Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 11-5-19

Features
Police Need Help To Solve Deaths Of Young Couple
Tampa Bay Chapter: Gospel Music Workshop Of America To Honor Veterans
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
Veterans Day is always ob- served on November 11th. For many businesses and agencies this is a holiday. This year, Vet- erans Day falls on Monday, 2019. And, veterans will be honored and recognized around the country. However, the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA), Tampa Bay Chapter, will honor several veterans of the community at a service on Saturday, Novem- ber 9, 2019. The 6 p. m. service will be held at New Mt. Zion M. B. Church, 2511 E. Columbus Dr., Tampa, Rev. Larry L. Roundtree, II, Pastor.
“We want to recognize the
veterans for the extraordinary service they provide to our country. Reaching all Branches of the service is our goal,” states Erma Griffin, coordi- nator of the program. “We not only want to minister to the soul, but also to the body and show that we care.”
Singing is not the only thing that the Tampa Chapter does. The Tampa Bay Chapter of GMWA does several events in the community. They adopt families at Christmas; assist the Tampa “Paint Your Heart Out” event; give baskets of food at Thanksgiving; and pre- pare meals to feed the home- less on the streets.
The public is invited to join GMWA to celebrate the
men and women who have protected our country, and sacrificed their lives so that we may remain free.
The veterans will be hon- ored through the art of songs and music. Each veteran will receive an appreciation award and a letter from Mayor Jane Castor.
Musical entertainment will be provided by: Janice Nunn Nelson, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir, St. Peters- burg; saxophonist Jordan Bold, and GMWA, Tampa Bay Chapter. The Blake High School Color Guard will partic- ipate on the program.
Carlton Brown is the Chapter Representative.
In a recent photograph Tia Pittman and Stanley Peck are shown before the birth of their daughter. They were fatally in- jured by gunfire last Thursday.
Detectives with the Tampa Police Department are con- tinuing their investigation into a double murder. The crime took place last Thurs- day morning in the 1700 block of W. Walnut.
The shooting was re- ported to police at 7:14 a.m. When officers arrived at the West Tampa home, they dis- covered an adult male dead and an adult female in serious condition. She was trans- ported to a local hospital, where she died as a result of her injuries.
Detectives are asking members of the community to provide assistance in solv- ing this crime. They had re- cently moved into the area and were the parents of two small children.
According to the Tampa Police Department, officers responded to the 1700 block
of W. Walnut in reference to shots being fired in the area. When the officers arrived at the scene, they found two adults suffering from gun- shots.
Police have not identified the victims. However, family members identified them in local published articles. Ac- cording to the articles, the woman was identified as Ms. Tia Pittman and the man as Stanley Peck.
According to that article, Ms. Pittman had just given birth to a baby. The infant and their other child were- home at the time of the shoot- ing.
Police have not uncovered a motive for the shooting. They are asking anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay at 1- 800-873-TIPS or online at www.crimestopperstb.com.
Civil Rights Exhibit In St. Pete
The Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg is celebrating African American achievements and triumphs during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s.
“Beaches, Benches and Boycotts” is a 3,000 sq. ft. ex- hibit that includes artifacts, photographs, documents and stories of African Americans who came of age during that era. Exhibits from the segre- gated Middleton High School (Tampa), Gibbs High School (St. Petersburg) and Booker High School (Sarasota) are a major part of the displays. They will be on exhibit until March 1, 2020.
The museum is located at 55 – 5th St. So., in downtown St. Petersburg. For more in- formation, call (727) 820- 0100 or visit flholocaustmuseum.org.
“This is something all the adults, students, teachers and parents in Hillsborough County should see,” said Fred Hearns, who loaned the mu- seum his high school jacket from Middleton to display. “This exhibit is on a level with
C. Fred Hearns is standing in front of his Middleton High School Jacket that he wore prior to graduating from Mid- dleton in 1966.
that at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D. C. The difference is that this museum in St. Petersburg tells a local story: it’s all about the Civil Rights struggles, tri- umphs and the legacy of Black people who challenged the system of Jim Crow segrega- tion and discrimination in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota – and won. The struggle continues, but the
A genuine Ku Klux Klan outfit with hood.
1960s marked a turning point for all of us. If you can’t travel to Washington, D. C., Mem- phis, Jackson, Mississippi, Birmingham, Montgomery, or Atlanta we can all travel to downtown St. Petersburg. It’s well worth it.”
The exhibit includes, among other things: local African American high school yearbooks, photos, newspaper accounts of the “Courageous 12” (Black police officers in St. Petersburg, who filed a law suit in 1965 against the de- partment’s racist policies), photos of wade-ins at the Gulf Beaches, one of the many green benches that Blacks could not sit on from down- town St. Petersburg, a genuine Ku Klux Klan outfit, a photo- graph of a lynching from this area and stories about Robert “Bob” Saunders and the Florida NAACP.
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