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Vol. 90 No. 22
MAY 29 - JUNE 4, 2025
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Kids learn to love reading at Literacy Night
Freeport honors Memorial Day Freeport held it’s annual Memorial Day Parade on May 26, organized by the Freeport American Legion. Retired Sgt. Maj. William Downes, 91, served as the parade’s grand marshall.
escape room, where they could solve mystery puzzles. Second-graders were encourThe Freeport school district aged to write their own stories, celebrated its annual Family as a way of boosting their conL i t e r a cy N i g h t , a n eve n t fidence. Others worked on their intended to promote reading, own books about their personal creativity and heroism, at the heroes, and Atkinson’s High School students Caroline G. Atkinhelped them with son School on May illustrations. 22. LaMotta and JenniThe theme for fer Bar rio, an this year’s event instructional was “Unleash Your coach, were surInner Hero,” which prised by the a real-life heroes r e s u l t s , h av i n g firefighters, and expected students gave young particito write about their pants a chance to favorite superhemeet them in real roes. life. Instead they Mary LaMotta, MARY laMottA wrote about the director of English Director of English people in their Language Arts at Language Arts, lives, their family F r e e p o r t P u b l i c Freeport School members and Schools, described District teachers, and the the event’s theme reasons that everyas an initiative to foster love and literacy across day things they do make them feel special. the community. “We really want to reach out The evening promoted reading and engaging students and collaborate with the comthrough interactive activities m u n i t y, t h e f a m i l i e s a n d such as virtual-reality goggles empower the students,” LaMotta said. “We felt like the theme to enjoy the virtual reality of literacy; 3D printing, which of unleashing your inner hero gave kids the chance to bring really helped to drive that their creativity to life; and an Continued on page 16
By MAshiAt AzMi
Intern
Nearly 500 marchers took part in the parade which traveled down West Merrick Road from Freeport High School to the Freeport Memorial Library, where the annual wreath-laying ceremony took place.
W
e’re competing with technology. We’re competing with video games.
Josaphat Carbajal, 2, proudly holds an American flag. Story, more photos, page 3. Deliah Roberts/Herald
High school alum traces Black land loss in non-fiction book By MohAMMAD RAFiQ mrafiq@liherald.com
When her grandfather died in 2019, Brea Baker, a Freeport High School alumna and former valedictorian, channeled much of her grief into a journalistic curiosity about her grandfather’s passionate interest in Black land ownership in America. Baker, who earned a B.A. in political science from Yale University in 2016, after having grown up in Freeport, last year published the culmination of her half-decade-long research journey, her first book, titled “Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft & The Modern Movement for
Black Land Ownership.” In the book, she detailed the loss of her own family’s ancestral land in North Carolina and the efforts of her grandfather, Alfred Baker, to recover it, using that story to draw parallels to the larger history of the erasure of Black land ownership in America over the last century. Baker, who now lives in Georgia, returned to Freeport on May 16 to discuss her book at an event hosted at Backyard Barbeque, a restaurant owned by her cousin, Kenny Ware. The Black Educators Committee held the event. “Black land ownership peaked between 1910 and 1920 when Black Americans owned about 14 Continued on page 4