By JUDY RATTNER
The two-hour event, whose theme was "The dream fulfilled - where we were and where we are now," included musical tributes, prayer, poetry, a time line of the civil rights movement and a mime performance.
EOC Director Ernestine Small began the evening with a welcome, noting that people of every shape and color had come to celebrate the contributions of African-Americans. She encouraged everyone to join in singing the "black national anthem," "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
EOC board member Clarence Hudson gave the invocation. "Bless the work," he said of the nation's progress toward racial equality, "and the workers."
Mayor Mary Bossart and Trustee Jeanne Mulry each echoed that idea. "This is a celebration of all the work that's been done," said Bossart.
Mulry added, "As a board member of the EOC, I've seen firsthand the wonderful work of the Head Start and the EOC."
Aileen Arroyo, director of the village Head Start Program, introduced the first musical performers, her 3- and 4-year-old students, who sang "The World is a Rainbow," a song, Arroyo said, that delivers a message of what the world should be like. She also praised the program's teachers.
Next up were students who attend the EOC's After School Youth Program, offering quotes from notable African-Americans including Quincy Jones, Arthur Ashe, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and Barbara Jordan.
The St. Matthew AME Zion Church Choir performed "Blessings Coming Through" and "This Little Light of Mine" as the audience clapped and sang along.
A time line of civil rights milestones, presented by members of the RVC Youth Interaction Program, included descriptions of the achievements of Abraham Lincoln, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington, Tiger Woods and Oprah Winfrey.
The celebration concluded with a mime performance by 24-year-old Crystal Williams of Brooklyn, accompanied by "In the Midst of it All," by Yolanda Adams, and "I Need You Now," by Smokie Norful.
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