In addition to preaching the gospel, Greater Grove Street Baptist Church has the mission of educating the community about black history, and this past year the church earned national recognition for its 2015 activities by winning the Positive Promotion’s Black History Competition.

“It was the first time we entered the competition, and we won,” black history committee chairman Dr. I.V. Erves said.

To enter, Erves along with her committee and co-chairmen, Brandy Tonth and Dr. Wanda Newell had to submit information compiled in a scrapbook on the events supported by the church that were focused on black history.

“We also had to explain why we chose to do each event and the outcome,” Erves said.

After submitting the scrapbook in March of last year, it was not until August that they were notified they had won because of intense inspection of all entries.

“They had to go through every piece of the material they received with each book going through 10 sponsors,” she said.

After being informed they had been named the winner, Erves said she was also told that the projects they had included in their scrapbook “stood out above the norm,” — two of which were the Taste of Black History event and Teen Texting.

Erves said one of the sponsors of the competition told her she had never heard of anything like their Taste of Black History event that includes cooking and serving foods, which would be considered “soul food.”

“Some of our younger children had never eaten chicken feet, pigs feet or neck bones,” Erves said.

The Teen Texting event took advantage of how youth communicate via their cell phones, and the committee decided to try and benefit from texting even though many of the older generation deem it annoying Erves said.

“Teens were asked to text a black history matter to a friend and then ask them to respond,” she said.

Erves said this event was not only educational for the younger members, but it also had its humorous moments.

There was one teen, Erves said, who had texted another teen about a black history event and the response the young person received was, “It’s after school, and you are thinking about history.”

Greater Grove Street Baptist Church portrayed inventive ideas on how to expand black history education, but Erves said she did not know if they would enter the competition again this year.

They will however continue to celebrate and educate the community about black history, and beginning at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, they will recognize two local ministers, the Rev. Elzie O. Neal Sr. and the Rev. Robert Miller Sr., for their leadership and service to the community.

“Both ministers are pastors at local churches and have lived in the Vicksburg Warren-County community a lifetime,” Erves said.

The recognition of these two pastors will be held during the regular church service and will kick off the church’s Black History Month activities, Erves said.

“Activities during Black History Month are held once a week during regular church services after which activities are held once a month throughout the year.”