Black History Month
WHEREAS, Virginians of all backgrounds and experiences contribute to our Commonwealth’s rich cultural diversity, storied history and promising future, and it is important for Virginians to recognize the positive contributions to our society made by people of all heritages and races; and
WHEREAS, African Americans are prominent in Virginia and American history, and famous historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a native Virginian and the son of former slaves, brought this fact to the world’s attention by founding the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, publishing several scholarly works and establishing Negro History Week, the precursor to Black History Month; and
WHEREAS, countless African Americans have figured prominently in their respective fields throughout the past century, including such distinguished Virginians as Booker T. Washington, a pioneer in the field of education whose efforts to expand educational opportunities for African Americans led to the founding of the Tuskegee Institute as well as many other institutions of learning throughout the South; Spotswood W. Robinson, III, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; Mr. Oliver Hill, Esquire, whose 1954 argument in Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas mandated the integration of America’s public schools; Mrs. Maggie Walker, a prominent civic leader and founder and President of the St. Luke Penny Bank, the first American bank established and operated by a woman of any race; the Honorable L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia’s sixty-sixth Governor and the first African American from any state to win a gubernatorial election; the late Arthur Ashe, winner of the U.S. Open and Wimbledon tennis championships; legendary Jazz musician Ella Fitzgerald, whose ageless voice was heard around the world during a career that included 13 Grammy Awards; and Judge Roger Gregory, the first African American appointed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals; and
WHEREAS, many other African Americans have made important contributions to our society, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., our nation’s greatest civil rights activist who, along with his wife Coretta Scott King, became a trailblazer in the struggle for equality and justice for all our citizens; Ida B. Wells, the renowned writer, teacher, women’s suffragist and anti-lynching crusader; Jackie Robinson and Earl Lloyd, the first African Americans to integrate Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, respectively; Thurgood Marshall, the first African American United States Supreme Court Justice; and Rosa Parks, whose famous decision to remain in her seat symbolized the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and
WHEREAS, in every region of the state there are museums, homes and exhibits that tell the story of African-Americans in Virginia and their immense contributions to both our Commonwealth and our country; in Richmond, Virginians can visit the home of Maggie Walker; in Franklin County sits the birthplace of legendary educator Booker T. Washington, who would go on to attend Hampton University, founded in 1868 and today one of the nation’s leading historically black universities, on that campus visitors can still see the ‘Emancipation Oak’ under which the first Southern reading of the Emancipation Proclamation took place in 1863; the Joseph Jenkins Roberts Monument in Petersburg commemorates the first President of Liberia, born in Norfolk, Roberts was raised in the city; in Farmville, Virginians can tour the Robert Russa Moton Museum, site of Barbara Johns famous walkout in 1951 which became a key part of Brown v. Board of Education three years later; and
WHEREAS, it is important to learn from the many lessons of history’s failures, successes, disappointments and triumphs as we continue to pursue our Founding Fathers’ visions of liberty, justice and equality for all; and so I encourage all citizens to learn more about black history in Virginia, as there is no better state in which to celebrate Black History Month; and
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert F. McDonnell, do hereby recognize February 2010 as BLACK HISTORY MONTH in the COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.