Black history celebrated at Gladish

Terry Buffington Productions are bringing Black history to the Gladish, celebrating the anniversary of the Buffington Papers.

The foundation will give two presentations this week at the Gladish Community & Cultural Center in Pullman.

The first event will be a Southern-style luncheon between noon and 1 p.m. on Friday. Lunch will feature baked chicken, fried catfish, salad, Hoppin’ John, buttermilk cornbread, Southern pecan pie and iced tea. Tickets are available online or at the door for $20.

On Saturday, a screening of the movie “Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker” is scheduled for noon to 1:15 p.m., with tickets set for $5.

Cultural anthropologist Terry Buffington founded her Productions and the Terry Buffington Foundation in Pullman in 2022. She serves as artistic director and works alongside her son, assistant director Kwasi Buffington.

Their goal is to educate the next generation about the Jim Crow era and tell stories of African Americans who contributed to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Terry Buffington is a sixth-generation Mississippian born in the shadow of the Jim Crow era in West Point, Miss. She was an activist during the 1960s, becoming involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

She became active in the civil rights movement in 1964, participating in the Freedom Summer Project. She worked with other activists to register African American voters in Mississippi.

As an anthropologist, Buffington’s passion is collecting materials and lived experiences from Black men from Mississippi who grew up during the civil rights movement. She accumulated newspaper clippings, and various forms of media between 1952 and 2014 to document life and work in the 1950s through ‘70s.

Her collection, known as the Terry Buffington Papers, features interviews she conducted with civil-rights activist Eddie Brooks and a scrapbook from her late husband, John Buffington, highlighting the Oxford (Miss.) Afro Cultural Center.

Buffington donated the papers to the University of North Carolina in 2001, and continues to add to the collection.

The events this week celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the Terry Buffington Papers being published, as well as the livelihoods of African American people from the Jim Crow era.

To learn more about the Terry Buffington Productions, visit their website at terrybuffingtonproductionsllc.com. To purchase tickets for the upcoming productions, visit gladishcommunity.org/tickets.

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com