When a single mother removed her two
children from the street influences of Chestertown and returned to her family's
country home five miles away in Worton, she found more than privacy and
peace of mind. She uncovered the pride of a community, the heritage of a
people whose ancestors were so much more than slaves. Growing up, Karen
Somerville-Curtis knew the strength of her own family, and she recognized
how desperately today's young people need that sense of belonging.
Her greatest success in life, she says, is not founding the African American
Heritage Council, or singing gospel music, but in raising two children in
what society considers "the projects," without them doing drugs
or getting into trouble with the law. Her daughter Nicole just turned 17.
Tragically, her teenaged son Robert was killed in a car accident last year.
As they were growing up, her children found what Curtis calls "an innate
respect for life and for themselves" by spending summers and weekends
at her mother's Worton Point home, up the road from the 12 and a half acres
that were deeded to the Freemans (Karen's paternal great-grandparents) after
the Civil War. Today, she makes her home on that plot with her husband,
James Curtis. |
"As a child, I used to walk down that long lane every day
to my grandmother's house," Curtis remembers, "and in springtime
the grass would take on the freshest color of green. I said to myself that
I'd have my house there someday. From my lips to God's ears-that's why I
enjoy living there so much."
When the people of Worton Point wanted to build a new church to replace
the rickety old St. George Church which has served as a community anchor
since 1889, Curtis knew the dream she had carried in her heart for so long
had found an outlet. She set out to create an exhibit of local history that
would encourage members of the African-American community to more fully
appreciate their own past. At the same time, she hoped her exhibit would
help put to rest once and for all any lingering racial discrimination within
the white community.
"Appreciation is way past due," Curtis says. "As African
Americans we've always wanted it and have known that we deserved it. Discrimination
is disappointing, degrading, and humiliating not only to those who are the
target, but to those who have participated in any way. Especially today-people
should know better! Bringing our history out in the open gives people an
opportunity to see how much the African Americans have done for this county.
It gives young people an opportunity to reflect on their ancestors as builders,
farmers, community leaders, God-fearing, loving people-not just as former
slaves." |
