Lawton entities set activities for Black History Month

Black History Month begins Thursday, and Lawton and area entities have scheduled activities to celebrate and honor the occasion.

Activities range from art displays and history presentations, to a movie and food festival. Activities include:

Feb. 1-29: Black History Month Art Show, lobby of McMahon Memorial Auditorium, 801 NW Ferris. Works by contemporary artists linked to Lawton and Southwest Oklahoma. Free. Open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.

Feb. 1: Signing of Black History Month proclamation, 5:30 p.m. in McMahon Auditorium, 801 NW Ferris. Participating: Mayor Stan Booker; George Barrett, National Pan Hellenic Council; Bishop John Dunaway, Lawton Ministerial Alliance; Maj. Gen. Winston P. Brooks, commanding general of USA Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill; Lawton Public Schools Superintendent Kevin Hime; and Cameron University President John McArthur.

Feb. 2: African Art: The Clotilda, last slave ship in the United States, virtual on Facebook at 5:30 p.m., led by Union Baptist Church. Facebook: Union Baptist Church.

Feb. 6 and Feb. 8: 31st African American Heritage Month Teen Conference: 1-2:30 p.m. Feb. 6, Central Middle School; 9:30-11 a.m. Feb. 8, Eisenhower Middle School; 12:30-2 p.m. Feb. 8, MacArthur Middle School.

Feb. 10: Project Alpha Male Responsibilities, 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m., CETES Building Room 109, Cameron University, 2800 W. Gore.

Feb. 12: NAACP Founders Day, noon, NAACP Building, 1512 Washington.

Feb. 15: A History of the Black Baptist Church in America, 6 p.m., Union Baptist Church Annex, 801 NW Ferris.

Feb. 17: Leaders are Readers: STEM Read-a-Thon, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Friendship Baptist Church, 1408 SW Pennsylvania.

Feb. 18: NPHC Soul Food Fest, noon-3:30 p.m., St. John’s Baptist Church Family Life Center, 1504 SW N.H. Jones Avenue.

Feb. 18: Community Black History Program observance service, 3:30 p.m., New Zion Baptist Church, 2101 SW N.H. Jones Ave.

Feb. 22: Soulful Story: Descendants of the Black 1000, 6 p.m., Albert Johnson Sr. Conference Center Auditorium, 102 E. Gore. Presented by Gay Pasley.

Feb 23: Unveiling of the NAACP Black Heritage Stamp, 4 p.m. Lawton Main Post Office, 501 SW 5th.

Feb. 23: Magic Lantern Film Society: “Selma,” Room 114 of the Communications Building at Cameron University, 2800 W. Gore. Directed by Ava DuVernay and starring David Oyelowo, Carman Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. campaigns for equal voting rights for African Americans with a march from Selma, Ala., in 1965. Free admission.

Feb. 24: 2024 Buffalo Soldiers Run, 9 a.m., Buffalo Soldiers Trail (3-Mile Track) at Fort Sill. Information or register at (580) 442-4329.

Feb. 24: HBCU College Fair, 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m., St. John Missionary Baptist Church, 1504 SW N.H. Jones Ave.

Feb. 24: The Living History of Black Excellence, 5-6:30 p.m. Patterson Center, No. 4 NE Arlington.

Feb. 25: NPHC Banquet: Phi Beta Sigma Inc., 6:30 p.m. social, program at 7:14 p.m., McCasland Ballroom in the McMahon Centennial Complex, Cameron University, 2800 W. Gore. Guest speaker, Dr. Emmanual Rowe.

Feb. 29: Doing the Unthinkable, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, 6 p.m., McMahon Auditorium, 801 NW Ferris. Entrepreneurialship plan discussion begins at 6 p.m., with performance by Dallas Black Dance Theatre.