Ken Reaves - Emancipation Proclamation Committee of Bartow County 2-29-2024

so just to introduce myself I'm Ken Reeves I'm the uh campus Dean for Georgia Highlands college and our maretta instructional site been with Georgia Highlands about 23 years I started my career in human resources for this company called Temple Inland which no longer exists and I came here my family and I came here in about 2000 and I started working for Georgia Highlands in 2001 in Human Resources spent some time in the Navy I'm a second class petty officer intelligence specialist Gulf War veteran and uh have a master's degree from Troy State University and a specialist degree from the University of Georgia go dogs what got me interested in this subject one of the thing I'm a history buff and one of our church mothers asked my wife and I to join Emancipation Proclamation committee didn't know really that much about it heard about the document but didn't really know a lot about it as far as its historical context and importance to the country and and once I started investigating it's its context and how important it was historically to our nation it really piqu my interest and one of the things that I usually say at our meetings is that I think without the Emancipation Proclamation we probably don't have the 13th 14th and 15th amendment so it was really an important document to the life of the United States but specifically the life of African-Americans and I guess in addition of one of the things that it did it it allowed African-American men to join the union Navy and army so over 200,000 those men got to fight for their freedom I think the most impactful thing that I found during the research is that the Emancipation and Proclamation even though it freed slaves it didn't free slaves in all the states some of the border states like Kentucky which considered itself neutral it didn't affect any of those any of those people that were slaves in those States and I thought that was really interesting the other interesting thing is that was a military measure and so Lincoln uh did that is probably one of the ways to hurt uh the South as far as continuing with the War I think once those slaves found out that they would be freed uh on January 1 1863 that that would cause some consternation in the South and another thing I think was really interesting about the Emancipation Proclamation is that we have a tradition here in the African-American church that called watch night services and that's one of the things that the folks did in the churches during that time they were waiting uh and hoping that the M pra Proclamation would be true and and they started on the December 31st of 1862 and 1863 the January 1st is in when they celebra they call it watch night services and that's been over 150 years ago and African-American churches Across the Nation still celebrate watch night services you got quiet you must be ready to start good evening and welcome to the Bara history Museum's evening lecture for February 2024 glad to have you out tonight my name is Trey Gaines I'm director of the museum and uh on behalf of the staff we're glad you're here I just have a a very few announcements tonight before we get started but I do want to mention a couple things uh today's Thurday so Saturday will be the last day that our current Tipper exhibit on medical history here in BTO County will be open so it will close after Saturday so if you haven't seen it I encourage you to go take a look and check it out and enjoy that while it's still here and then next month on March the 21st we'll open a new exhibit on the history of cameras and photography we've got a large collection of of cameras in our in our uh collection here at the museum that we're going to bring out and show off and talk a little bit about the the evolution of the camera and I will mention that that will open on March the 21st which is not the traditional last Thursday evening lecture that we typically have every month so if you come to those regularly note that new date that's the Thursday prior to our normal date and what we're doing is we're going to open that exhibit with a reception and a preview of the exhibit and then we're going to go up to the booth museum for a program on photographer dorothia langing who was was a a well-known photographer uh and did a lot of Western type uh photography and she's her granddaughter and a family friend will be here to talk about her and her life and her work so we're going to join the booth that evening for their lecture and open our exhibit at the same time so that's March the 21st it's also the third week of March which means that if we had a e a lunch and learn typically on the third Wednesday that would be the day before so we're not having a lunch and learn in March of 2024 I know that was confusing but so uh keep it simple no lunch and learnning March join us a week early for our evening lecture on March 21st for that exhibit opening and lecture at the booth okay and all that information can be found on our website if you uh are a member of the museum you should be getting emails from us um but you can also find that at BTO hisory museum.org or follow us on social media well without further Ado let me introduce our special guest for the evening Ken Reeves is currently the campus Dean at Georgia Highlands College uh maretta the maretta instructional site he began his career as the Director of Human Resources for Georgia