New Visions School students celebrated the issuance of a new postage stamp commemorating civil rights activist Rosa Parks with a special assembly honoring Parks and her role in the struggle for racial equality. Freeport postal office employees Clifton Johnson and Roxanne Green were on hand to perform a formal unveiling of the new stamp.
"The day that Rosa Parks exhibited her courage, she was standing tall for her rights and the rights of everyone in this nation," said Freeport Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kishore Kuncham, referring to Parks' arrest for refusing to vacate her seat for a white passenger on a bus in Alabama in 1955. "I ask every one of you to be fearless and courageous and stand up for anything that is not going right."
The assembly was part of the New Visions Black History Month celebration and featured third- and fourth-grade dual language students, under the direction of music teacher Ruth Breidenbach, singing the traditional spirituals "Sun Don't Set in the Morning" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." In addition, Michael DeGennaro's fourth-grade class performed an insightful skit about the lasting impact of Rosa Parks' actions, and the school's Speak Out Loud group, directed by Dr. Marie Codispoti, offered historical perspective.
The program was coordinated with the help of African-Atlantic Genealogical Society President Julius Pearse and Executive Director Joysetta Pearse.
"Because of people like Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, we in Freeport can celebrate the many, many ways we are alike and the ways that we are different," said New Visions Principal Renee Crump-Dedmon in her address to the family, friends and community leaders in attendance.
