HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023 February Black History MonthCOLUMBIA HEIGHTS
PROCLAMATION
Black History Month: February 2023
WHEREAS, the City of Columbia Heights is committed to recognizing and honoring the contributions
of all members of our communities; and
WHEREAS, Negro History Week was established in 1926 by Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson as a way to
neutralize the deliberate distortion of Black History; and
WHEREAS, this movement grew over the years to Black History Month to give an objective and
scholarly balance in American and World History; and
WHEREAS, the Month of February was selected as Black History Month because it marks the birth of
Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, and Abraham Lincoln, leaders whose actions
greatly impacted the lives of the American Black population; and
WHEREAS, the contributions African Americans made and continue to make to our nation's economic
strength as well as to our history, music, arts, national defense from the Revolutionary War to present-
day military operations, written words and discoveries, and inventions are often overlooked; and
WHEREAS, on January 1,1863, the Emancipation Proclamation set the United States on the path of
ending slavery. On August 28,1963, hundreds of thousands of Americans of all backgrounds joined the
March on Washington in pursuit of jobs, justice and freedom to the Memorial of Abraham Lincoln, the
author of the Emancipation Proclamation, in pursuit of freedom and equality for all; and
WHEREAS, despite all the progress, the legacy of slavery and segregation still persists in our nation in
the forms of mass incarceration, the school to prison pipeline, racial profiling, educational inequalities,
housing and employment discrimination, racism and bias; and
NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Amada Marquez Simula, Mayor of Columbia Heights, do
hereby proclaim the month of February, 2023 as Black History Month in the City of Columbia Heights,
County of Anoka, State of Minnesota, U.S.A.
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A. Anih da Marquez Simgi, `P ayor
January 23, 2023