Florida Senate - 2013 SR 798
By Senator Joyner
19-00165A-13 2013798__
1 Senate Resolution
2 A resolution celebrating the 2013 sesquicentennial of
3 the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and
4 recognizing February 2013 as “Black History Month” in
5 Florida.
6
7 WHEREAS, Floridians recently celebrated the birth month of
8 two great Americans, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass,
9 both of them leaders in the movement to abolish slavery, and
10 joined all Americans in recognizing February as the month to
11 commemorate the contributions of African Americans to our
12 society, and
13 WHEREAS, across this great nation, we joined together in
14 celebrating the 2013 Black History Month theme, “At the
15 Crossroads of Freedom and Equality,” and
16 WHEREAS, long ago, approximately 12 million African men,
17 women, and children were forcibly removed from their homelands,
18 enslaved, and placed on ships that sailed to the Western
19 Hemisphere, and
20 WHEREAS, approximately 2 million African men, women, and
21 children died on the Middle Passage, but 10 million survived and
22 arrived in America, where they and their children lived in
23 slavery, and
24 WHEREAS, the Civil War erupted because the ideals upon
25 which this country were founded are in direct conflict with
26 slavery, a tenet recognized by the ratification of the 13th
27 Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States of
28 America, and
29 WHEREAS, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by
30 President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, thus making 2013 the 150th
31 anniversary of that declaration making slaves in all confederate
32 states “free forever,” and
33 WHEREAS, our nation has celebrated Black history during the
34 month of February since 1926, when Carter G. Woodson established
35 Negro History Week, and
36 WHEREAS, the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century
37 began in an effort to correct the failures of Reconstruction and
38 erase the remnants of slavery still evident in Jim Crow laws, in
39 continued segregation in nearly every aspect of daily life, and
40 in the persistence of second-class citizenship for African
41 Americans, and
42 WHEREAS, 50 years ago, in March 1963, the historic March on
43 Washington was led by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who
44 delivered his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of
45 the Lincoln Memorial, foretelling the passage of the Civil
46 Rights Act of 1964, and
47 WHEREAS, as a testament to the strength of all African
48 Americans throughout these struggles, we note the contributions
49 to the political and social growth of American society of
50 Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B.
51 DuBois, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Carter
52 G. Woodson, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, Reverend Dr. Martin
53 Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara
54 Jordan, and Dorothy Height, and
55 WHEREAS, the culture of the United States of America has
56 been vitally enriched through the contributions of African
57 American musicians, artists, and writers, including Louis
58 Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Charlie
59 Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Leontyne Price, Marian
60 Anderson, Andre Watts, James DePreist, Phyllis Wheatley,
61 Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Alex Haley, Maya
62 Angelou, Alice Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, Oprah
63 Winfrey, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose,
64 Denzel Washington, and Hill Harper, and
65 WHEREAS, African American sports figures have demonstrated
66 their ability to be role models on and off the field and in and
67 out of the ring as they stood up for their rights and beliefs,
68 and these legendary athletes include Jesse Owens, Arthur Ashe,
69 Muhammad Ali, Lee Roy Selmon, Freddie Solomon, Venus and Serena
70 Williams, and Florida native Robert “Bullet Bob” Hayes, the
71 first athlete to earn both an Olympic Gold Medal and an NFL
72 Super Bowl Ring, and
73 WHEREAS, the fields of medicine, science, and technology
74 have all been advanced by the contributions of African American
75 men and women, including Dr. Charles Drew, Dr. Daniel Hale
76 Williams, Garrett Morgan, George Washington Carver, Dr. Mae C.
77 Jemison, and Dr. Benjamin Carson, and
78 WHEREAS, native Floridians, including Zora Neale Hurston,
79 Charles Kenzie Steele, Sr., Jesse K. McCrary, Jr., Joseph E.
80 Lee, Asa Philip Randolph, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Patricia
81 Stephens Due have proudly represented our state as they
82 contributed to the history and culture of the United States of
83 America, and
84 WHEREAS, it is important to celebrate the many achievements
85 of African Americans in an effort to offer each American a
86 broader perspective of the history of this nation and an
87 appreciation for the diversity that makes this great nation
88 strong, NOW, THEREFORE,
89
90 Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
91
92 That we celebrate the 2013 sesquicentennial of the signing
93 of the Emancipation Proclamation and recognize February 2013 as
94 “Black History Month” in Florida.