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THURSDAY. MARCH 5. 2015 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 7A
FFA finishes strong at Junior National Livestock Show
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Flakes of snow were flying
through the air as the last pigs
were loaded on the trailer at PHS
on February 18th in preparation
for the trip to Perry, Ga. for 2015
Georgia Junior National Live
stock Show and Rodeo.
The cold, snowy weather at
the time of departure would
prove to be a signal of things to
come for the livestock ex
hibitors.
Although the Pickens contin
gent had to suffer through the
coldest weather in memory for
the State Shows, the group
turned up the heat in the show
arena with a number of Pickens
exhibitors placing high in the
show order.
On Thursday, it was all about
Showmanship. In both the beef
and swine arenas the judging
would concentrate on the stu
dent’s ability to exhibit their an
imals according to accepted
industry standards and the judges
own criteria.
In the swine arena, two Pick
ens exhibitors rose to the occa
sion and gave the other
exhibitors a run for their money.
In the Eleventh grade class both
Haley Smith and A.J. Norton
were selected from their respec
tive heats to return for the final,
championship drive for the class.
Although Smith was sifted out,
Norton hung on and placed 7th
for the Eleventh Grade Show
manship class; no small feat con
sidering there were
approximately 125 exhibitors
when the class began.
The shows got underway on
Friday with the emphasis shifted
to judging the animal rather than
the exhibitors. In the beef arena,
all of the Pickens exhibitors
made the top ten with Tyler
Cantrell finishing in 10th place,
Morgan Kellogg with a 4th place
finish, and Johnson Collins tak
ing home the ribbons for 4th and
6th place. Meanwhile, in the
swine arena, Courtney Painter
set the bar with a blue ribbon in
the second class of the barrow
show. Savanah Rewis followed
later in the morning with 7th
place.
Later in the afternoon. Mason
Moore took 9th place honors fol
lowed by Ariel Pritchett in 3rd
place. Of the five Pickens market
hogs shown on Friday, four took
top ten honors.
The exhibitors returned to the
fairgrounds on Saturday for the
final day of the Market Hog
Show. Lane Childers was Pick
ens County’s first exhibitor of
the day and walked away with
7th place. A few classes later,
Jerry Nelson sifted toward the
top of the class and took 3rd
place honors.
Haley Smith followed in the
next class with 10th place. Pick
ens exhibitor, A. J. Norton
capped off the show with 8th
place honors in his respective
class. The final tally showed that
the Pickens County FFA had a
total of eight exhibitors that
made the top ten cut in the Mar
ket Hog Shows.
The Georgia Junior National
Livestock Shows marked the end
of the 2014-2015 Livestock
Show season. The season has
been marked with many suc
cesses among the exhibitors.
Many will start new projects
later in the year, while for the
seniors, the show marked the end
of their show career.
A big Thank You also goes
out to all of the parents, spon
sors, and supporters who help
make the livestock program a
success for Pickens County FFA
A.J. Norton placed 8th with his market and placed 7th out
of approximately 125 exhibitors in the Eleventh Grade Swine
Showmanship Class.
Senior Johnson Collins wrapped up her show career with
a 4 th and 6th place at the 2015 Jr. National Beef Show.
Black History Month: Celebrating great writers
Senior Jerry Nelson fin
ished his show career with
3rd place in the Market Hog
Show.
Haley Smith drives her
hog to the pen after making
the cut in the Eleventh Grade
Showmanship Class. She
also placed 10th in her Mar
ket Hog Class.
By David R. Altman
Progress Books & Writers Ed
itor
Black History Month just
wrapped up with the contribu
tions of African Americans cele
brated in schools, businesses and
in the media.
Who were the greatest black
writers in our country? That’s a
hard one to question, as we don’t
normally think of writers as ei
ther black or white, but rather
how well they write and whether
we like their writing.
Here are my Top Five, and
this is coming from a 62-year-old
white man who probably isn’t as
educated on this subject as he
should be.
But “greatest” comes in all
forms, and here are my top 5
writers who also happen to be
black:
• Toni Morrison—She was
the only black female to ever win
the Nobel Prize for Literature
(for her book Beloved, which
was published in 1987 (it was
later a film starring Oprah Win
frey and Danny Glover).
Ms. Morrison, who is just
turned 84, also won a Pulitzer
Prize and a National Books Crit
ics Circle Award and was
awarded the Presidential Medal
of Honor. Her 11th novel, God
Help the Child, will be published
this coming April.
• Langston Hughes—One of
the nation’s greatest poets, who
was a major part of the Harlem
Renaissance in the 1920’s.
Hughes’ poems focused on
everyday themes of African
Americans, including the title
poem to his book “The Weary
Blues. ”
He is often believed to have
read his poems in front of more
people than any other poet of his
era (including Robert Frost and
Edna St. Vincent Millay).
