‘Our diverse history’: Macon awards ceremony at Douglass Theatre is back for 23rd year

For more than 20 years, Willis-Slater Productions has hosted the annual Ethnic Awareness Awards Gala at the Douglass Theatre in downtown Macon, and the organization needs help to ensure the 23rd award ceremony is a success.

Betty Slater, president of Willis-Slater Productions, said the event is looking for sponsors, volunteers and performers. Organizers specifically need dancers who can perform as well as share information about the history of the dances they perform, she said.

“We’ve been working to improve race relations by producing diverse, educational and entertaining programs. The event is vital because we share our diverse history,” Slater said. “We share our common bond that unites us: humanity and love.”

The event is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday with limited seating and masks and social distancing guidelines will be enforced, according to a news release.

Attendees can expect to see musical performances, flags representing different countries and native dress. The Mercer University McDuffie Center for Strings will perform, but the Confucius Institute at Wesleyan College will be unable to provide dancers for this year’s ceremony due to the coronavirus pandemic, Slater said. Slater said she would like to find some dancers who could take their place.

If people would like to perform, they can call Slater at (478) 788-5419 and send her a short clip of their performance at bettywillisslater@yahoo.com.

Willis-Slater Productions is hosting this year’s award ceremony in conjunction with Union Baptist Church, Center Hill Baptist Church and Wesleyan College.

The Ethnic Awareness Award has been given to several people over the past 20 years, including the late Rev. Clarence Jordan, Gus Kaufman and Judge William Augustus Bootle.

“We have given these awards because these individuals and so many more have worked on the battlefield to improve race relations for years,” Slater said.

Tickets cost $10, according to the Douglass Theatre website. People can buy tickets for the award ceremony by calling the Douglass Theatre at 478-742-2000, and people can donate to the event on its GoFundMe page at gofundme.com/f/ethnic-awareness-awards-gala

“In the past years, most people just sort of, they’re passive about injustice,” she said. “As long as it doesn’t involve my race of people or your race of people, we’ve been able to just ignore the problem... When we open those doors, and make things fair for everybody, to be honest with you, everybody excels.”