A Black History Month Message From Councilmember John J. Kennedy

During the month of February, Americans will pause from time to time to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions and achievements of African Americans in every positive field of endeavor.

The first effort to adopt such recognition was the brainchild of Professor Carter G. Woodson, who created Black History Week. Subsequently, the week activities grew into Black History Month, and today we celebrate the important work of many accomplished African Americans, including Dr. W.E.B. Dubois, Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm, Dr. Mordecai Johnson, Mahalia Jackson, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, Justice Thurgood Marshall and our, President, Barack Hussein Obama.

It was particularly gratifying and befitting that Mayor Bill Bogaard and the City Council, for the first time last evening, adopted a formal resolution naming February Black History Month in Pasadena.

We are blessed to have a living legend communing in our midst. His name is Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the original nine students who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Over the violence and a vicious mob, these young and frightened children pressed forward to make their respective mark on the landscape of America Dr. Terrence Roberts and his lovely wife, Dr. Rita Roberts, live in our fine city and he is one of the Little Rock Nine.

There were so many others who paid the ultimate price for the freedoms that all of us now enjoy. Af ri can Americans at every age—Emmett Till , Medgar Evers, the little girls who died in the early morning bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama as they attended Sunday School — paid a debt for freedom that can never be fully repaid. Then of course there is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the only African American to have a national holiday declared in his memory and honor.

Black History Month has now become an integral part of the fabric of what makes our city, state and nation so rich in its diversity. The richness in this month long celebration is simply who we are.

However, we are tasked with helping all Americans obtain a quality education so that they too can respect, appreciate and benefit from the struggles of those who created the path. We must not allow African American achievement to be diminished or hijacked by ignorance, complacency or violence.

Black History Month is not a month for African Americans only. It is a month for all Americans to celebrate and cherish. It is a time to reflect on the unparalleled achievements of women and men of goodwill who have made America a “more perfect union.”

Please join me in celebrating Black History Month. For a complete listing of all of the Black History Month activities in Pasadena, visit www.cityofpasadena.net/PasadenaBlackHistory

Respectfully yours,

 

 

John J. Kennedy