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A promising future at the Richard Allen School gala

February 10, 2019

The Richard Allen Coalition annual gala was held Feb. 2, at the Georgetown CHEER Center. More than 240 attendees filled the center to hear the keynote speaker Dr. Reba Ross Hollingsworth talk about rich heritage and how it effects the future legacy. 

Hollingsworth was nominated recently to the Delaware Women’s Hall of Fame in Dover. She is noted, not only for her work as a vice chair of the Delaware Heritage Commission, but also for her service as a life member of the NAACP, a past president of the African-American Historical Society, and her involvement in the civil rights movement. She is one of the foremost authorities in the state on parliamentary law.

Hollingsworth, 92, has traced her ancestral roots back to Harriet Tubman. She spoke of slaves who refused to compromise. Through all the years of racism and ethnic whitewashing, her ancestors retained a distinctive knowledge of who they were. “I am who I am now because my mother and father made me so,” Hollingsworth said.

She went on to list the accomplishments of Black Americans, from air conditioning and fountain pens to cell phones, explaining their innovative spirit that comes from diversity and strife. She asked that the audience look how far they have come, and called on them to “Close the pipeline that is running from the schools to prison.”  

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