Community Organizer Honored

Members and supporters of Action for Boston Community Development came together Friday to celebrate Black History Month with musical performances and speeches from prominent members of the African-American community.

The day also featured a keynote address by Jean McGuire, executive director of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. McGuire was honored at the ceremony for her work in educating African-Americans, according to an ABCD statement.

McGuire highlighted the importance of the roles ABCD and METCO play in education.

“METCO is public schools, and its purpose is that of racial integration,” McGuire said. “If you have a job, and you have your children in ABCD’s head-start programs, then you can focus on your work.

“You need education to know what is wrong when something happens,” she said. “In Black History Month, you won’t know the story of the lion if the hunter tells that story.”

With drum accompaniment, six beneficiaries of METCO’s educational policies told the audience Friday of the achievements of historic African-American leaders in Boston.

ABCD officials also spoke, mentioning the programs they have run for African-Americans over the past 40 years. They also highlighted the educational programs of both ABCD and METCO.

“Since the civil rights era of 1962, we’ve been dealing with anything that concerns disadvantaged folks of color,” said ABCD Vice President of Field Operations Michael Vance. “ABCD has always been at the forefront of that. One of the themes for Black History Month this year is education. We have an alternative high school and an urban college, since education is of utmost importance to us.”

Vance also raised some of the political concerns of ABCD, responding to recent budget cuts.

“There was a $4 million cut to METCO,” he said. “That concerns us, because it means less buses and less kids that get these opportunities we give out.”

Robert M. Coard, ABCD’s president and chief executive, also stressed the increasing importance of education and learning from the experiences of African-Americans in history.

“It’s important to take part in whatever is going on around us, especially in citizenship, when America is so important in the world today,” Coard said. “We all have a part in defining what its role is.

“The point is black people — minorities in general — have not been part of America’s role in the world,” he said. “Education becomes important in voting, in taking rights seriously. It’s not in a vacuum; it’s our responsibility to what is going on domestically and internationally.”

Sarah McKay, 22, an administrative assistant for Jamaica Plain’s Area Planning Action Council, said she was there to celebrate and hear the words of her friends and colleagues.

“The things that McGuire was talking about really touched me: the power of the voter, and how we have to say the things that we want,” McKay said. “Black society in America has been one of the greatest powers of social change since the beginning of the civil rights era.

“We cannot be a solid, positive, political society without considering everyone,” she said.

ABCD serves more than 100,000 low-income Boston residents annually through its central offices and a decentralized neighborhood network of Area Planning Action Councils and Neighborhood Service Centers, according to a company statement. Some of its other services include childcare services, career development, health services, family planning and homelessness services.

A stamp honoring poet and writer Langston Hughes was also unveiled as part of the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage Series.

“The Langston Hughes stamp is part of a series we’ve had for 25 years,” said Mike Powers, postmaster Boston for the U.S. Postal Service. “Here at the Postal Service, we believe in identifying and honoring prominent African-Americans who have greatly contributed to America.”