WRITING WINNER

By Selah Ford-Bey, fourth grade, Englewood Elementary

By Travis Joyner, seventh grade, Southern Middle School (ENLARGE)

By Reagan Baker, kindergarten, Light of Liberty Acacemy (ENLARGE)

By Nicholas Lanier, fifth grade, Hubbard Elementary School (ENLARGE)

BY Nazha Darwech, seventh grade, Parker Middle School (ENLARGE)

ART WINNER

Hi, my name is George Henry White. I was born a slave on December 18, 1852, in Rosendale, North Carolina. As a child, I attended private old field schools before entering public schools after the civil war. I was educated at Whitin Normal School in Lumberton, North Carolina. After finishing school, I worked as a farm laborer and studied at Howard University in Washington, D.C., from 1873 to 1877.

I became a teacher and a lawyer and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1879 practicing law out of New Bern. I taught and became principal of the New Bern State Normal School, one of four training schools for African Americans.

I entered into politics as a Republican in 1880 and served one term in the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1884. I was elected to the N.C. Senate from Craven County.

In 1886, I was elected solicitor and prosecuting attorney from the second judicial district of North Carolina, a post I held until 1894.

I was a delegate to the 1896 and 1900 Republican National Conventions. 1896 was also the year I was elected to Congress and re-elected in 1898 in a three-way race. I fought against racial discrimination and urged the enforcement of the fourth amendment giving black people the right to vote.

Because of my outspoken comments for equality for black people, I have my last speech in Congress in 1901. In 1905, I moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where I practiced law and operated a commercial savings bank. I also founded the town of Whitesboro, New Jersey, as a real estate development. In 1908, I was an early member of the NAACP that has formed a chapter in Philadelphia in 1913. From that point until the day I died, December 28, 1918, I continued to fight for equal rights and equality for all.

I am George Henry White best known for being the last former slave to serve in Congress and the only African-American in 1898 to serve in the House of Representatives.

Silent

By Malik Darden, seventh grade, Parker Middle School

Sun set, sun rise

Bird rests, bird flies

Gravel remains upon the ground

Shifted by the soft movement of the wind

The world goes 'round and 'round

Suffering from sky to ground

Slowly dying as we take bites

Stinging its process

Taking away its birth given righteousness

It shrivels, it cries

Before our very eyes

We take, we make, we brake, we waste

So much lost because of greed and conquest

By ignorance and

stupidity

So much taken without repentance

Restoration full of

infidelity

Destroying the balance

of an eternal

equilibrium

We crash in the distance of cold, barren doldrums

The equilibrium has been tipped for the bad

Destroying ourselves makes the most of us sad

Fidelity has been lost, prejudice found

Used more often than the most prevalent ground

They ignore it as if they are not in relation

The incredulity of

self-disorientation.