Peace and Unity in Perris
By Mia Rotell
As participants called out “Peace and unity,” Mayor Michael Vargas and council members participated in a downtown march from Mercado Park to the lawn of Perris City Hall, celebrating African American History Month, Saturday, February 22nd.
Promoting the theme of diversity, “We celebrate each other,” the Peace and Unity Walk represented just that, PUHSD Asst. Supt. Dr. Shanna Egan observed. “When I look across, I see all the multicultural and multi-generational, from young to old, all different races.”
With a goal of education and enlightenment, local “star students” from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade were individually honored for their achievements.
Each was gifted a Booker T. Washington silver half-dollar. Originally minted from 1946 to 1951, this was the first U.S. currency coin to honor an African American.
Born into slavery and freed as a child by the Emancipation Proclamation, Washington worked his way through Hampton Institute in Virginia and by the age of 25, became the first leader of what is today Tuskegee University in Alabama. An educator and author (“Up From Slavery” pub. 1901), Washington was a leading black voice in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
“The point of our mission statement is to encourage and educate — it’s how these coins were used,” Bobby Johnson, Treasurer of the Perris Valley African American History Committee (PVAAHC), explained. The PVAAC organized the event.
“When we hand out the coins, the first thing people do is get on their phone to look them up. We’re encouraging African American education that way,” Johnson related. In the tradition of Booker T. Washington himself, without the aid of smartphone technology in his day.
For additional information about PVAAC activities, visit https://pvaahc.org/.
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