Black History banquet set for Saturday
Meet Me at the Court and The Bailey Family will help kick off Black History Month with the 10th annual Black History Person and Youth of the Year Banquet and awards presentation.
The event is set for 6 p.m. Saturday in the Parish Hall of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 512 Champagnolle Road.
The banquet is free and open to the public. A soul food dinner will be served.
“Unity Begins With You and Me” is the theme of the 2024 BHPYYB.
Veronica Bailey, president and CEO of Meet Me at the Court — a nonprofit, community-service organization — said she has been inundated with inquiries about the annual event, particularly from people who are eager to learn about the 2024 honorees.
“We haven’t even done much to publicize the banquet and I have been getting a lot of calls. People want to know who the honorees are and who the guest speaker is,” Bailey said.
She said she has also received several questions from people who “can’t believe that (the banquet) free,” including dinner.
“I tell them that we don’t charge admission and you get a hot soul food meal at no charge. It’s open to the community, to anyone who wants to come,” Bailey said with a laugh.
This week, she sought to satisfy the callers’ curiosities by announcing this year’s honorees and award recipients.
The purpose of the BHPYYB is to celebrate Black history, heritage and culture by highlighting notable people, children and adults, who make an impact in El Dorado and Union County.
Honorees are recognized in the areas of education, sports, business and community service.
Bettie Elerson, a retired educator, will deliver the keynote address for the BHPYYB.
A native of Magnolia, Elerson earned a bachelor’s degree in English Education in 1961 from Arkansas
AM&N, now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
She further studied English and English Literature, respectively, at the University of Arkansas’s flagship campus in Fayetteville and Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
In 1968, Elerson graduated with a master’s degree as a Reading Specialist from Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.
Elerson taught at Washington
High School from 1961 until El Dorado public schools integrated in 1969.
Following desegregation, Washington High, which served Black students, became Rogers Jr. High School and Elerson remained there until she retired in 1995.
When asked about her most memorable moment as an educator, Elerson replied, “When a student comes back and tells you that they appreciate what you tried to teach them.”
Elerson is a member of Douglas Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, where she serves as a teacher for the Deborah Circle and general mission and as assistant teacher of the couple’s Sunday School class.
Elerson was married to the late George Elerson Jr. for 28 years.
Gospel music will be featured prominently in the entertainment portion of the BHPYYB program, with a theme of “Get Aboard the Gospel Train.”
The gospel theme was selected in honor of Bailey’s late sister, Sharion Bailey Whitlock.
Bailey has said that the formation of Meet Me at the Court was inspired by Whitlock, who passed away in 2012 following an illness. She was 51.
Bailey has said Whitlock had a passion for helping others and gospel music, among other pursuits.
Whitlock sang gospel music with her church choir at Greater Paradise Baptist Church and performed on state and national stages, Bailey said.
“Gospel singing was her gift that God gave her and she loved sharing it every chance she got,” said Bailey.
“God will be the conductor of the gospel train (for the BHPYYB) and the gospel train leaders will be Minister Estella Sanders, Carolyn Norman and the New Olive Branch Baptist Church Mass Choir under the direction of Larry Woods,” she continued.
Sharon Modica will perform a gospel solo.
Syletta Snowden will recite the poem “Praise Song Challenge” and Jimmy Howard will deliver Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
The audience will be invited to participate in a rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, a hymn that is also known as the Negro/ Black National Anthem.
Brenda Stanley will serve as the Mistress of Ceremonies.
HONOREES
Honorees for the 2024 BHPYYB awards are:
• Breanna Malone, 16, Youth of the Year.
Malone is an 11th-grade student at Parkers Chapel High School. She said her favorite subject is literature.
Malone plans to attend college and study orthodontics.
She has been a member of Meet Me at the Court for seven years.
Malone is the daughter of Candiace Carter and the granddaughter of the late Carolyn Brice, who was affectionately known as “Mom-Mom.”
• C.C. Chew, Business. The catering business was founded in 2021 by the late Cleothis Jamerson and his wife Cacita Jamerson.
With a business motto of “A Little Taste of Home Made With a Lot of Love,” C.C. Chew’s specializes in cakes, pies and “soul food like grandma used to make.”
• Whitney Frazier, Sports. Frazier, a 2011 graduate of El Dorado High School, began playing basketball at the age of 9 at the Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado.
Growing up, she played on AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball teams during the summer and teams at Washington Middle School and Barton Junior High School, as well as EHS, during the school year.
The standout forward and guard led the EHS Lady Cats to a state high school championship win in 2011 and was named the MVP for the year.
Frazier went on to play for the storied Lady Techsters basketball squad at (Ruston) Louisiana Tech
University.
After graduating from Tech in 2015, Frazier joined professional women’s basketball teams in Finland and Iceland, taking home the Icelandic Cup for Iceland in 2018 — which, she has said, is the high point of her playing career.
Frazier has cited the late Kobe Bryant and Candace Parker as her favorite NBA and WNBA players.
Frazier is the head coach of the Lady Cardinals basketball team at Camden Fairview High School.
She also teaches girls’ P.E. and Health and Wellness classes at the high school.
• Kathay Walter, Education.
Walter, a graduate of Norphlet High School, majored in Early Childhood Education at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia from 1974 until 1979.
She followed up her undergraduate studies with a master’s degree from Ouachita Baptist University, also in Arkadelphia; bachelor’s and master’s degrees from United Theological Seminary Bible College; and an honorary doctorate in divinity from the Detroit International School of Ministry.
Throughout her career as an educator, Walter taught at multiple schools in Union County, starting in 1981 at Gardner-Strong Elementary School.
She then moved on to the El Dorado School District, teaching classes from 1985 until 2015 at Fairview and Morning Star kindergartens; Southside, Retta Brown, Hugh Goodwin and Northwest elementary schools; and alternative education programs on the former Watson school campus and Murmil Education Center (2016 2017).
Walter was also a math and English instructor for adults 18 - 65 for the Opportunities and Industrialization Center, a nonprofit adult education and job-training organization.
She is the wife of Larry Walter and daughter of Minister Jimmie Faye Goodwin.
Walter is a member of New Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Norphlet, where she serves as director of music, youth leader and pastor and musician for the Living for Jesus Outreach Ministry.
• Mark W. Massey Sr., Community.
Massey is a member of the EHS Class of 1973 and a graduate of Southern Arkansas University, Paramount Beauty School and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Caregiving Certified Nursing Assistant training program.
He is enrolled in the Licensed Practical Nursing program at SouthArk, where he holds down a 4.0 grade point average.
Massey has owned Mark’s House of Beauty and Hair Design for 50 years.
He is also the owner of Massey’s Managment Services, LLC, (property management. He worked as an in-home health caregiver from 2019 until 2023.
Massey has served as a musician for several churches in the area, including Starlight Missionary Baptist Church, First Baptist Church Cordell, First St. James Missionary Baptist Church, St. John Baptist Church, all in El Dorado; New Providence; and Calvary Baptist Church in Louann.
He was the pianist for the El Dorado Concert Choir’s professionally recorded album in 1972 and has performed as a soloist and provided music for several “homegoing celebrations” in the community.
Massey has also directed and coordinated several fashion shows over the years.
He is a member of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Arkansas Cosmetology Association and National Cosmetology League.
In November 2019, Massey was inducted into the Alpha Gamma Iota Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society at SouthArk.
For more information, call Bailey at 870-310-0391.