Hamlet Senior Center honors Black History Month with guest speakers

HAMLET — The Hamlet Senior Center is celebrating Black History Month by hosting guest speakers every Monday and Friday throughout February. The celebration began with Alphonso Short, an author, speaker and life coach, who spoke on Monday.

Short addressed a range of topics, including the importance of education, giving back, resilience and history. He emphasized the significance of integrity and human connection.

“I’ve been exposed to more education that I can understand what giving back means. I learned it from my family and from my friends. No matter how much we have, we need each other. It can’t be built on your status, on your car, on the house you live in, on the community you live in. We come down to the core value of human beings is about integrity. Honesty, humility and willing to accept the diversity,” Short said.

He also reflected on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and his advocacy against economic injustice.

“In the 1960s, MLK, he stood for the world when he was standing for Black African Americans because of economic injustice,” he said.

Short encouraged attendees to recognize that history is not just something found in books or online but something shaped by everyday people. He spoke about the valuable lessons he learned from his grandparents.

“We have stories right here. We’re talking about history and having to pull something up on Google or whatever, when the stories come right here amongst us,” he said. “My grandparents have passed away. I didn’t ask them everything I wanted, but I did learn from them by listening.”

He also highlighted the importance of conversation and shared knowledge in personal and collective growth.

“The richness of the roots that we come from in the richness of the roots that still grow with all of us in. As long as we live, there’s more growing of our stories,” he said. “We may not have a platform that we go out and get to speak to people who may not be speaking, but we can share every opportunity that you can. We need to know. Knowledge is king. If we don’t share what we’ve seen and what we’ve experienced, then we’re putting it to non life; it’ll go to the grave with us and there’s things we need to know so that we can move to another level in how we deal with everyday adversities in life.”

Shaquina Carey, activities coordinator at the Hamlet Senior Center, explained that in previous years, the center hosted a single speaker for a three- to four-hour session. This year, they decided to extend the event and bring in multiple speakers at different times to better accommodate seniors.

“We decided to extend it out to have more speakers, give more people in the community the chance to give their testimonies, experiences or whatever they wish to share with us,” Carey said.

She also expressed her appreciation for the knowledge gained through these sessions.

“It doesn’t matter at what age, you can never learn enough, especially about your history,” she said.

For Short, participating in the event was not just an opportunity to speak but also a chance to learn. He hopes to continue engaging with the Richmond County community.

“It was a learning experience for myself,” he said. “I grew up in Richmond County, I’m 61 now, so I’m also a senior, but to come back and be able to give something back to the community, to be able to promote and take pride in what this month stands for African American Black history, I think it’s a great thing that the center is doing. Now that I’ve come for this, I hope I can find ways I can participate more in the community.”

Short concluded with a message about unity and love in the face of today’s challenges.

“There’s always room for us to learn and grow and we have to supersede the hate and vitriol type of spirit that is happening in the world today and we can’t win against violence by being violent,” he said. “We have to give love to one another.”