OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – North Omaha community leader Preston Love, Jr. is preparing for his eighth annual Black Votes Matter Black History Tour.
The tour gives students the opportunity to see the places where historic moments in Black history took place.
Thursday’s announcement has special meaning as the nation recognizes Juneteenth, the day the last group of enslaved people in the U.S. found out they had been freed.
Omaha held its annual Juneteenth parade early this year, and the holiday will be part of the education students will receive when they go on Love’s tour.
“I founded the tour in 2018 to address a void in the comprehensive knowledge perception of youth of their own history,” Love said.
Students will travel the southern states, visiting historic places in Black history. Kameron Leeper is one of the students who will take the tour this year – he wants to dive deeper than what they teach in school.
“They just teach you the basics, like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks. They don’t actually go in depth about things like Black Wall Street, they don’t teach you that stuff,” he said.
The Rev. Portia Cavitt, pastor at Clair Memorial United Methodist Church, will be one of the adult leaders on this year’s tour. She said learning these history lessons will help the students deal with their future.
“It’s very important for them to know where we’ve been and what we’re going through and how we have fought to make changes and still have to make changes. That they can be the advocates that they need for this community and for the future,” she said.
Love said they will fill a bus when they take the tour, adding Oklahoma to the list to learn about Black Wall Street. Love believes this year’s tour is more important because of what young students are dealing with today.
“They’re being raised where there’s an assault on any attempt to talk history and teach history, and so my reaction to that is, we’re surely not going to stop. We’re going to intensify and we’re going to make these kids realize that their job is to keep hope alive, and keep history alive,” Love said.
The bus with 33 students will leave for the free tour on June 22.
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