Black History Museum Welcomes Young Readers For Contest

Story and photo by Cathy Kuehner

The Josephine School Community Museum hosted its 19th “Helen O. Carr Dramatic Reading Contest” on Feb. 15 at the museum on Josephine Street in Berryville. Seven youngsters competed in the 2nd and 3rd grade category and six students were in the 4th and 5th grade category. All read passages they selected from published fiction and nonfiction work written by or about African Americans. Each stepped up to the microphone in front of a standing-room-only crowd, made eye contact with the audience, and read with clarity and emotion.

Three judges tallied scores and awarded the top spots to Theodore Birgler and Sabre Schultz. Theodore won the 2nd & 3rd grade category. He is in the third grade at Wesley D. Tisdale School in Ramsey, N.J., and was visiting relatives in Clarke County at the time of the contest. Sabre is a fourth-grader at D.G. Cooley Elementary School. She won the 4th & 5th grade category. Prizes were also awarded for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places in both categories.

Reading Contest” is named for an extraordinary woman who was actively involved in planning the proposed Josephine School Community Museum in the late 1990s. Helen Carr was a founding member of the museum’s Board of Directors. Her interest in transforming the Josephine School into a community museum was personal. Her step-father Ralph Paige attended the school, and she herself attended a one-room elementary school for Black children.

After the museum opened in 2003, Ms. Carr organized the first Black History Month “Dramatic Reading Contest” in 2004. She also helped develop its “Book Club Series” and scholarship program for Clarke County High School seniors. She retired from the museum Board in 2016.The Josephine School Community Museum & Clarke County African American Cultural Center is located at 303 Josephine St. in Berryville. Contact the museum at (540) 955-5512, (540) 333-0692, or jschool515@verizon.net. Follow “Josephine School Community Museum” on Facebook.