OGDEN — A group of local organizations are teaming up to celebrate Black History Month, pandemic-style.

The Ogden Chapter of the NAACP and Weber State University will sponsor an “evening of music and prose” that the chapter says fueled the American civil rights movement from its inception to the present day, according to a post on the NAACP’s Facebook page.

The free celebration is scheduled to take place from 6:30-8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 12, and will be streamed live via Zoom. Those interested can register at www.naacpogdenchapter.org. The evening will include performing artists Terri Hughes, Glory Johnson-Stanton, Awegust The Great and Zenobia Smith. Other sponsors for the event are Ogden City, Ogden’s Union Station, Project Success Coalition, Good Company Theater and Grounds for Coffee, according to the NAACP Facebook post.

Col. Jenise Carroll, commander of Hill Air Force Base’s 75th Air Base Wing, will be the keynote speaker. Betty Sawyer, community engagement coordinator in the Office of Access & Diversity at WSU, chair of Ogden City’s Diversity Commission and head of the Ogden NAACP, will be one of the event’s hosts.

Earlier this month, Ogden City and the City Council adopted a proclamation recognizing Black History Month in the city.

According to the proclamation, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History first sponsored a week to recognize Black history in 1926. The week eventually evolved into a full month of events after the civil rights movement and was officially recognized as Black History Month by President Gerald Ford in 1976.

According to the ASALH website, the 2021 theme for Black History Month is “The Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity” and focuses on the strengths, struggles and perseverance of Black families from the days of slavery through today.

According to the Ogden proclamation, those families “have helped shape American culture and play a crucial role in the growth and development of our community.” The proclamation cites contributions from people of Ogden’s past, like Marshall White, to those still involved in the civil rights movement today, like influential professor and activist Dr. Forrest Crawford.

White is the slain, former Ogden cop for whom the city’s lone community center is named. He was killed in 1963 while attempting to apprehend a 17-year-old who had broken into a home on Quincy Avenue, according to city documents. White was also an Army Air Corps veteran of World War II and was 54 when he was killed. He left behind a wife and seven children.

For years, Crawford has been involved in civil rights issues in Ogden. Most recently, he was among a group that petitioned Ogden City and then raised funds to extend honorary street names for Martin Luther King Jr. and César Chávez in Ogden.