El Paso to honor blacks’ contributions to art, culture

Nationally acclaimed poet-activist Sonia Sanchez will read some of her work Feb. 25 as part of the many stellar events scheduled for Black History Month in El Paso.”She is a premier poet who wrote about the 1960s and is of the same stature as Angela Davis and Alice Walker,” said Maceo Dailey Jr., director of the African-American Studies program at the University of Texas at El Paso. “She has received and has been nominated for many literary prizes.”

On Feb. 16, Dailey will give a presentation, “El Paso’s Enduring African-American Community and its Place in African-American History,” at the El Paso Museum of History.

He will talk about the role of black people in this region from the Spanish conquest up until the call for desegregation and the trailblazing 1966 NCAA National Championship basketball team from Texas Western College (now UTEP).

Read more about African American contributions in El Paso and the Black History Month events at El Paso Times