In the months following John F. Kennedy’s assassination two major events occurred on the Vineyard: the Martha’s Vineyard NAACP was founded and five Island women went south to register black voters.
Last weekend The Vineyard Five, as the group was called, was honored with the dedication of a plaque in front of the Old West Tisbury library as the latest addition to the Vineyard's African-American Heritage Trail.
“On the Vineyard you don’t have to be courageous often – you know everyone – but in this situation you really had to be brave,” said Martha's Vineyard Regional High School sophomore Jeffrey Duarte, responding to a class visit to the new site and a photo exhibition at the new West Tisbury Library
The five women, who were arrested after attempting to register black voters in Williamston, NC and then protesting segregation and racial discrimination at a local Sears Roebuck store, caught the attention and admiration of the first group of sophomores that visited the new site under the guidance of Heritage Trail co-founder Elaine Cawley Weintraub.
The newly dedicated site is the 17th in the Heritage Trail which honors formerly unrecognized contributions made by people of African descent to the history of the island.
The sophomore history classes at the high school are involved as research assistants in the work of the Trail.
The recent class trip that included a look at the photos relating to the Vineyard's African-American history had meaning for many of the students. Said sophomore Abby Entner, "The quote that related the women going to the south to going to Iraq today helped me understand how they felt – proud, but scared.”
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