Saint Joseph Baptist Church in Crowley was filled to capacity Thursday night for the Black History celebration hosted by the Acadia Baptist Ministerial Alliance.
Guest speaker for the event was Lafayette City-Parish Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux, whose message incorporating the theme “Why We Still Celebrate” was both inspirational and entertaining.
Speaking to the African-American children in the audience, Boudreaux told them that they must never forget that others broke the mold and paved the way for them, pointing out that not all of those activists lived to talk about it. He told the youths that they cannot forget that and that they should be thankful to celebrate that history.
Boudreaux called upon the adults in the audience to return to the values of prior generations, including their absolute devotion to God. He urged parents to have meaningful relationships with their children and admonished against putting children out of the house before they were ready and against celebrating teen pregnancy.
He also pointed out that technology has had an extremely negative effect on youths of today, but that their access to that technology has been granted to them by their parents.
“You bought them cell phones they didn’t need,” said Boudreaux, “and now they’re texting and tweeting and you’re wondering how they learned how to twerk.”
He jokingly told the audience that they had Facebook when he was young, saying, “Every time I acted up my daddy was in my face.”
Noting that the movie “Black Panther” presents a black super hero on the big screen, Boudreaux stated that when he was growing up, there were black super heroes, but that they weren’t in the theaters, they were in the community, where it counts, and that their power came from God.
He ended by returning to the evening’s theme, telling the audience that Black History Month is still celebrated because prior generations of African-Americans earned the right to be celebrated, because those generations deserve to be celebrated and because current generations need to remember their history and track their future.
The children of various historically African-American churches in Crowley also played a large role in the program, possibly eclipsing Boudreaux’s excellent keynote address.
In addition to the youth choir of St. Joseph Baptist Church leading those in attendance in singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” youths from Grace Bible Baptist Church sang two songs, Hermione Mayfield of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church recited a poem, youths from Israelite Baptist Church performed a praise dance, children from Jerusalem Baptist Church presented a skit and Malaysia Augustus of St. Theresa Catholic Church sang a solo.
Crowley native Horatio Handy served as master of ceremony for the evening.
