[Eoscstudents] "Black History Month"

[Levenia Carey]

Good Day Everyone:

Often when we think of contributions made to our lives/society - we tend 
to think of famous people and their contributions.  However, some of the 
best contributions and inspirations comes from ordinary people just 
being themselves.   Today's profiles are of individuals who have and 
should have an impact on our ways of life, but who were just being 
themselves.

Arthur Winston -  Was born March 22, 1906 in Oklahoma and died April 13, 
2006 in Los Angeles, California.  Arthur was a Los Angeles Metro 
employee for 72 years.  His hourly salary was 41 cents when he began 
work for the Los Angeles Railway in 1924.  He has set a record as the 
most reliable worker that the United States Department of Labor has ever 
chronicled. He worked for 72 years without ever being late and having 
only taken off a single day (in 1988 for the funeral of his wife 
Frances).  In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded him with an "Employee 
of the Century" citation for his work ethic and dedication.  On is 
remarkable record:  "It's easy.  You just get up and go to work."  and 
Winston on his 100th birthday, "It ain't no trouble.  You've got to like 
your job in the first place.  I don't lay around and play sick - work 
two days, sick five days.  People are just using this sick leave 
business."  The Arthur Winston Busyard (Division 5 in South Bay) was 
named in his honor in Los Angeles.  His 100th birthday advice to kids 
growing up today?  "My advice to them is to just get up and go to 
work."  Mr. Winston is a great example and role model for all.

James Cameron (1913-June 13, 2006)  - Mr. Cameron was a lynching 
survivor/author, founder/director of America's Black Holocaust Museum, 
Inc. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  On August 7, 1930 Mr. Cameron's life 
changed forever.  A day before, he and two other young Black men were 
arrested for the robbery, rape and assault of a White couple in Marion, 
Indiana.  James is in a cell in the Grant County Jail.  There is a lynch 
mob outside numbering into the thousands.  James is sixteen years old. 

The mob comes into the jail and grabs one of the men accused, with 
James, of the crime.  He is beaten unconscious, dragged outside and 
lynched.  The second man is then given the same treatment.  The bodies 
of these two men, Tom Shipp, 18 and Abraham Smith, 19, hanging from a 
tree is depicted in a famous and disturbing photograph on the cover of 
("A Time of Terror - A Survivor's Story" by James Cameron).  The mob 
than returns to the jail for James.  He is beaten and dragged out to the 
tree where his friends now hand and the rob is placed around his neck.  
It is at this moment that James remembers hearing what he describes an 
an angelic voice above the crowd say "Take this boy back, he had nothing 
to do with any killing or rape."  Suddenly the hands that were beating 
him are now helping him.  The rope is taken from around his neck and 
crowd clears a path for him to walk back to the jail.  In interviews he 
later conducted with people who were in the crowd, no one remembers 
hearing any voice.  Their reason for why the crowd did not lynch James:  
"You were lucky that night."  Though James never admitted any guilt in 
the assault (he admits that he was there), he served 4 years in prison.  
The female victim later changed her story and confirmed that James had 
no part in the assault.

Remember to visit the display in the library and keep reading.

Levenia, Marilynn, Brenton, NAACP/Psycho Club

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