from that. But that’s the beauty of America. America makes all things possible.”
Lionel Chitty, Nassau County’s executive director of minority affairs, encouraged residents to learn more about local history, and to visit area museums and the Oyster Bay Historical Society. He described how he had shared some of the Black history of Oyster Bay with his staff, and how stunned even they were not to know the local legacy in their own backyard.
“You would be amazed at what great history is right here in Nassau County and right here in Oyster Bay,” Chitty said. “Black history is American history, and Black History Month is every month.”
Randall Edward, vice president for student affairs at SUNY Old Westbury, told a story about growing up in South Jamaica, Queens, and being told by a school guidance counselor that he was “not college material.” He credited a social studies teacher, who introduced him to the autobiography of Malcolm X, with changing the trajectory of his life.
“That history that I understood in that book that I read told me, ‘Look, you are part of a legacy of greatness,’” Edward said. “So that’s greatness in you.”
Edward said that learning history instills dignity and progress, echoing the words of historian Carter G. Woodson, who launched Negro History Week in 1926, the precursor to Black History Month.
“We are standing here before you because many, many, many people decided to do the right thing,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that we are perfect, because you can do the right thing and not be perfect. We’re probably all sitting here doing that, but just keep in mind that the essence of love needs one human being to embrace and the other human being to give.”
Denise Evans-Sheppard, executive director of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, focused her remarks on Oyster Bay’s deep African-American roots. She described Thomas Gall, the first person freed from slavery on Long Island, who she said was emancipated in 1685, and later purchased land in the Pine Hollow area.
Evans-Sheppard also spoke about her great-great-grandfather, David Carll, who served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War, and about African-American families that migrated from Accomack and Exmore counties, in Virginia, to Oyster Bay in the 1930s, seeking better opportunities.
“Many people aren’t aware of Tom Gall,” Evans-Sheppard said. “People aren’t aware of David Carll, or any of the local history that’s here online. We were part of the civil rights movement, we were part of the economy, the maritime industry, the whaling industry, most of our families were part of that, such as my own.”
Throughout the evening, speakers returned to a common theme that Black history is inseparable from American history, and from the history of the Town of Oyster Bay. Despite the harsh weather, which reduced attendance, officials said they planned to continue hosting cultural programs throughout the year.
“Let’s continue to celebrate Black history,” Moore said. “Let’s continue to celebrate each other.”
