Tampa woman to be honored during Black History Month

Tampa’s Delores Anderson will be honored by local media outlets on February 29th as part of their coverage of Black History Month.

“Really? Huh. Okay. Thanks,” she said while taking out her trash this morning. “Why?”

“Because it’s a Leap Year,” said national media outlet coordinator Jim Loomey. “That’s why. We have an extra day to fill.”

“Wow! Does this mean you think I deserve to be held in the same regard as some of the luminaries of American Black heritage?” she asked.

“Ha ha! No, not at all” replied Loomey.

He went on to explain that during February every year, local TV stations all broadcast vignettes and newspapers publish features dedicated to influential African American people, often called something like, ‘Portraits in Black Courage’ or something similar, 28 of them, one to be presented each day, every day of the month.

“We’ve got who you’d expect; Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, so on and so on. All the usual suspects, ready to go,” he said. “The problem is this darn extra day we have to fill every four years.”

“We have to find 28 admirable Black people every year and that’s relatively easy. Finding 29 is tough, especially since we had no use for them last year or and won’t need them next year. So the challenge is finding someone who deserves the notoriety… but only about a quarter of what we devote to true legends,” he said. “It’s tricky.”

Upon learning from her neighbors that Mrs. Anderson has a job, keeps her lawn in nice shape, picks up after her dogs and doesn’t play music or TV at too loud of a volume at night, Loomey sighed and said, “That’ll do. It would be better if she had a couple of well-behaved kids that play sports or something but we’ll take it.”

“I mean, she’s married, so that’s a plus,” he said. “It was between her and some guy in Pittsburgh, but he’s divorced.”

“We’ve got one, fellas! That pain in the ass is off our plates until 2028,” he announced via Zoom to the various entities he coordinates on behalf of The Federal Government, who all applauded.

“All right. Great, I guess”, said Mrs. Anderson.