Highlands college and has over 15 years experience in Human Resources management Ken has a ba in political science from the University of Tennessee an MPA in public personnel management from Troy State University and a specialist degree in learning leadership and organizational development from ug he is a Gulf War veteran serving as a US Naval intelligence specialist petty officer second class Ken is very active in the community with participation in kowas of Marietta Advisory Board chair for the United Way of cop County as well as co-chair of the Emancipation Proclamation Committee of BTO County he enjoys reading exercise and travel Ken is married to Sher who's joining us as well this evening and they have two sons Christopher and Brandon please join me in welcoming Ken Reeves thank you thank you to the ru History Museum for the invitation today it gives me opportunity to talk about the Emancipation Proclamation Committee of Barto County my wife and I have been on the committee for about 15 years I think and uh we were asked to join the committee by a church mother and she's a current even though she's in her 90s and uh I knew of the Emancipation Proclamation uh but I didn't know a lot about its historical context to the United States you know as history is taught I didn't know about June until we moved to jackon about in 1993 so so it's not unusual that I didn't know a whole lot about the Emancipation Proclamation so what we're going to talk about today I want to give a little bit of a historical context and I think why the Emancipation Proclamation is so important to uh folks who have of African ancestry so in this slide it's just a depiction of the the first time that slaves and Dent service first came to the United States the these folks were captured about 20 or 30 of them and they were captured from the San Juan Batista and they came to the shores of Fort Comfort Virginia which is now Fort Monroe Virginia in Hampton or Hampton Virginia in Hampton Virginia on the ship named the White Lion in 1619 so in the following decades these folks and their offspring would be would encounter a pretty rapid societal decline to channel slavery as a matter of fact from 169 19 to 1662 the legislators of Virginia passed a legislation that the status of a child would be inherited from their mother so you want to have Perpetual continual slavery so that wasn't a very long period of time from 169 of 1692 to 1662 where this particular thing happened so the dream of pursuit of Freedom was always Paramount to the people of African descent in this new nation so you fast forward 240 years and 240 years of enslavement for African-Americans and now the country is at War it continues to be debated that the Civil War was fought by the north to prevent the succession of Southern States and to preserve the union even though conflicts of slavery over was a major cause of the war ending slavery ending slavery initially was not the goal but the south in documentation that you can find the South was very clear in its desire to maintain slavery for economic and societal purposes so hostilities are going on a little over two years when the Proclamation was drafted and on September 22nd actually of 1862 President Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation which stated that enslaved people and those States or parts of States still in Rebellion as of January 1 1863 would be declared henceforth and forever free the Emancipation Proclamation officially was Proclamation 95 and it was a presidential Proclamation and an executive order I think it's very it was very re revolutionary at his time but this is the first time in US history that this type of Declaration had come from the federal government's executive branch but because it was a military measure many of the uh many it was limited in many ways one it applied only to States that had conceeded from the union those are tan colored States the ones that exceeded from the union like and and it was leaving slavery basically untouched in the border states like Kentucky Kentucky considered itself neutral during the Civil War it also expressly uh Exempted parts of the Confederacy that already come under Union control you see those in the blue those already under Union control in the red colored areas these were occupied by Union troops and the slaves were immediately freed by the Emancipation Proclamation but the important thing to remember is that freedom through the Proclamation was promised only depending on if the union won the war if the W Union had the lost the war then Emancipation Proclamation of course would have been null and void but I think more importantly concerning Emancipation Proclamation is that African Americans for the first time were accepted they accepted black men into the Union Army and Union Navy and so by the end of the war over 200,000 Soldiers and Sailors had fought for the union and for their freedom so the liberated became liberators now I don't know so why is January 1 important so we're going to talk about some of that here I don't know if President Lincoln at the time knew the significance of January 1 maybe was day was just turned because of the first day of the year but I'm not really sure if he know the significance of January 1 to African-Americans so during this time January 1 was known as hiring day or heartbreak day and the slave people spent New Year's Eve waiting and wondering if their owners were going