Mystic – After days of unrelenting clouds, sunshine poured Saturday morning onto the downtown streets where a nearly 100 marchers strode from the Mystic liberty flagpole to the Union Baptist Church for a joyful Black History Month celebration.

The third annual event, hosted by the church, the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce, the Mystic Seaport Museum, Booker Empowerment, LLC, and the Mystic & Noank Library, featured a diverse group of speakers – local legislators, immigrants, educators and students – whose turns at the church podium were interspersed with songs, drumbeats and history lessons.

The program’s kinetic master of ceremonies, former New London City Councilor Kevin Booker Jr., a full-time visiting professor at Mitchell College and motivational speaker, peppered-in references and quotes from prominent Black individuals, from poet Langston Hughes and abolitionist Frederick Douglass to musician Jimi Hendrix.

Booker, working back to his past as a Black child, recalled his mother’s reminder that he “could learn anything if he was willing to listen.”

“Today is a celebration of Black history and the acknowledgment of Black excellence,” he said.

Miriam Kazadi, an Essex resident and UConn student who immigrated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with her family eight years ago, said Black History Month was a time of deep reflection for her.

“It is an opportunity to delve into the rich tapestry of African American history and how it shapes American culture,” she said. “As an African immigrant, it is a time to honor the sacrifices of those who came before me. It is a chance to pay homage to the leaders, activists and trailblazers who paved the way for a more inclusive society, not just here in American, but across the world.”

Norwich businessman James Hodge, a retired U.S. Coast Guard food specialist and the latest of a “long line of Baptist preachers,” urged guests seated in the church’s velvet-cushioned pews to keep the spirit of the month close.

“Know when you look at a Black person, it’s not just a month – it's every day,” he said. “Black History Month for me was just yesterday, it was just a few moments ago when I walked into this church. And it’s right now as I talk to you.”

Several local lawmakers, including state Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton and state Rep. Aundré Bumgardner, D-Groton, related their connections to Black history, whether through a family member, like Somers and her Black and Puerto Rican adopted son, or through personal experience.

Bumgardner decried the slow process of integrating Black and Native American history into classrooms, noting such programs were only added via legislation in recent years.

“It wasn’t done reflexively and that’s appalling,” he said. “I’m a man of color representing an overwhelmingly white district and I grew up not knowing slavery existed in southeastern Connecticut.”

Other speakers included Melaijah Armstrong, community relations manager for the Connecticut Sun WNBA team; Akeia de Barros Gomes, vice-president of maritime studies at the Mystic Seaport Museum; and Abdul Mohammed, head of the My People Clinical Services agency in Hartford.

Booker rattled off a long list of products and services – from peanut butter and the cell phone to blood banks and the filament light bulb – created by Black inventors whose contributions to history he said are largely unsung.

“History can be heavy, hopeless, painful and erased,” he said. “But we rise, we write, we speak and we endure.”

j.penney@theday.com