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| TO: PROCLAMATIONS OFFICERS OF STATE GOVERNORS, MUNICIPAL MAYORS, HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, STATE AND PRIVATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. |
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| FROM: The BHMO State and Regional Founder`s Commission |
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| MONTH-OF-FEBRUARY “YEAR 2010” |
| BLACK HISTORY MONTH OBSERVANCE |
| 45th ANNIVERSARY PROCLAMATION |
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| WHEREAS: The Black History Month Founder`s Commission urges both official and public financial and humanitarian support for the millions of Haitians who are suffering from the effects of the devastating 12 January earthquake that struck Haiti and extends its prayers for those tens of thousands who lost their lives as a result, in the hope that Haiti may rebuild its country. |
| WHEREAS: while Haiti enjoys a glorious history as the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere (second to the United States) and the first black-governed republic, it also figured directly in two of the most significant events in United States history, the Louisiana Purchase and the American Civil War, as the heroic fighting of Haitians during the Haitian slave revolt inspired the abolitionist movement in America and crushed the French army, forcing Napoleon to divest himself of other French assets in the region, which included the sale of the Louisiana territory, thus expanding the territory of the western United States from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains between the Gulf of Mexico and the Canadian border adding fifteen states to that region; |
| WHEREAS: as Haiti has historically been the “breadbasket” of African Culture transplanted to the New World and has been a great source of inspiration to American artists and intellectuals of all cultures, ethnic backgrounds and countries-of-origin throughout the centuries, it is fitting that as Black History Month is annually commemorated to celebrate the universal qualities of the culture of all people of African descent throughout the world, that we devote our attention to Haiti this year. |
| WHEREAS: the Haitian Government Pavilion at the Chicago World`s Fair played an important role in the 107 year old evolution of the annual Observance of Black History Month when on 25 August 1893 it served as host of the "Coloured American Day" Observance, presided over by the first African-American Diplomat, Frederick Douglass, who served as America`s first Ambassador to Haiti; followed by the 1895 Resolution proposed by Mrs. Josephine K. Bruce (wife of the Nations` first Black Senator, Blanche K. Bruce) to the National Association of Colored Women`s Clubs for the Observance of an annually occurring Negro History Day; followed by the Negro History Week Observance, founded in February 1926 by the venerated scholar and author Dr. Carter G. Woodson, also known as “The Father of Black Studies”; and was expanded (upon a Panafricanist philosophy) in February 1965 to the Black History Month Observance by Robert Starling Pritchard, history`s first professionally-viable American virtuoso Concert Pianist and recording artist of African descent: and |
| WHEREAS: as 32 states officially commemorate the 19th of June as Juneteenth, commemorating the date when the last slaves in America were freed when General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas and issued General Order No. 3, on June 19, almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, we urge the President and Congress of the United States to officially recognize Juneteenth Independence Day in America as it highlights the significance of the end of the era of slavery in the United States |
| WHEREAS: the 45th anniversary of the Black History Month Observance invites Americans of all colours, creeds, cultures and from diverse countries of origin to honour the memory of those teeming millions of African slaves, whose labours were amongst the major contribution to the forging of an American economy from 1608 through 1865.. and their African slave progeny, who through the Jim Crow Era.. the Civil Rights Era and beyond, made a vast range of cultural, scholarly, scientific and technological contributions to American society; and |
| NOW THEREFORE, I,________DO HEREBY PROCLAIM |
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| The Month-of-February / Year 2010 as: |
| “BLACK HISTORY MONTH” |
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| IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand, and cause the Great Seal of the State / City of ___________ to be affixed this ________ Day of_______________, in the Year of 2010. |
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