to rent them out to someone else thus potentially splitting up their families according to alexic cron is an expert in history of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and a professor of history at the Southern Methodist University she said more slave people were separated from their families on New Year's Day than at any other time the ren slave of slave labor was a relatively common practice in antibellum South and a profitable practice for white slave owners and hires hiring Day or New Year's day was part of the larger economic cycle by which most debts were collected and S it's interesting to note that a former slave named sister Harrison in an interview in 1937 she said this is where the saying comes from that what you do on New Year's Day you'll be doing all the rest of the year has anybody ever heard that saying never heard that maybe just saying in the African-American Community but we've always heard that what you're doing on New Year's Day is what you'll be doing for the rest of the year and so that's where that saying came from to sort of illustrate the Heartbreak of that day Harriet Jacobs wrote in her account the slaves New Year's Day in a chapter of her 1861 autobiography incidents in the life of a slave girl she said one of these faithful days Jacob saw a mother lead seven children to the auction block she knew that some of them would be taken from her but they took all the slave trader who took them to took the children wouldn't tell her where he was taking them because it depended on where he could get the highest price Jacob said that she would never forget the mother crying out gone all gone why doesn't God just kill me so another significant about January 1 is that the federal ban on the transatlantic slave trade also went into effect on January 1 but this was in New Year's Day on 1808 and another thing about in the African-American Community another tradition which lasts until today there's a church service called watch night and then watch night this guy to start when slaves went to church to pray and sing on December 31st 1862 hoping that what they had heard about the Emancipation Proclamation was really coming to pass so so even though the theme of watch night has sort of has changed but this is why even to this day on New Year's Eve prayer services all across the nation basically for AF and African-American churches to bring in the New Year watch night that's where it goty is got where it got it start so Barto County 1929 since 1929 the Emancipation Proclamation has been celebrated and commemorated in BTO County and I'm not really certain why or what events were occurring in that time to inspire the citizens to begin this commemoration I've talked to a number of old citizens of Barto County African-American citizens some of them can't remember they in their 90s they really can't remember why it got started but I'm pretty sure it was a series of events that were going on during that time they had inspired them to do this now one thing that I do know what what what great thing was going on in 1929 for a quiz for the for the for the audience what major thing was going on in 1929 it was a great it was a started a Great Depression so the Great Depression was just now starting in 1929 and there was turmoil the start of the Great Depression and Rumblings about military actions in Europe Africa and Asia we know that later led to the start of World War II so all these things were going on at that time and so to think that approximately 66 years after the emancipation of Proclamation was issued and 52 years at the end of reconstruction as you can see from the compromise where reconstruction officially ended in 1877 even though it ended early in Georgia in 1870 and in the midst in theid Jim Crow laws that were going on at that time maybe these things inspired these folks to start the Emancipation Pro clamation to to to celebrate this time so give them a chance to celebrate something that amid all these things that were going on in the community so over the years a committed group of faithful volunteers carried on the program ensuring that this important day and the lives of Americans of African descent would not soon be forgotten during the past 90 years the committee has been has been able to Garner some outstanding local and renowned National Speakers the first program was was actually held on December 11th and didn't move to January 1 until 1936 the first speaker was the Reverend mm Moses Marquette peace in 1929 he was a renowned preacher and Pastor Meritus of the Monumental Baptist Church in Philadelphia Pennsylvania so a quiz for the audience who are the who are the gentlemen in this slide does anybody know who the gentlemen are in this slide anybody nobody knows that's okay so on your left is the Dr Benjamin Mays he spoke at the at the event in 1969 now he was a minister and longtime president of Morehouse College and also the mentor to Martin Luther King Jr the gentleman on the right is Martin Luther King senior so Martin Luther King's Martin Luther King's father who spoke in 197 we also have some outstanding citizens of BTO County who spoke at the occasion those included J Mr JS Morgan he was the principal of sumon Hill sum Hill school he spoke in 1935 and I believe his descendants later became I believe the first African-American president of Carterville high school so anybody from the audience know who these esteemed people are Supreme