Seneca already planning for Black History Month

February is just around the corner and the City of Seneca is already planning a huge celebration for Black History Month.  Lunney House Museum curator and director Dr. John Martin said events would center at the Lunney House Museum and focus on the city’s plans to establish the Bertha Lee Strickland Museum.  In January, Dr. Martin plans to open the museum archives.  “We are getting ready to open, sometime in January, the Bertha Lee Strickland archives that be over in the Gignilliat area and that is where all the materials will be put on discs and digitized.  A lot of the community people will come in and identify old photographs, which can help us a great deal.  So, the community is really going to be involved and they will eventually give the voice to the museum and that is the important feature.” The city has established a museum committee and is working with the community on ways to honor the area’s African-American history and heritage, explains Seneca Assistant Events Coordinator and Museum Assistant Mollie Smith. “The committee is still coming together and there hasn’t been any meetings yet but they should be coming up the first of the year, but we are always looking for people to come to us and tell us history that they know or anything that they have.” Early plans for the city’s celebration of Black History Month this February call for artwork to be displayed at the Lunney House Museum and a luncheon, adds Smith.  “Like we did last year, a big Black History luncheon and stuff like that, so we are really excited about that there are some big plans for that, but they are still working out some date issues and everything.” Plans for the new Bertha Lee Strickland Museum celebrating the area’s African-American history and heritage are to be announced at the luncheon.