Vice Mayor of Broward County Presents Book on Caribbean-Americans to County Commission
FT. LAUDERDALE – At the most recent meeting of the Broward County Commission, Vice Mayor Beam Furr brought to the attention of the Commission the book, Caribbean-American Heritage: A History of High Achievers, which was written by Broward County residents Elliot Bastien and Sandra Bernard-Bastien.
Furr began by noting that “This year marks the 12th anniversary of June as National Caribbean-American Heritage Month. Through the commemoration of this month, we are reminded that our greatness lies in our diversity.” The Vice Mayor went on to mention two of the people featured in the book – Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and the late PBS News Anchor, Gwen Ifill.
He said that when he became aware of the publication of the book which was written over the past five years, being a librarian, he immediately recognized the importance of the publication.
According to Vice Mayor Furr, “a lot of collections do not have it as part of their collection, and our own library does not have it. “ Because of this he “asked if they might consider donating a bunch of copies to our library.” After reporting to the Commissioners that the authors readily agreed, the Vice Mayor proceeded to distribute copies to his colleagues. After looking at the book, the Chair, Mayor Barbara Sharief, remarked, “It’s beautiful.”
Vice Mayor Furr, congratulated the authors ”on a wonderful piece of work”, and further noted that his congratulations were “not only for writing the book but also for fulfilling a need.” He ended by mentioning that the copies would be sent to Broward’s public libraries.
The School Board of Broward County has already secured copies for placement in every public school library in the county.
The authors, Elliot Bastien and Sandra Bernard-Bastien expressed their profound thanks to Vice Mayor Beam Furr for using the occasion of National Caribbean American Heritage Month to bring their book to the attention of the Broward County Commission.