Court Justice Benham Supreme Court Justice Benham exactly right and the lady on the left is Miss Nancy Beasley Miss Nancy Beasley was a longtime administrator and educator she spoke in 1974 in 1985 her father was ishmail Robinson whose father weighed with his brother green owned 200 acres of land out of the mission of Burnt Hickory in the Mission Road area the other son Ellis Robinson is the father of longtime Committee Member and Robinson a former BTO County teacher and the person who recruited us to this committee of course as you said the The Honorable uh justice Benham he uh he had a law office here in Carterville now I believe personally I believe that the Emancipation Proclamation was the impetus to the 13th Amendment it was ratified in 1865 which we know abolished slavery as an institution in all US states and territories now some argue that the 13th amendment was uh started convict lease and eventually led to mass incarceration that's about that s some debate also the 14th amendment was granted citizenship to all persons born in it and naturalized United States also gave us equal protection under the law which ratified in 1868 and also the 15th of men which guarant had the right to vote B not based on race color previous condition of servitude which ratified in 1870 so I believe these amendments to the Constitution it is debatable that without this document and in the American psyche these amendments would they have existed as soon as they did I don't think they would have so today we celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation on a yearly basis on what we usually that we rotate through African-American churches in BTO County have about 20 members in the committee and we get a lot of in kind assistance from community members we have two awards that are distributed to local citizens one is the mentor award and it's given to individuals that positively pour life into young people and the Citizenship Award is given to individuals who are active in the community we typically give out these Awards to someone who is at the host church we also provide two scholarships this year was $500 to deserving students the committee also recognizes new local African-American businesses and this is in homage to the many past black businesses that populate Barto County and Carterville like nationally alone restaurant owner hamburger bill on Church Street and the Carterville tning Taylor shop in the old blue front area which I think is right around the corner so we consider this commemoration to be a a labor of love and an important moment in the life of the United States a giant step to ensuring that all Americans live a life of Liberty and freedom as we continue to pursue a more perfect union and I'll take some questions now if any questions I'll take some questions I have a comment sure I question your security in that top right hand uh photo in the very back row how did that gentleman get in there had to make sure you're in the photograph Lance I understand you had said in uh one other time I heard you speak on this you uh spoke about the emancipation Proclamation allowing people to serve in the military but you also said that it played a role in keeping Europe at Bay um because they actually wanted to come in and protect the cotton trade and the fear by Abraham Lincoln was that that would happen but by bringing uh the the the message that it was really a war about ending slavery it kept Europe at Bay you said um and I and it really the the War I guess you all know the war evolved over time and um you know from keeping a union together until finally it became it became the war for for in slavery which is really one that the two things and so I don't the country has you know people say the country is divided now I don't see how the country could be even more divided back then we actually at war with each other and so the cotton trade the slave trade was such a big Enterprise in the United States and uh it wasn't just here in the South they had insurance companies in the north companies in the north who were who who uh manufactured the cotton they were sending cotton overseas European European folks had investment at the United States so it was really a worldwide worldwide Enterprise and um and so it's really really hard to imagine the magnitude and the money that was being made and if you try to put your place in the folks who are in the South who who you know gaining all this wealth I mean that had to be a a bitter pill to swallow to say hey you we're taking away we're going to take away this this lifestyle that you have become accustomed to as wrong as it may have been but we're going to take this away from so I mean you can understand that the Dynamics of hey you going you're trying to take away my livelihood and U and so so it was it was it's more of a more I look at slav the more I read about it I realize how how tremendous uh how tremendous it was as an Enterprise and how wealthy people became and how was really a global type A glob type Enterprise anything else and you um had said that Europe had done away with the slave trade long before we had here so that was a brilliant political move by Abraham Lincoln because he knew that based on their own history they couldn't intervene once that became the the overarching theme they had to stay out of the Civil War right had to St the Civil War you know interestly I mean know the slavery ended in Europe long before