Speakers and performers at the Radford High School Black History Month assembly gather during the event.
Heather Bell
RADFORD – Radford High School recently celebrated Black History Month with a schoolwide assembly featuring RHS alumni and Radford University students.
Cleive Adams, athletic director of Ferrum College and a former football coach at both Averett University and Ferrum, and his younger sister, India French-Adams, the head and founder of Phoenix Montessori Academy in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, were the keynote speakers for the event, held Friday, Feb. 28 in the RHS auditorium. Adams and French-Adams are both Radford High graduates.
“As students at Radford High School, they both participated heavily in sports teams and excelled academically,” reported Serena Moore, English teacher at RHS and organizer of the event. “Each speaker proudly said they “take a piece of Radford” with them wherever they go. Their insights and accomplishments were genuinely inspiring.”
In addition to Adams and French-Adams, the event also included a step dance performance and a history lesson on the “Divine Nine” fraternities and sororities, which are Black Greek-letter organizations (BGLOs). The “nine BGLOs that comprise the National Pan-Hellenic Council, known as the Divine Nine, have an impact on community service and civic engagement, through outreach programs that include literacy, professional development and voter registration,” according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“Jasmine Joyce, a Radford University student, provided a brief historical timeline of the inception of the Divine Nine fraternities and sororities,” said Moore. “There were representatives from several of the nine in attendance. The Radford University Divine Nine step presentation added a vibrant cultural element to the event, highlighting the significance of Black Greek letter organizations in our community.”
“It was a powerful and uplifting celebration of Black history and heritage,” Moore continued. “We hope to present a program in the years to come.”
Black History Month originated from the ideas of historian Carter G. Woodson and Black students and educators at Kent State University. Woodson chose February because it is the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month nationally.
