Being asked to be a keynote speaker at a Delmarva event celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. on his birthday is not a new phenomenon for Dr. Clara Small. Ever since joining Salisbury University’s history department as the only African-American tenured professor over forty years ago, Dr. Small has visited almost every community on the Eastern Shore to talk about MLK but also, the importance history can play in the life of young and old who live on the Peninsula.
As told by Dr. Small in her Spy interview on the eve of her addressing Kent County citizens at its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast, the critical link to one’s past is essential for Dr. King’s dream to be a reality. For every student who learns about their family’s history, there is a new found awareness and pride in the hundreds of Eastern Shore African-Americans who made remarkable contributions to their communities. According to Small, that leads to a sense of belonging so critical to self-respect and personal success.
After being shocked by the ignorance found with her students at Salisbury about local African-American history and the men and women who paved the way for future generations on the Shore, Small started a series of books that chronicled the lives of African-Americans on the Delmarva. In her first book, Compass Points: Profiles and Biographies of African Americans from the Delmarva Peninsula, she documented the lives of 56 individuals in 2014, and now is preparing her second collection for publication that adds 64 more extraordinary lives on the Shore.
This video is approximately seven minutes in length
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