Hughes’s poem, “The Negro
Speaks of Rivers” was his signa
ture poem. He had a lasting in
fluence of many of the nation’s
great black writers.
• Alice Walker—The author
of seven novels and more nine
collections of poetry, won the
Pulitzer Prize for her novel The
Color Purple (1982). Born in
Putnam Comity, Georgia, and ex
periencing the loss of an eye in a
BB gun accident when she was
eight years old, her father and
mother both worked hard to give
her a better life. She attended
Spelman College in Atlanta on a
scholarship and eventually grad
uated from Sarah Lawrence Col
lege in 1965.
She became active in the civil
rights movement and has been a
prolific writer and poet for nearly
Toni Morrison, the only
black female to ever win the
Nobel Prize for Literature
for her book Beloved.
40 years. She has been inducted
into the Georgia and California
Writers Hall of Fame. Walker
also wrote a children’s book that
was a tribute to the poet
Langston Hughes that is beauti
fully illustrated for kids, ages 7
through 12.
• Zora Neale Hurston—Like
Langston Hughes and others, she
was also part of the Harlem Ren
aissance, both as a writer and an
anthropologist that documented
black heritage. She wrote four
novels and two other books on
black folklore, the most famous
being Their Eyes Were Watching
God (1937), a book she wrote
while traveling in Haiti. Accord
ing to Robert Hemenway, who
wrote about the Harlem Renais
sance, her work “...reminded
readers of the richness of racial
heritage.” Unlike the others men
tioned here, her work was not as
widely publicized until recent
years—though her contributions
to literature influenced many
great writers, including Alice
Walker and Toni Morrison. In
fact, it was an article that Walker
wrote in 1975 for Ms. Magazine
that created new interest in
Hurston and her writing, which
included poetry and folklore. Ms.
Hurston was later plagued with
poor health and suffered two
strokes before dying alone in a
St. Lucie County welfare home
in 1960.
• Maya Angelou—One of the
most well-known writers of her
time, Angelou died last year at
the age of 83, was perhaps best
known for her autobiography
called I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings (1969).
This extraordinary story deals
with Angelou’s early life, includ
ing a horrific account of her rape
by her mother’s boyfriend. When
the boyfriend was murdered by
her uncles, she felt responsible.
and would not speak again until
the age of 12. Angelou, who is
perhaps the best known of these
writers who happen to be black,
was also a well-known poet,
playwright, dancer and actress,
starring in Porgy and Bess tour
ing company production in the
mid-fifties, among other musi
cals. According to the Poetry
Foundation, Angelou’s poetry
“...has often been lauded for its
depictions of black beauty, the
strength of women and the
human spirit.” Like the great
poet Edna St. Vincent Millay,
she was also known for her dra
matic poetry readings.
There are so many other great
writers who are black. James
Baldwin, who wrote Go Tell It
On the Mountain and many great
essays, W.E.B. DuBois, the soci
ologist and writer/educator and,
more recently, the remarkable
poet Natasha Trethewey, who
once attended the University of
Georgia and is a former Poet
Laureate of the United States and
winner of the Pulitzer Prize in
2007.
Writer’s Note: While as a so
ciety we are too often caught up
in labeling (or categorizing)
artists, whether by color, national
origin, religion or sexual orien
tation, these are simply examples
of great writers who happen to
be black. They write of their ex
periences just like everyone else.
If you read Maya Angelou’s
poetry, you will see the influ
ences of her childhood, just as
you will see the influences of
Robert Frost’s childhood in his.
We write about what we know or
what we have experienced, re
gardless of who we might be.
Greatness is defined by the work
itself. We should recognize it
and accept it—and leave the la
bels for those who seek to under
mine artistic expression by
diminishing it through defini
tion.
ORIGINS OF BLACK
HISTORYMONTH
Black History month had its
origins in 1915, about 50 years
after the Thirteenth Amendment,
which abolished slavery. It
began when a prominent histo
rian and a well-known minister
founded the Association for the
Study of Negro Life and History
(ASNLH). That organization
sponsored a Negro History
Week in 1926 to coincide with
the birthdays of Frederick Dou
glas and Abraham Lincoln. The
event inspired schools and com
munities nationwide to organize
local celebrations, establish his
tory clubs and host perform
ances and lectures. It is now
celebrated nationally during the
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month of February.
Note: You can find more
about these great writers and
many more at the Pickens
County Library. Check it out at
sequoyahregionallibray.org
[Part time Jasper resident
David R. Altman is the author of
“Death in the Foyer ” a collec
tion of poems published by Fin
ishing Line Press last year. He
can be reached at
dal tman@pickensprogress on
line, com or through his website
at www.davidraltman.com.]
Courtney Painter works her hog into place to be selected
as the class winner.
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