BENSON – The Town of Benson and the Benson Museum of Local History are excited to announce this year’s Black History Month Celebration honoring past and present Black business owners within the Town of Benson.
In past years, the Museum has chosen an individual to highlight for their accomplishments within the community. This year, it was decided to shift focus to Benson’s Black community at large with a particular lens on business owners past and present.
“We had a lot of input from community members and they have helped guide this new direction,” explained Benson Cultural Arts Director Derrick Barefoot.
“Our 2025 Black History Month Celebration will not be focused on one individual, instead it will be focused on our community. This will be a new ‘community’ series that we can consider for future celebrations as well,” he said.
The theme will be “Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, and Empowering the Future” and the celebration will be exactly that, continued Mr. Barefoot.
“This is a great way to not only celebrate the accomplishments of Benson’s Black community, but also to help preserve our town’s history that is not present in our current collection,” he said. “Our goal is to add all the information gathered through this process into the museum’s collection.”
The Benson Museum of Local History’s 14th Annual Black History Month Celebration will be held on Sunday, February 23, 2025 at 3pm at the Barn at Broadslab, located at 4676 NC Highway 50 South. The event is free and open to the public.
As in previous years, a companion documentary to the celebration will be produced focusing on Black businesses past and present. The documentary will premiere at the celebration before being released on the Town of Benson’s social media accounts.
“We are going to invite current business owners to bring information about their business to the celebration. This will be a great time for connecting business owners with the community,” said Mr. Barefoot.
At this time, around ten businesses past and present have been contacted.
“We are also going to have a ‘honoring the past’ section in which every past business owner will be noted. We have been working with the families to gather information on each business as well as any pictures that we can display,” he added.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Katina Blue, a Johnston County native and Benson business owner.
In January 2025, Dr. Blue celebrated 30 years of service to the State of North Carolina. Over the past five years, she has served as the Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice Chancellor of Information Technology at UNC Pembroke.
Dr. Blue and her husband, Adrian, have been entrepreneurial partners since 2004. Together, they own several businesses located in downtown including BHW LLC, BHW Diagnostics, We Care Home Care, Market & Church Commercial Real Estate, Studio Restore, and Bleu Events.
“We’re excited for this year’s event and its new direction,” said Mr. Barefoot. “These businesses and the people behind them have shaped the Benson community for the better and they continue to do so — that’s what this is all about.”
Why?! Just celebrate a business in general why does everything have to include a “race” how about an American owned business? Man, y’all fall right into it every time, why?
Your post alone is a reason why.
Anything that is divisive of God’s Creation is evil…political idolatry and racism included. No politician is going to save you, me, or anyone else. We must forgive each other, drop the hostility, build each other up, and follow God. Ephesians 4:31-32 & 1 Thessalonians 5:11