HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026 February Black History MonthCOLUMBIAO HEIGHTS
PROCLAMATION
Black History Month: February 2026
The City of Columbia Heights is committed to recognizing and honoring the
contributions of all members of our communities. Negro History Week was established
in 1926 by Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson as a way to neutralize the deliberate distortion
of Black History. This movement grew over the years to Black History Month, to give
an objective and scholarly balance in American and World History.
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.
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.
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.
Despite all the progress, the legacy of slavery and segregation 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.
NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Amdda Marquez Simula, Mayor of Columbia
Heights, do hereby proclaim the month of February 2026 as Black History Month in the
City of Columbia Heights, County of Anoka, State of Minnesota, U.S.A.
Ada Mdrq ez Simula, Mayor
Ja uary 26, 2026