Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

ENROLLED ORIGINAL

                               A CEREMONIAL RESOLUTION

                                             24-13

                   IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

                                       February 2, 2021

To celebrate the legacy, achievements, and contributions of African Americans in the District of

       Columbia, to recognize the important role African Americans played in American history

       and to declare February as Black History Month,.

      WHEREAS, in 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of

Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be "Negro History Week;

       WHEREAS, Black History Month was first proposed by Black educators and the Black

United Students at Kent State University in February 1969, and the first celebration of Black

History Month took place at Kent State one year later, from January 2 to February 28, 1970;

        WHEREAS, this tradition was transformed into a nationally recognized event during the

United States Bicentennial celebration in 1976. President Gerald Ford said the nation should

seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in

every area of endeavor throughout our history;

        WHEREAS, Africans were first brought involuntarily to the shores of the now United

States by the Spanish as early as the 16th century when Spanish King Charles V gave Hernando

DeSoto permission to bring 50 African slaves to Florida;

        WHEREAS, in 1776, people envisioned the United States as a new nation dedicated to

the proposition stated in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, that

they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,

Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ;

        WHEREAS, African Americans suffered enslavement and subsequently faced the

injustices of lynch mobs, segregation, and denial of the basic and fundamental rights of

citizenship;

        WHEREAS, in 2021, the vestiges of those injustices and inequalities remain evident in

the society of the United States;

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        WHEREAS, in the face of injustices, people of good will and of all races in the United

States have distinguished themselves with a commitment to the noble ideals on which the United

States was founded and have fought courageously for the rights and freedom of African

Americans and others;

       WHEREAS, Washington, DC has an abhorrent history of slavery and racial segregation;

       WHEREAS, The DC Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862, was signed by President

Abraham Lincoln on April 16, 1862. The act ended slavery in Washington, DC, freed 3,100

individuals, reimbursed those who had legally owned them and offered the newly freed women

and men money to emigrate;

       WHEREAS, Washington, DC serves as a center of African American history and culture

and the epicenter of fights for abolition, civil rights, and race equity;

        WHEREAS, Washington, DC is home to countless destinations devoted to educating

visitors from around the world on Black history and the accomplishments of Black Americans,

including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of

African Art, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Malcolm X Park, Frederick Douglass National

Historic Site, and the African American Civil War Museum and Memorial;

       WHEREAS, Howard University and Howard University School of Law were founded in

Washington, DC as historically Black institutions to offer high-quality education to African

American students at a time when they were not welcome at other institutions of higher

education;

        WHEREAS, in 1871, Frederick Douglass was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to

serve on the eleven-member Legislative Council of the District of Columbia, and U.S. Marshall

for the District of Columbia. Mr. Douglass was the first African American confirmed for a

presidential appointment by the United States Senate in 1877;

       WHEREAS, in 1896, Mary Church Terrell, educator and civil and womens rights

advocate, was the first Black woman appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education

and the founding president of the National Association of Colored Women and a founder of the

NAACP;

        WHEREAS, world renowned jazz music pioneer Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington was

born in Washington, DC on April 29,1899 and is honored with 14 Grammy Awards, a Grammy

Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom;

       WHEREAS, in 1933, the New Negro Alliance launched the Dont Buy Where You

Cant Work, campaign to protest discriminatory hiring practices in white-owned businesses in

Washington, D.C.;

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        WHEREAS, Marvin Gaye, born in Washington, DC on April 2, 1939 at Freedmens

Hospital, now Howard University Hospital, and educated at Cardozo High School, was honored

with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Rhythm and Blues Music

Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame;

       WHEREAS, Chuck Brown, guitarist, bandleader, singer, and Godfather of Go-Go,

moved to the District in the 1940s and developed DCs own musical genre, Go-Go, which

continues to influence artists and music across the country and has become a rallying cry to

defend DCs culture;

       WHEREAS, in 1943, Mary McLeod Bethune, educator, stateswoman, and philanthropist,

operated the National Council of Negro Women in Washington, DC, and led Franklin

Roosevelt's Black Cabinet advising the administration on issues facing Black people in America;

       WHEREAS, in 1957, Washington, DCs African American population grew to over 50

percent, making it the first predominantly Black major city in the nation, leading a nationwide

trend;

      WHEREAS, on August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his renowned I Have

a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC;

       WHEREAS, Marion Barry, was the first prominent civil rights activist to become mayor

of a major American city in 1979; and

      WHEREAS, Washington, DCs Black residents have created a rich culture that

permeates life in the District that residents still experience and appreciate today.

        RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this

resolution may be cited as the Black History Month Recognition Resolution of 2021.

               Sec. 2. The Council of the District of Columbia recognizes the exceptional

contributions of African Americans to the United States and to the District of Columbia and

honors the many African American who have shaped District history, and declares February as

Black History Month,.

               Sec. 3. This resolution shall take effect immediately.