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Barack Obama’s election was the first 44-year-old Willie Bellamy ever voted in. His regard for the 44th president is so passionate he collects Obama-phernalia from comic books to posters to cups to trains, including a sheet of stamps from Liberia honoring Barack Obama. Price on each stamp: $45.
Bellamy got a chance to share his collection this week with the kids at the Augusta Lewis Troup School, where he works as a security guard.
His extensive collection was one of several contributions from members of the community making up a new exhibition, the school’s first “In-House African-American History Museum.”
It fills up the whole second floor foyer, beneath the fine Amistad murals. It runs through Thursday.
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The exhibition is Troup’s way of marking Black History Month this year. It does so not only with a big dose of Bellamy’s Obama imagery – the president as “super hombre” impressed Miguel Cerda and Xiadani Minor when they came through with their bilingual tutor.
There are also biographical poster displays of African-American scientists such as Lewis Latimer who is credited with inventing the filament for Edison’s light bulb as well as designing the threading at the bulb’s base, along with a kind of history of the modern African American experience.
The head of Troup’s social studies department, Carolyn Alford, said the exhibition might be a step so that kids get beyond knowing only about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.
“We want kids to know we are pioneers in many things, and we continue to be pioneers,” she said.
She noted that her personal place of worship in New Haven, the AME Zion Church on Dixwell at Varick, was included. Varick was the site of Booker T. Washington’s last public lecture, and before that a stop on the Underground Railroad.
The genesis of the exhibition came directly out of the Troup kids not appreciating the significance of the Obama election, according to organizers.
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PTO president and exhibition organizer Yuri Maciel Andrews (shown here with her younger son Kiyu and black bookstore proprietor Bea Taylor, who also contributed items) said that a year ago her group sponsored a school-wide essay contest to answer this question: “How will the election of Barack Obama affect you and your family?”
The students’ answers prompted concern among the teachers and parents alike, and ultimately the exhibition.
All too many of the essays submitted suggested Obama was just another president, the 44th, not so different from the previous 43 white ones, Andrews recalled
“I found it alarming,” she said. “We had accomplished a dream, and the generation carrying on after isn’t even aware [of it]!”
The exhibition is making a dent in that, she said. She said she hopes the exhibition might inspire a child to be an inventor like Latimer or an explorer or, yes, a president, regardless of specific heritage.
There was no hiding the star turn President Obama takes in the exhibition, thanks in great part to Willie Bellamy.
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A security guard in city public schools for 15 years, Bellamy served as PTO president when his son was at Wexler Grant. At Troup he is also “Mr. Bellamy,” who teaches martial arts to more than 100 kids in the after-school program.
“You must be rich,” is the way he said the kids react when he shows them the Obama Berry soda bottle collection or the complete sets of Amazing Spiderman comic book issues on Obama.
“He’s the first candidate I truly believed in,” Bellamy said. He brought his 10-year-old son to the inauguration, where they collected many of the items on display. The pictured T‑shirt was the one he wore when he voted, Bellamy explained.
“It’s wonderful for the kids to see me here,” he said.
Kudos to Mr. Bellamy, Mrs. Dizier-Taylor, and Ms. Alford! It is a breath of fresh air to see people acting proactively from within schools to inform our young people that there is much more to Black History than the civil rights movement. Black History is American History.