CHEER celebrates Black History Month
The CHEER Community Center in Georgetown held a Black History Month celebration Feb. 28, with several keynote speakers and a live performance by Positively Toni Marie.
More than 100 people, including members of the John H. Porter First State Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, partook in the festivities.
The two keynote speakers were Andre Swygert, secretary of the Delaware chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, and Patricia Whaley-Collins from First State Community Action Agency.
Swygert, a military and civilian aircraft historian, grew up with a passion for airplanes, as his father served in the Air Force. When he first discovered the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of primarily African American pilots and airmen who fought in World War II as the country’s first Black aviators, he was baffled by the lack of literature about them.
Now, Swygert shares the history of the Tuskegee Airmen with people young and old.
“Why we honor them as we do is because not only did they achieve in the military, they certainly did that, both in combat and afterward, but so many of them did so much in the civilian sector as well – in government, in education, in civil rights, in so many areas,” Swygert said. “They were breaking down barriers in so many things. They were all, for the most part, high achievers in their own rights.”
Many of the pilots had earned college degrees, for example, an especially impressive task for Black Americans living in a segregated society.
Historians like Swygert help to keep their legacy alive.
Whaley-Collins, the other keynote speaker, talked about the Declaration of Independence and how the country’s Founding Fathers recognized common ground among the people in this country. She emphasized the importance now, more than ever, of Americans uniting, despite their differences, to help the nation.
“I think what hurts me the most is that we have so much in common, but these little minor things cause these great big fights,” Whaley-Collins said. “Let’s talk about the things that bring us together.”
Ellen McIntyre is a reporter covering education and all things Dewey Beach. She graduated with a bachelor’s in journalism from the Penn State Schreyer Honors College in May 2024, after which she completed an internship writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In 2023, she traveled to New Zealand to cover the Women’s World Cup as a freelancer for the Associated Press and saw her work published by outlets like The Washington Post and FOX Sports. She also has a variety of other reporting experience, covering crime and courts, investigations, politics and the arts. As a Hockessin, Delaware, native, she’s happy to be back in her home state, though she enjoys traveling and learning about new cultures. She also loves live music, reading, hiking and spending time in nature.