ended in the United States but we know that's that's slavery got its start child slavery the trans transatlantic SL slave trade got it start uh in Europe um we my wife and I had the opportunity to travel to Ghana on the on the Gul coast and I think the first was it Portuguese Portuguese Ford that was there or Dutch for that was there was built back in the 1400s and uh so it's a really big really big place now but you talking about in the 1400 when the F people first started coming to Africa and uh and and and exporting slaving and here the United States we know the in the United States they really only 300 some thousand slaves actually came to the United States most went to most went to South America and to the Caribbean the vast majority went to South America and the Caribbean so about 300,000 came here to United States yes ma'am um so you said you didn't know about like juneth until you moved to Texas kind of what was like your journey with that and did you live in galon I did not we uh my wife and I moved to Texas in 1993 and we had some really good friends there who really became our surrogate parents while we were there and so when it came up to that time in June it says so you all going to celebrate juneth was we were like what's the juneth and we we had no earthly idea and and they told us about the history of it and how it came about but um but you know it's I think just the way that history has taught sometime here in the United States I was an adult before I learned about the Tusk Airman and uh you know that esteemed group of of of flyers and even here in the South and really close to Tuskegee Alabama um you I was adult before I found out about that and so I mean it's really it's really unfortunate that you know being a African-American and you find out about juneth when you you know when you're you're 30 years old and and move to another state where it's it's really it's a big it's a really big deal in Texas that you probably can imagine it's a very big deal in Texas you said that's kind of on the school system though mhm so when um you so it took so long long for the news to reach Texas and was it 2 years that it took from the day the Emancipation was signed until it actually reached Texas so that was the last group of people to get the news that in fact they were free mhm think say that was I think right after the war ended in 65 is when they finally got the news finally got the news in Texas and so uh yeah it was it was that was quite a that was quite a u a revelation for me to to find that out at that time I mean I had had no idea you know and nowc you know nowc a national holiday so it was so we were sort of embarrassed that we didn't know but I'm not really sure how many people how many people west of the Mississippi knew about it you know cuz I think my wife she had never heard about it and the folks that I grew up with in Tennessee you know never heard anything about it so that's really really interesting how you have that dynamic in different parts of the country yeah yes sir I got something what you talking about about the slavery being abolished in Europe but I can't remember the year when did the British crown abolish slavery in the British Empire there's a you ever heard about that they abolish slavery across the board of course there's always an exception right Crown colonies and the mhm the US was a Crown Colony and that was so the the British it it was England it was Europe proper that it was for but any place where they had colonized um places in India and other places they were still allowed to and here carry that on yeah the tea companies and the you know was in 1833 oh 1833 so but but it but but what you said though in the in in other presentations it was just you know Lincoln wasn't formally educated but that was one one of the political things that he did he knew there was no chance for Europe cuz they had gone through these minations to get rid of it that it would exclude them and he was he was a student of history and he knew that one of the variants in the Revolutionary War was the French the H you know the the German soldiers and all that everybody wanted to take some sort of uh role in our War uh against Britain and uh he saw that coming for this one as well um yes ma'am um you said you had the opportunity to travel to Ghana um what was that like to be able to go back and kind of see all of that wow it was um it was quite an amazing experience um we've had a chance to go to to travel to Africa a couple times I've been three and um we went to South Africa first and South Africa is like you know Cape Town's like going to Atlanta yeah but uh but Ghana and I think it's it's it can be very emotional uh because you hear and you learn um really the the sorrow that those people had to encounter uh we went to kamasi which is in the northern part of of uh Ghana and you know folks would Traders slave Traders would actually you know buy folks from the king the kings were some of the Kings and the g Africa were also involved in the slave trade and the people would walk from their chained up from Kumasi to the coast and they took it to this wellplate called the slave River and the slave River to the castle was probably I guess about five or six five or six miles and so they would have them stop at their Slave River first to walk was them up they would wash them clean them up put some type of Salve on them to make them look healthy and then they would