You may not know it but the famous civil rights advocate Carter G. Woodson graduated from Douglass High School here, in Huntington WV, as a school teacher. Due to his ties with the Huntington community the Carter G. Woodson foundation was established here and each year, for the past 17 years, they have had a fundraiser in order to raise scholarship money. Mr. Woodson, the son of a former slave, took education very seriously and eventually went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Jacqueline A. Proctor, Deputy Commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, will be the keynote speaker at the Carter G. Woodson Memorial Foundation, Inc. fundraising banquet Saturday, April 18.

The 17th annual banquet will take place at 6 p.m. in Room BE5, the new multipurpose room located on the lower level of the Memorial Student Center on Marshall University’s Huntington campus.

Proceeds from the banquet will help fund a scholarship endowment to support outstanding Marshall University students, as well as the purchase of materials on black culture and history.

In her current position with the Division of Culture and History, Proctor has administrative, management, operational and budget oversight of the agency as well as the areas of external communications, marketing and events.

Working with a staff of more than 100, Proctor serves the constituents of West Virginia by assisting their efforts to gain access to historic preservation, archive, historic and genealogical information and grants and other services through the arts and museum sections. Her career track in arts and cultural management began as general manager of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2005.

Before arriving in Huntington, Proctor had an extensive career in network television with the Disney/American Broadcasting Company (ABC) where she had progressive responsibilities culminating as the Director of Operations and New Media, ABC-TV. As director, she was responsible for managing all program scheduling and logistical communications with 227 ABC affiliate-client stations.

Following her successful career at ABC, Proctor spent time as a communications consultant at both a New York-based firm and in her own consulting practice.

The Carter G. Woodson Memorial Foundation is named in honor of Carter G. Woodson, who was a graduate of Douglass High School in Huntington and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. Woodson, who is widely known as the “father of African American history,” founded the Association for the study of Negro Life and History in 1915. He also started the influential “Journal of Negro History” in 1916.

Music for the evening will be provided by Charles Johnson.

Tickets for the banquet are available for a donation of $30. Corporate tables also are available. To purchase tickets or for more information, contact Newatha Myers, foundation president, at 740-894-5772; Loretta Hagler, banquet chairwoman, at 304-7525-5651; or Karen Nance, secretary, at 304-736-1655.