The perpetual importance of education

As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. According to an article in the Library of Congress written by Howard University history professor Daryl Scott, Woodson’s hopes to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

“The response was overwhelming: Black history clubs sprang up; teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils; and progressive whites, not simply white scholars and philanthropists, stepped forward to endorse the effort,” Scott wrote. “At mid-century, mayors of cities nationwide issued proclamations noting Negro History Week. The Black Awakening of the 1960s dramatically expanded the consciousness of African Americans about the importance of black history, and the Civil Rights movement focused Americans of all colors on the subject of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture.”

The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation's bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” That year, fifty years after the first celebration, the association held the first Black History Month.

Each week during Black History Month, The Examiner highlights and honors a black person of importance to the fabric of Southeast Texas. From business owners and administrators to doctors, lawyers and government officials, Southeast Texas is brimming with black leaders and role models.

This week, The Examiner is shining a spotlight on a local health care official who took the helm of the Beaumont Public Health Department and its mission to educate and protect residents from illness and disease in the midst of a global pandemic.

As the fifth of six studious, athletic children raised by parents who perpetually preached the importance of education, Beaumont Public Health Director Kenneth Coleman Sr. has devoted the past three decades of his life to educating Beaumont residents on how to avoid disease.

“This by far has been the most challenging time to be in public health,” Coleman explained of the role he took over April 1, 2021. “Just in my 30 years of public health, this has been the most challenging. And it’s not necessarily the infection itself that was challenging, it was all the excess that came with COVID. It was politicized right from the very beginning, and so you were dealing with all the misinformation. That made it the most challenging, and this was more challenging than HIV.

“With HIV, the misinformation was, and some people still think this incorrectly, that you can catch it from shaking somebody’s hand, so you dealt with that kind of information. One difference with HIV is that everyone we heard from at the federal level were public health officials, we didn’t hear from politicians. With COVID, getting information out has been so much more challenging, with the different conspiracy theories, people saying it’s just the flu and people saying it’s not real. We’ve had people who had COVID – who tested positive – and denied having it.”

Family life

Freddie and Joyce Coleman, Kenneth Coleman’s parents, were staunch advocates for education, according to their son whose career is focused on education and spreading information. Their parenting resulted in five of six children graduating from college.

“My parents were really big on education – they always stressed education,” he said of his childhood in Beaumont from the mid 60s to early 80s. “dThe first thing they always looked at on report cards was our conduct grade. With my dad, having a C in class and having an N in conduct for ‘needs improvement’ – that was punishment.”

By his dad’s reckoning, that meant Coleman wasn’t paying attention and talking too much in class.

“Now, if I had a C in the class and a E in conduct, then they just assumed I was doing my best, but they always pushed us and got the best out of us with our education. The drive for us was to go to college and get an education, so they were always pushing. That was always a big thing in my family.”

Excelling in the classroom wasn’t enough for the Coleman kids, who were all heavily involved in sports, as their little brother tells it. Following the schedule of one athletic child can sometimes prove troublesome from some parents, often forcing them to miss a game. Despite multiplying that conundrum by six, Coleman’s parents didn’t miss a single game their kids played, he recalled.

Before playing basketball for Crockett Middle School (now MLK Middle) and Beaumont Charlton Pollard High School, Coleman’s scholastic athletic career began in the 5th grade as a shooting guard for Bethune Elementary School.

“I always played that throughout, but I sometimes played point guard, but I primarily played as a No. 2, as they call it in basketball language,” he explained. “High school basketball was fun, and here you may go to elementary and middle school with the same kids, but high school is where you separate.

“That’s what made it fun,” he said. “You were playing for bragging rights against the people you hang out with over the summer, or to the local dance, or to the movies. You play with them all summer, but when school comes around you’re in different high schools. That’s what made it fun and competitive. And I’m still close to a lot of those guys to this day. The times I get to see them, we’ll reminisce about those days.”

Immediately preceding what Coleman claims as the best 18 years of his life, he was introduced to his wife, Natosha, in church in 2003.

“I’m 10 years older than she is, and I knew her family and just didn’t know her that well,” he said. “We met at church and then went out a few times, and of course I fell in love. Six months later, we were married. After six months, we were married. We didn’t date long at all. It’s truly been a blessing.”

Coleman and his wife are the beaming parents of 27-year-old Summer and 17-year-old Kenneth Jr. Summer was recently hired by the Public Health Department to conduct contract tracing, and Kenneth Jr. is a senior at Hamshire-Fannett High School with aspirations of becoming a doctor.

From grains to preventing pains

Becoming a public health director wasn’t even on Coleman’s radar when he was in college, he revealed while explaining the trajectory toward his career. He worked as a substitute teacher immediately after college before working for Continental Grain Company for three years. Believing Coleman was in the wrong line of work, a supportive coworker applied for a new job on his behalf.

“As I was working there in 1988, right after I finished college, one of my coworkers who worked upstairs in the office was always trying to motivate me,” he said. “She always told me I shouldn’t be working there because I had a college degree and so forth and so on.

“She actually saw the opening at the public health department in the newspaper, and she filled out the application for me – I didn’t. So, she sent it out, and I actually had to contact her when they reached out to me to ask her what I was interviewing for. So, that’s how I ended up working for the city. I started working in the health department in 1991, and I was hired on as the HIV minority educator because HIV was really big in the 90s.”

That job entailed Coleman traveling throughout the community to orchestrate educational programs that focused on HIV before eventually expanding to include programs on other sexually transmitted diseases.

Coleman served as assistant public health director to Sherry Ulmer for eight years. He was elevated to the role of public health director in 2021, in the middle of ever-evolving public health guidelines.

In addition, Coleman’s department has been responsible for keeping the public informed of ever-changing safety guidelines, including social distancing and mask-wearing recommendations. The public health department regularly fields calls regarding the latest health orders concerning schools and businesses, and Coleman told The Examiner his office sometimes has to actively combat misinformation during those calls.

“Our goal is to stay focused on the mission and to not take it personally,” he explained. “We consistently give out the right information, and it’s up to each individual at that point to determine or make up their mind as to what’s true and what’s not. We always encourage people to get their information from a credible source, and Facebook a lot of times is not credible. Your family member may not be a credible source when it comes to this public health crisis. We encourage people to always talk to a physician, and they can always call the health department if they don’t have one available.”

Representation matters

Coleman told The Examiner he didn’t see many black men and women in positions of influence when he was a child, something he says is crucial for young minorities.

“In high school, we had two black principals as BCP, but in terms of superintendents, public health directors, no,” he said when asked about the matter.

“It's important for our youth to see someone who looks like them in those positions,” he explained.

“Being a black male, a lot of times society chooses our role models for us, and a lot of times our role models are entertainers and athletes. There’s more to us than being an entertainer and an athlete. Because every kid is not going to be an entertainer or athlete, they need to know that they can be a health director or they can be a superintendent. So, I think it’s crucial.

“A lot of times when I’m out in the community talking to schools and I tell kids how I grew up and where I grew up, they’re a little shocked and surprised because I grew up in housing. My message to them is: It’s not where you start, it’s where you end up, and the sky's the limit. If you do your part, which starts with education and being mannerable, you can be whatever you want to be.

“I think it’s very, very crucial that young minorities can see others who look like them in key positions, and it’s not an entertainer or an athlete. I’m not opposed to that, but not everyone is going to be an athlete professionally.”