send them to to the castle and when she got to the castle it was really it was really sad because in the castle they have the dungeon area where they kept the men and they kept the women and it's probably no bigger than this room it's made of you know made of concrete and you know I'm pretty sure at night it's really dark and it gets pretty hot in there with just two people and it got really hot I mean there's no bathroom facility so the people you know they use a bathroom on the floor and they just they had to slep and and and and and and the and I think the the dichotomy of something like that is that on the top part of the castle or they call the castle is uh is a church and the church sits on top of the dungeons where you got you know where you got human beings down there suffering and sweating and and so when you you know you try to you try to put those two things together you know how do you um how do you how do how do you kind of force yourself to to not see people as human beings and then you up in you know up in a church and you worshiping The God Who made them at the same time and so that you know that's that's the part where it gets really really emotional like feeling yeah it's a really eerie feeling when you go through and you see the the the Gate of no return you know the folks who went through there never got to see their got never got to see their families again and so and so that part of was was really emotional we um it was a it was a life-changing for me it was a life-changing experience and so uh you know we would go again if we had the opportunity to but um you said it was the the Dutch the first one was I think it was the Dutch that first settled there and then I think the Portuguese came at one time and so and so it really evolved it really evolved like that but um and I think that's back in the 1400s I think when all when all that happened right I think that's right yeah that was back in the 1400s when all that when all that occurred and so it took I mean I think when the castle is pres pres it present form I think that might have been like in the 1600s when they finally went built the way it looks right now but uh but yeah yeah yeah no problem like amazing in like a emotional way it was you know it was amazing and emotional at the same time to um you know I'm here I'm here because you know somebody survived the the Atlantic you know that that that that Transit somebody survived in that's one of the reasons that that's crazy I mean it is crazy when you think about it full chills thinking about yeah yes ma'am have you been to Charleston South car I have been to Charleston Charleston's a very interesting a beautiful city it's it's a very interesting city as well and it has actually still has some of the buildings where the slave markets slave markets occurred and uh my brother I have a younger brother who lives in North Charleston and we've we've been there a few times but it's uh it's a very historic and beautiful beautiful city but a lot of deep deep history as far as the uh the slave trade is concerned I think and next had a museum there that's I think 40% of the African-Americans that came to this country came through came through Charleston so uh and I think the other thing about the uh the Emancipation Proclamation I think just in general uh from what I can assertain is how Lincoln evolved over time you know yeah it's not when the four started it's about keeping the uni which is very understandable and then how it evolved and how he evolved as a person and I think that's really an admirable it's it's an you can admire that about him about him as a person 1960 when he was campaigning I am not going to stop politicians will say anything in his biography in Abraham Lincoln's biography as a Young Man uh he was born in Harden County um Kentucky and because land surveying was in its infancy at the time there were many lawsuits where his father had property and then they moved to Indiana and then they moved to um Illinois and uh the sagol river he did a float trip down and it was very dangerous down to New Orleans and it was the first time that he ever saw a human being sold and he said the two pivotal times in his life one was when um his um family member killed a turkey out in front of their house and he didn't like that he didn't like the gunshot the turkey drop he didn't like that but he in several times in his life he referred back to that mhm um that um that no one man has the right to own another man and uh he thought you know and he also wasn't a devoutly spiritual person he wasn't that guy I mean you know um but that early on in his life he refers back to that um Mr hay was his biographer you know he that followed him around and took notes and everything and um he said that was indelible M so I just wonder uh what you were uh saying as well no offense to politicians none in the room I'm hoping but I think he said what he had to say to get elected but in his mind he said you know that's there's no way for that to be right right um U yeah you know and I think we were discussing earlier how do you go from when you're a politician especially now how do you go from you know keeping your moral Clarity and doing the right thing you know when you have all these interest and other things kind of going against you and I'm pretty sure I mean it's really I guess it's hard to imagine him being conflicted I would think uh because the country is at War and