‘Black history of the Gate City on display at library until end of month – East Idaho News’
For the last month, artifacts that depict the history of Black people in the Gate City have been on display at the Marshall Public Library.
The display, which depicts a history many aren’t unaware of, is presented in three glass cases on the library’s second floor near the stairwell. It will be taken down at the end of this month, so people who want to see it have limited time to view it at the library.
There is local Black history to be aware of. There’s just some really cool stuff that I’ve learned that I hope that other people will see and take interest in, said Jackie Wood, Public Services Librarian and a member of the Pocatello NAACP.
Even though they’ve had displays like this before, it’s the first time in Wood’s almost nine years at the library that she’s seen them put one up.
Wood has been a member of the NAACP for two years, which she became interested in and joined after the first Juneteenth celebration.
I didn’t even know we had such a large black community right here in Pocatello, Wood said.
During the Lasting Legacy Festival, celebrating the history of the Historic Triangle Neighborhood, Wood started a conversation with Ken Monroe, the President of the Pocatello NAACP.
Hey, have you guys ever thought about doing a display at the library? Wood asked. Monroe explained that it had been a conversation, but they needed more people to accomplish it.
Well, I work at the library. I can see what we can do, Wood said. And just like that, it kind of fell into my lap.
Lorena Bangs, another member of the NAACP, assisted Wood in gathering the materials they wanted to have on display. Banks worked to contact living influential Black people as well as their families to acquire the artifacts they had on display.
Now, people who view this display can learn about many important Black people who lived in Pocatello.
Thomas Les Purce is the first Black person to become an elected official in Idaho. Purce, who was born in Pocatello, was elected to the city council in 1973 at age 27. He was then elected as mayor just three years later, in 1976.
An effective civil leader, Purce earned the position of director of Idaho’s Department of Administration in 1977, then later as the director of the Department of Health and Welfare.
Purce currently resides in Olympia, Washington, and serves as the Vice President of the Board of the Northwest African American Museum.
Ed Sanders was a heavyweight boxer and competed on the U.S. Team in the Olympic Games. Born in Los Angeles, California, Sanders was recruited with an athletic scholarship to attend what was then called Idaho State College, now Idaho State University, by Dubby Holt in 1950.
In Sanders’ first collegiate boxing match, he knocked out the Pacific Coast Heavyweight Champion. During his time at Idaho State, Sanders met Mary LaRue, a secretary at Idaho State’s athletic department, and soon married her.
Sanders competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics and went undefeated, becoming the first African American Olympic Heavyweight Champion and the first American to win gold in the division since 1904.
Dorthy Johnson, born in Pocatello in 1945, became the first Miss Idaho to represent the state in the 1964 Miss USA pageant. She was the first African American contestant to make it to the semi-finals of the pageant.
Johnson attended Idaho State University, studying elementary education before she entered the pageant and became Miss Idaho. Despite her victory, she didn’t receive clothes or airfare to attend the national pageant.
After pageantry, Johnson moved to California and became an award-winning teacher. She was nominated for the Disney Teacher of the Year award in 2002 and won the Los Angeles Reading Association’s Teacher of the Year award in 1992.
They contributed a lot to Pocatello, so I think it’s very important that people know that because a lot of them don’t, especially the younger people, Bangs said.
Wood said they put this display together to show people a history that many people who have lived in Pocatello their whole lives may not know about.
We wanted to focus on the fact that Pocatello really does have a rich history, a Black history that many people are just completely unaware of, Wood said.
Anyone who wants to read more about these three people or other aspects of Pocatello’s Black history can do so until the end of February.
