Black History Club shares food, dreams at Larkin

Around the time the teacher stabbing occurred at Elgin High School last week, I was at Larkin's annual Black History Club lunch.

The club's 50 students had each brought "soul food" dishes from home, to serve to teachers and staff members as a show of appreciation.

Though the event usually takes place around Thanksgiving, a district scheduling change allowed them to coincide the event with the end of semester finals and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Sitting in the Blue Denim Diner, I was astounded by not only the food, but the ambiance.

The Signature Room it was not. But to see club members load teachers' plates with fried chicken, ribs, macaroni and cheese and a daunting array of deserts, to help them relax after a stressful week of giving and grading tests, was inspiring.

As their teachers ate and talked, club members handed out copies of King's famed "I have a dream" speech, and invited guests to take part in several black history quizzes.

The club, health teacher and event organizer Kathy Dickerson said, is incredibly diverse. Members come from a variety of cultures and ethicalities, tied by an interest in service and black history.

"There are students here on the high honor roll and others who are at-risk students," she said. "They're a tight bunch -- here you see the gap in the spectrum (of students) close."

Chris Cole, the club's president, said students participate in CROP walks and fundraisers, and use their Tuesday meetings to talk about current racial issues.

"It's really like a second family," he said.

Leaving the lunch, I hopped into my car and returned to the newsroom, where I first heard of family and consumer science teacher Carolyn Gilbert's stabbing at Elgin High.

That violent act has dominated the news for the past week. It its aftermath, we must certainly re-examine school safety procedures. But we cannot let ourselves forget the good things happening at the same time, either.