you just want the war to end and and bring the country back together again but you know those forces are still out there uh trying to divide the country and I mean very very strong strong forces and so how do you you know how do you keep your more Clarity and do the right thing uh despite all the all the forces that come up against you I'm I would guess it would be even harder today when you have to raise so much money we talking about they had to raise so much money to to run for office and you know how do you do the right thing and not do the thing that you know that somebody may have gave you $150,000 and they may want their favor and but you know do you still do you still do the right thing or do you do what's and you'll be whatever you're a one-term dog catcher you do the right thing cuz you ain't get no more money right right I mean exactly right but as Miss Linda says we're Children of the same God so we're in the same family right and there is more that unites us than separates us and we only get in trouble uh when we focus on what separates us amen Amen to that anything else thank you all so much for listening today appreciate K thank you for that U appreciate you being here and coming this morning about the work of that committee she L mentioned uh Linda we had Linda Kell here last year talking about the M committee count appreciate the the work that yall you all do in educating and and keeping that Legacy alive can I ask one more question yes ma'am um can you tell us a little bit about the organization itself um what what are your goals and uh what what do you see so we meet now we meet mostly virtually and that really came about because of covid when we couldn't get together a lot of the members I'm probably my wife and I are probably the youngest folks in in the committee right now and that's one of the reasons that Miss Robinson asked us to join because she knew some of the folks in the committee were getting a little bit older and I mean our [Music] goal our goal is basically to continue the commemoration I mean it's over 90 years that this community has has uh thought it um proper to do so and we want to keep it going as long as we can because I think again the Emancipation and Proclamation was a very very important document for in the united in the history of the United States like I said I like I said in my opinion we wouldn't have had a 13 14 or 15 amendments without it in in my opinion and so that's really the goal to keep it going I I hope in the next few years or so that we can get some younger people to kind of come along and you know maybe and you know maybe enhance it some you know we kind of follow the same format each year and I think the one of the great things is that the the citizens of BTO County supported we typically e about a 100 people at each each each one that we do and so sometime they bring their younger bring their kids or their grandkids to the to the program and I think is important like I said I wish I could have found out a lot more about how it got started and what was the reasons behind it got start I know it has to be has to be a reason why they started in 1929 but uh you know I think doing anything for over 90 years is is really is is really incredible now they didn't meet every year I think at first I counted the years that they had document probably like 10 times that they didn't meet over the last over the past 90 years I'm not not really sure why I think during World War II they didn't meet a couple times they didn't a couple years they didn't meet but um but I think you know having that type of Legacy for anything over that period of time is is really incredible and I hope you know hopefully they'll keep that going for the next 90 years and not something that we'll forget and and we try to keep the program to a point where it's upbeat it's uplifting and that anybody's invited that anybody wants to come that really just to kind of learn about you know what the program what the proclamation meant I think meant to this country you mentioned it moves around churches year we do we uh we seek out churches in the way the format we have we try to pick a church in the city limits and then try to pick a church in the county and uh we'll ask several uh several pastors if it's okay to come there and uh and have the program at their Church most of the time they they're they're fine with it we do ask the pastor if they would like to bring the message it seems kind of strange bring somebody else to talk and but some pastors don't don't mind doing that and so we and know that's us way we do so we uh we were in the city this year and I think we're going to try to go outside to a county when the county African-American County churches uh this this next this next year but um you know the the program is not hard really hard to put together like I said the the most difficult thing is trying to get us trying to get a speak and trying to find a church and everything else usually kind of Falls in place but I think just getting younger people involved and engaged and to continue this Legacy is really the thing that I'm really really concerned about so like said you know it doesn't take a a whole lot of work but I think it's it's important work to to commemorate it every year so I think Miss K Kellogg has a lot a lot diff more difficult time than I do with the MLK MLK program so thank you all thank you so much thank you all right well thank you all