Reverend Cornell Carter leads Medina Black History Month program honoring Tubman, Howard, Douglass and King

Reverend Cornell Carter opened a Black History Month program in Medina by tracing the lives of Harriet Tubman, Wilda Bell Howard, Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr., and urging the community to support one another.

Carter began with Tubman, saying she was "born around 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland" and describing early work in house and field labor and a head wound he said caused lifelong seizures and narcolepsy. Carter said Tubman escaped in 1849 to Pennsylvania and later returned repeatedly to lead others north, calling her choice to return "the unthinkable decision" that demonstrated courage and care for others.

The program shifted to a local profile. Carter introduced Wilda Bell Howard, saying she was born July 21, 1949, in Wadsworth, Ohio; graduated from Wadsworth High School in 1967; worked in nursing and later for the Summit County Department of Welfare; and moved to Medina, where he said she ran for and won the Ward 1 seat on Medina City Council in 1985 and later served as council president. Carter credited Howard with grassroots organizing on the city's West Side and described her efforts to fight hunger and isolation through volunteer programs and direct assistance.

Carter also highlighted Frederick Douglass, calling him "an ex-slave, a social reformer, a great orator" who traveled to Medina in August 1847 and spoke at the old courthouse on the square. Carter stated that Medina was known in code as "number 27" on the Underground Railroad; that characterization is presented as a claim made by the speaker in the program.

The program closed with a focus on Martin Luther King Jr. Carter reviewed King's life (born January 15, 1929), cited his role in nonviolent protest and named the Montgomery bus boycott and the Selma-to-Montgomery voting-rights march. During the segment an unidentified reader recited lines from King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, including the passage "I have a dream that one day my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Carter used the recitation to call on Medina residents to "never stop dreaming" and to support the next generation.

Carter punctuated the program with a repeated exhortation drawn from Tubman's story: "If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they're shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going." He framed those lines as a moral lesson to "reach back and grab someone else" so community destinies advance together.

The program was a mix of historical biography and local civic reflection; there were no motions, votes or formal decisions recorded. Carter closed by inviting listeners to join subsequent Black History Month segments.