Shiloh Community Association’s Annual Black History Month Celebration

Guest speaker Mrs. Niconda Briscoe Garcia shared a message of love.

Shiloh Community Officers (L-R): Johanna Johnson, Assistant Chaplain; Shaniqua Simuels, Community Navigator; Norma Baynes (seated), Community Liaison; Sophie Dixon, Shiloh Association President. Photo: Shaniqua Simuel, Rev. Spencer Hardaway

Mrs. Niconda Briscoe Garcia spoke on “We Have Come this Far by Faith” at the annual celebration event held February 8, 2025 in the Shiloh community.

Her message about love complemented her own upbringing in Asheville—the city as it was then, and as it is now.

Among the topics she addressed was her experience integrating into an predominantly white school after leaving an all-Black school, at a time when desegregation finally came into force more than a decade after the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

She talked about her own sons, as well as offering a view of the education system as it was—along with the new policies that were designed to help children of color, though many of those policies fell short of their goal.

The celebration was emceed by SCA Activity Committee chair Ms. Faye Reynolds, and included a silent action, including Shiloh-branded items, and was organized by fundraiser and SCA association member Lauralee.

Not only was the meal a throwback to home cooking from back in the day—baked mac & cheese, mashed sweet potatoes, fried chicken, cornbread, green beans, potato salad, and sweet tea—it was topped off with apple pie and ice cream homemade by JéWana Grier-McEachin’s daughter.