By Heather Posey
Staff Writer
The African American Heritage Society of Long Beach celebrated its 10th year last Saturday with its annual program and award presentation at the Burnett Neighborhood Library.
In 1997, Long Beach residents Indira Hale Tucker and Doris Topsy Elvord founded the African American Heritage Society of Long Beach in response to library budget cuts. Ten years later members old and new gathered in the library, in which they established Long Beach’s first African American Resource Center, to recount stories of their beloved organization.
“Little did we know 10 years ago that we would stand before you as an official non-profit organization of African American heritage,” said Phyllis Venable, AAHS Treasurer.
More than 60 people gathered in the library’s auditorium as the society sang gospel hymns and told stories of the people and events that brought them there and made them who they are today.
“Every Tuesday I went home and my mother would tell me about Black history and then she would take me to the Bill Robinson Theatre and we would see all the different acts,” recalls Elvord of her childhood.
And from the conception of the resource center and heritage society, she and Tucker have worked to gain awareness of what past generations have done.
“Everything your ancestors have invented is to make life easier,” said Elvord. “You know why? It’s because they did all the work.”
And with the work of the duo and its 49 founding members, the African American Heritage Society and the resource center have grown into a dedicated collection of the legacy of African Americans, far from Tucker’s stack of Black history books that she would take to her daughter’s teachers.
“They would ask me ‘where did you get this?’ and I wish I had a library where I could refer them to,” said Tucker, laughing about the irony of how a budget crisis brought the group together.
The Heritage Society also honored the library staff, awarding them with flowers and presenting them with the Blue Ribbon Circle Plaque for all of their support.
A decade later, the AAHS has kept providing black history books and even published their own, entitled The Heritage of African Americans in Long Beach: Over 100 Years. With this book, Tucker proposed to Long Beach residents a new challenge, a grandparents reading program to teach future generations about their heritage and what it means to them.
