City of South Bend hosts 11th Black History Month Awards Ceremony

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Thursday evening, the City of South Bend held the 11th annual Black History Month Awards Ceremony to honor several African American leaders in the community for their contributions to South Bend's rich history and culture.

The awards given ranged from leadership to community service and athletics.

"What we do is honor people in the community who have been beyond their jobs and worked in the community and did things for other people and given of themselves to our community." Said committee member, Gladys Muhammad. "And we like to honor those people with black history awards, and they've been around for a long time. One of them is our Tina Patton. She's building houses today, and she's been in the community for years, and does all sorts of things working in the community. Another person is a principal. Well, he's a past principal that he works in the neighborhood with the LaSalle Park neighborhood association. His name is George Jones, and his whole family works in the community, and we honor people like that. They give up their lives to be in the community."

Gladys Muhammad continued, "It's a community thing, and that's why it's exciting."