Sojourn to the Past wins ANGEL Award at Atlanta ceremony

Staff report

ATLANTA

Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past received The King Center’s annual Coretta Scott King A.N.G.E.L. Award – Advancing Nonviolence through Generations of Exceptional Leadership – a youth initiative award Saturday night in Atlanta.

The Salute To Greatness Awards Gala at the Atlanta Hyatt Regency recognized the Youngstown Sojourn to the Past students for their Ohio efforts, including creating Nonviolence Week in 2010, creating a nonviolence workshop and organizing the first Nonviolence Parade/Rally in 2011.

In addition, the group asked state Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, to introduce “Nonviolence Week in Ohio” bill in the Senate. Gov. John Kasich signed the bill into law July 11, 2013.

Youngstown Sojourn to the Past alumni Serena Chatman and Micah Smith, both now Youngstown State University students, stood as they were recognized for their commitments toward keeping Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream alive.

Chatman, a 2013 graduate of Chaney High School, and Smith, a 2014 graduate of Youngstown Early College, were among a group of students who were on hand that July day in Columbus when Gov. Kasich signed the bill into law declaring the first week of October as Nonviolence Week in Ohio.

“I don’t do it to get noticed,” Chatman said, referring to her desire to do work on behalf of nonviolence. She added that she was honored to be recognized at Saturday’s event, but realizes more work toward achieving peace and justice needs to be done.

Also recognized was Penny Wells, a former social studies teacher in the Youngstown City School District. Wells founded the Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past organization and is now its executive director.

Also recognized were Jeff Steinberg, creator and director of Sojourn to the Past; and Maya Penn, a 15-year-old CEO of Maya’s Creations, who created her Atlanta-area company when she was 8.

“This award recognizes young leaders and a youth initiative that exemplifies exceptional leadership in the areas of peace, social justice and nonviolent change,” Bernice King, MLK and Coretta Scott King’s daughter, said in a news release.

Wells praised Chatman and Smith and all the Youngstown students who have gone on the trip for their work toward non-violence, including the annual parade and rally, which takes place the first Sunday of October in Youngstown.

Wells noted that she met Steinberg at a teachers’ conference in Orlando, Fla., in 2006.

“When I heard about this life-changing, history-immersion journey to the civil rights sites in the South, I immediately felt that this was ‘deja vu,’ for I grew up in the South and participated in the civil-rights movement in Alabama and Mississippi,” Wells said.

She took her first group of Youngstown high-school students to the sites in March 2007. This March will be the 10th year for Youngstown Sojourn students to participate.

It was also that year that Wells created the nonprofit Mahoning Valley Sojourn, which has a website – www.mvsojourntothepast.com – and a Facebook page.

“What makes Sojourn unique for me is that not only are students immersed in the history of the civil rights movement, but they meet leaders of the movement, such as Congressman John Lewis, Minnijean Brown Trickey and Elizabeth Eckford of the Little Rock Nine, and many others,” Wells said.

“They learn the lessons of the movement such as justice, nonviolence, tolerance, hope, compassion, forgiveness, civic responsibility and not being a silent witness,” she added.

Contributor: Vindicator correspondent Sean Barron, who has accompanied Sojourn to the Past on its trips for several years and was part of the local group attending Saturday’s awards dinner.