Black History banquet scheduled

Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb will speak at this year's Black History banquet in Mountain Home.

The Mountain Home Community Black History Committee will hold its 24th Annual Black History Banquet on Feb. 15 at the Elks Lodge 325 S. 3rd West St.

The theme is "At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington."

The social hour begins at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $30 per person. Dress is "business attire."

For more information, call 587- 3227. Those attending are asked to RSVP by Feb. 12.

The featured speaker for the evening will be state Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, (D -- Dist. 19), the first African-American elected to the Idaho Legislature.

Buckner-Webb was elected to the Idaho Senate in November of 2012 after serving one term in the House of Representatives. She is a fifth-generation Idahoan and long-time Boise activist and businesswoman

Buckner-Webb is founder and principal of Sojourner Coaching, a consulting firm providing coaching, organizational development and motivational presentations.

Her international business background includes positions as Culture and Diversity Global Program Manager and Americas Region Sales and Marketing Development Manager for computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard.

Buckner-Webb has served on the boards of a variety of community organizations, including the Idaho Commission on the Arts, Planned Parenthood of Idaho, the March of Dimes, and others.

She also co-founded the Idaho Black History Museum and TVTV Public Access Television.

Buckner-Webb graduated from George Fox University with a B.A. in Management and Organizational Leadership and earned a Master of Social work degree from Northwest Nazarene University.

The banquet will celebrate two major anniversaries in the Civil Rights movement, both of which changed the course of the nation -- the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, 150 years ago, and the 1963 March on Washington, 50 years ago.

Those events were the culmination of decades of struggle by individuals, both famous and largely unknown, who believed in the American promise that "this nation was dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Separated by one hundred years, they are linked together in a larger story of freedom and the American experience, a spokesperson for the committee said.