{"id":125522,"date":"2026-02-27T22:47:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/125522\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T22:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:47:22","slug":"erie-va-medical-center-hosts-black-history-month-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/125522\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie VA Medical Center hosts Black History Month celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In honor of Black History Month, one medical center celebrated black veterans and communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The event, hosted by the Minority Veterans Program at the Erie VA Medical Center, honored the strength, resilience, culture and legacy of black history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/black-history-month-2026-chef-lisa-heidelberg-celebrates-culture-through-cooking\/#\/\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Chef Lisa Heidelberg celebrates culture through cooking;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"> Chef Lisa Heidelberg celebrates culture through cooking <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Guests were able to experience storytelling, immersive historical displays and meaningful reflections on a past that informed a future of unity, service and empowerment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Maurice Clarke is the Minority Veterans Program coordinator. He said this event was to make sure minorities feel heard and accepted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/hidden-history\/black-history-month\/black-history-month-2026-remembering-jackie-ratcliff-brown-first-black-deputy-chief-for-city-of-erie-pd\/#\/\/?ipid=promo-link-block2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Remembering Jackie Ratcliff-Brown, first black deputy chief for City of Erie PD;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"> Remembering Jackie Ratcliff-Brown, first black deputy chief for City of Erie PD <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt\u2019s important that every minority is observed so they feel seen, they feel heard, they feel like we have a place here. That\u2019s why this is important to me,\u201d said Clarke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There will also be an event held next month to celebrate Women\u2019s History Month for those who want to attend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In honor of Black History Month, one medical center celebrated black veterans and communities. The event, hosted by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[12910,47998,136,138,137,15043,58724],"class_list":["post-125522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-black-history","tag-black-history-month","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-erie-va-medical-center","tag-maurice-clarke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}