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Minutes 6.11.2020NEW HANOVER COUNTY MANAGER’S OFFICE / DRAFT Meeting Minutes NEW HANOVER COUNTY COMMISSION ON AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY, HERITAGE & CULTURE (NHCAAHHC or Commission) Finance Conference Room 500, New Hanover County Government Center and held virtually June 11th, 2020 – 4:30 PM Committee Members Present: In-person - Christopher Eaton, Manuel Lloyd, J’vanete Skiba, and Stephanie Walker. Virtually - Brenda Fong, Angela Gaines, Bernice Johnson, Deborah Maxwell, and George Vlasits. Ex-Officio – Jan Davidson, Historian (virtually). Public - Donna Dawson (virtually) & J.C. Smith (in-person), with Live Oak Bank, Cha Kema Clinton-Quintance (virtually), Ed Ablard (in-person). Absent: Sandra Oglesby, Cynthia Pershia, Linda Thomas, and Travis Souther (Librarian - ex-officio). Guests: Ed Ablard and J. C. Smith (both in person) Staff Present: Tufanna Bradley, Assistant County Manager (in-person). I. Call to Order Chairman Lloyd called the meeting to order at 4:05pm. Quorum established. II. Approve Agenda – J’vanete Skiba motioned to approve the agenda; Stephanie Walker seconded. Motion passed unanimously. III. Approve Minutes – Christopher suggested to change the statement that Mr. Wesley lives adjacent to the cemetery, it is Henry McNeill. J’vanete Skiba motioned to approve the March 12th, 2020 meeting minutes with changes; Stephanie Walker seconded. Motion passed unanimously. IV. Public Comments – At 4:30pm, Ed Ablard, county citizen of 7 years, spoke of his concern that the city and county are not doing anything about the re-segregation of the county’s schools. He proposed making an agenda item for the Commission in regards to pulling court records from the case in which Dr. Hubert Eaton brought in 1968 against the school system. He also suggested that he may go to D.C. to do a record check at the Library of Congress, and suggested ways to study reparations. Tufanna mentioned that some of this information in the County may have been lost to a fire. Additionally, J.C. Smith, of Live Oak Bank, requested a debrief on what the commission was working on and offered assistance with grants to restore the cemeteries, and also to help make connections with the Wrightsville Beach Museum with the purpose of research on the Shell Island Resort. Tufanna will send Mr. Smith the information she sent for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund LOI for Freeman Cemetery. V. Presentation – None this month. IV. Old Business – Freeman Cemetery Field Trip Debrief – Christopher Eaton – Chris reported that Wesley Nixon, Henry McNeill, Bill Freeman, and himself, cleared a great deal of debris and brush from the cemetery and now you can see most of the headstones. He reported that Bambi is meeting him weekly to assist with repairs. He would like to set up another field trip out to the site, so everyone can see the progress. He said he will send out pictures to the commission members. 66th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education Debrief - J’vanete Skiba – J’vanete reported that they ended up doing a Zoom webinar, instead of the in-person event, and it was well attended. Dr. LaChawn Smith (Deputy Superintendent of NHC Schools) and Dallas Brown (retired NHC Teacher) spoke. Mr. Brown reported that schools are still segregated and Dr. Smith said she was working to help fix this. They both spoke about diversity and equity training with the Racial Equity Institute using the Groundwater Approach (https://www.racialequityinstitute.com/groundwat erapproach). Additionally, they also heard from Dr. Wallace with the NAACP Health Committee (of which Ms. Skiba is a parent advocate). Committee Break Outs & Rescheduling of Meetings Outside of the Regular Meeting – Cemetery – The Cemetery Committee will try and schedule another visit out to the Freeman Cemetery site. Education – George and J’vanete hope to have something to distribute to the Outreach committee. Outreach – Angela will look into ways that the committee can possibly meet. Research – Stephanie reported the since the COVID-19 outbreak, the NC Room and the libraries have been closed, and because of that, research has halted. She would like for the committee to try and do research from home as much as possible, and also try and set up a way to share information that online somehow. The Research committee is currently researching 2 African-American resorts from the past – Seabreeze and Shell Island. Christopher said that he may have some of this information in his personal family collection that he can share. VI. New Business Vacancy Update – Tufanna reported that there were 4 applications submitted to fill the position left by Tonia McKoy. She said she will email the names to the committee. Partnership with African-American COVID-19 Community Mask & Supply Give Away – Ms. Maxwell reported that on June 20th from 11-1 at the MLK Center, there will be a mask drive-through that will concentrate on the elderly and also children’s masks and for those parents and people, who have to go to work. They will be distributing regular to X-large cloth masks, as well as, disposable ones. They also will be working on a Zoom series and will try to acquire grants to purchase masks. They will request funds from New Hanover County. Deborah will send the flyer to Tufanna and Manny, so they may distribute in their circles. Name Tags – Tufanna will do a mock up of the chosen name tag choice (1st example was chosen) with the change of New Hanover County as the wording (instead of NHC). Possible Speaker, Guest, or Presenter for Next Meeting – Travis wants to present and discuss doing Breakouts and how the Committees can work together with him going forward. Communication with the City’s Commission & Possible Joint Meeting – We may not be able to meet with them in person, but we can figure out how to partner on projects. VIII. Announcements – Fill Out Census – Ms. Maxwell said that we all need to encourage people to fill out the census. She pointed out that this information is used for historical data and research, and that being counted for the census accounts for $16,000 per person that will be lost otherwise. New NHC Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Position – Tufanna reported that with the new county position, she will no longer be in charge of monthly commission meetings, but she will make sure to be here to ensure a smooth transition period. IX. Adjourn – Chairman Lloyd Adjourned the meeting at 5:00 pm.