3rd annual “Celebration of Black Excellence” this Sunday in Elmira
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – The third annual “Celebration of Black Excellence” will be held this Sunday in Elmira. The free event runs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Faith Temple Community Church of God in Christ on 765 Harper Street. The event is presented by the community service group “Program of P.E.A.C.E. and the Ernie Davis Community Center, which is a part of Elmira’s Economic Opportunity Program.
“First of all, its honoring history, black history. We decided to create something different in Elmira, it’s all about the youth,” said Willie Owens, the co-founder of “Program of P.E.A.C.E.”
“It’s a student led program. We have students that are paying tribute to individuals that have made contributions to history,” said Chalanda Graham, the Program Manager at the Ernie Davis Community Center. It’s very important for everyone to understand the contributions that African Americans have made to history in the world. We’ll have some youths getting up doing public speaking, we’ll have some youth dancing, we’ll have some youth singing. We will also have local individuals from the community paying tribute to Trailblazers, people and individuals from Elmira that have made contributions to history.”
The Trailblazer honorees include John W. Jones, an escaped slave who helped 800 escaped slaves make their way to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Jones also worked to give nearly 3,000 confederate soldiers a dignified burial.
A’Don Allen Senior will be honored as the first black man elected to the Chemung County Legislature and Elmira City Council. Allen also served as Deputy Mayor.
Howard Coleman was the owner of Green Pastures, a legendary Elmira jazz club founded in the 1930’s.
Thomas Reid Jr. will be honored as Elmira’s first black firefighter. The Chemung County Historical Society says Reid was also a successful inventor with several patents to his name, including an in-line skate and a scooter bicycle.
“It’s very important that we recognize our history here as well as far as everybody else around the country in the world,” said Owens.
Performances will include the 607 Unity Dance School, soul singer SingTrece, the Christ Jerusalem Praise Dancers and the Ernie Davis Community Center Music Consortium Program. For the first time the event is being held at the Faith Temple Community Church on Harper Street. It’s expected to draw more than 200 people.
First “Black Community Honors” awards in Elmira
“This is the biggest version of this event yet,” said Graham. As Willie has said, the church, especially for the black community, is the foundation of our community. We thought it was important to go back to our original roots. In regard to the churches, we felt this building and Faith Temple could host us the best. It was gracious that Pastor Mann is allowing us to do our event here.”
“What are some of the biggest challenges facing the youth that you’re trying to address? What are you seeing out there? What is your overall assessment?” asked 18 News reporter Nick Dubina.
“My overall assessment, I just see right now, some of the biggest challenges that are facing our youth, their struggles academically, the street violence, drugs, and different things like that. So, part of programming is to help students develop skills and tools that they can carry to resist some of these things. We’re trying to instill some leadership characteristic in students for them to be able to stand up for themselves and walk away from some of these things that could only lead to harm down the line and to get the best academic achievement they can to further enhance their features,” said Graham.
“We do a lot of things that I do for our community because so important to teach the babies to grow and have a strong foundation and have support and let people know that we’re here,” added Ownes, “The struggles you went through, we went through the same thing. It can be overcome by hard work and perseverance. It’s about the community working together.”
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WETM - MyTwinTiers.com.
