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Lockwood exhibition celebrates Black History Month
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Contributor
"We Are America: Voices of Black Achievers," a free exhibit of memorabilia celebrating African-American achievement in the United States, is on display in Lockwood Memorial Library, North Campus.
This is the fourth year that Ron
Weekes, shown above with a photo of Josephine Baker, has put together an
exhibit of autographs and memorabilia for Black History Month in
Lockwood Library.
PHOTO: STEPHANIE HAMBERGER
Autographs of legendary civil rights activists Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks are among the highlights of the exhibition, located on the second floor near the circulation desk.
The collection of authentic autographs, signed documents, photographs and historical memorabilia is on loan to the library courtesy of Ron Weekes of Weekes Autographs.
Weekes, a staff member in the office of the director of athletics, has been a dealer in historical documents and autographs for more than 40 years. He specializes in several areas, including U.S. presidents, 20th-century poets and authors, vintage Hollywood, and popes and saints, with a particular interest in black America.
Weekes says the Lockwood exhibition includes an autograph of Paul Robeson, a prominent African-American leader who possessed a remarkable range of talents.
"We added Robeson to the exhibit, not only because he was a great actor, singer and civil rights activist, but also because he was an accomplished athlete"—a two-time football Hall of Famer, he says.
Statesmen, musicians, authors and academicians are all represented, among them Booker T. Washington, Josephine Baker, Henry Louis Gates, William Warfield and Gladys Knight.
This is the fourth year that Weekes has put together an exhibit for Black History Month at UB. Past exhibitions have included photos of poet Gwendolyn Brooks, an autographed manuscript page from author Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon" and a display of autographs of Texas Rep. Barbara Jordan.
Weekes grew up in Seattle and was befriended by Wing Luke, a friend of the family. Luke, a Seattle city councilman, sparked Weekes' interest in autographs at the age of 12 when he obtained for Weekes an autograph of President John F. Kennedy. Weekes immediately was hooked, and has amassed an inventory of more than 5,000 documents over the years.
"It's one thing to read about history from a theoretical perspective," Weekes says. "It's quite another to actually see a handwritten letter of Frederick Douglass or Dr. (Martin Luther) King talking about the struggle for freedom, and to hold it in your hand. You're touching history. It's an immediate connection.
"Black history is so compelling," Weekes says. "Read Washington's 'Up from Slavery,' Ethel Waters' 'His Eye Is on the Sparrow' or Roland Hayes' 'Angel Mo and Her Son Roland Hayes.' These are epic struggles against great odds," he says. "We are all enriched by their journey. For me, it is a privilege to own and share these fragments of history with others."
Judith Adams-Volpe, director of communication and development for the UB Libraries, calls the photographs in the exhibition "poignant, intriguing and dramatic."
"They are accompanied by quotes by the individuals that reveal their dreams about justice and freedom," Adams-Volpe says. "Especially moving for us now are marvelous photographs of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, two leaders that our country and world will greatly miss."
King died last month, while Parks passed away in October.
"We Are America: Voices of Black Achievers" will be on display through March 10.