ENROLLED ORIGINAL
A CEREMONIAL RESOLUTION
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COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
February 7, 2023
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 scholar and historian, Dr. Carter G. Woodson and the Association
for the Study of Negro Life and History (currently known as the Association for the Study of
African American Life and History (ASALH)) initiated the celebration of "Negro History Week”
during the second week of February;
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, in February 1970;
WHEREAS, this tradition became a nationally recognized occurrence 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, Black History Month is celebrated in several countries around the world,
including Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands;
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, in contravention of those stated ideals, African Americans suffered
enslavement and subsequently faced the injustices of lynch mobs, segregation, and denial of the
basic and fundamental rights of citizenship;
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WHEREAS, in 2023, African Americans still suffer from the effects of those injustices
and inequalities, which remain apparent in the society of the United States;
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, in spite of its history, Washington, DC serves as a center of African
American culture and the epicenter of the historical struggles for abolition, civil rights, and racial
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, the Anacostia Community Museum, the District’s African American Heritage
Trail, 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 of higher education to offer high-quality
education to African American students at a time when they were not welcome at other
educational institutions;
WHEREAS, in 1870, the Preparatory High School for Negro Youth (now Dunbar High
School) was founded as the first public high school for African Americans in the United States;
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. Marshal
for the District of Columbia. In 1877, Mr. Douglass became the first African American
confirmed for a presidential appointment by the United States Senate;
WHEREAS, in 1896, Mary Church Terrell, educator and civil and women’s rights
advocate, was the first Black woman appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education,
the founding president of the National Association of Colored Women, and a founder of the
NAACP;
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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 “Don’t Buy Where You
Can’t Work,” campaign to protest discriminatory hiring practices in white-owned businesses in
Washington, D.C.;
WHEREAS, Marvin Gaye, born in Washington, DC on April 2, 1939 at Freedmen’s
Hospital, now Howard University Hospital, and educated at Cardozo High School, and is
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 DC’s own musical genre, Go-Go, which
continues to influence artists and music across the country, has become a rallying cry to defend
and preserve local culture, and was designated as the official music of DC in 2020;
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 1954, in the landmark case of Bolling v. Sharpe, the Supreme Court of
the United States held unanimously that the due process clause in the Fifth Amendment to the
Constitution prohibits segregated public schools in the District of Columbia. The case involved a
group of parents that petitioned the D.C. Board of Education to open the John Philp Sousa Junior
High School as an integrated school, and the Supreme Court’s decision was delivered on the
same day as that of Brown vs. Board of Education – May 17, 1954;
WHEREAS, in 1957, Washington, DC’s 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, in 1967, the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum (now the Anacostia
Community Museum) was founded as part of the Smithsonian Institution to provide access to
exhibits and artifacts relevant to the history and experience of the local community; and
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WHEREAS, Washington, DC’s Black residents have produced and sustained a rich
culture that permeates life in the District -- a culture that all residents and visitors can still access,
experience, appreciate, and benefit from today.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the “Black History Month Recognition Resolution of 2023”.
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, honors the countless
African Americans who have shaped the District’s history, and declares February as Black
History Month.
Sec. 3. This resolution shall take effect immediately.
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