Florida Senate - 2016 (NP) SR 1468
By Senators Joyner and Thompson
19-01844A-16 20161468__
1 Senate Resolution
2 A resolution recognizing February 2016 as “Black
3 History Month” in Florida.
4
5 WHEREAS, each year, Floridians celebrate the birth month of
6 two great Americans, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass,
7 both of them leaders in the movement to abolish slavery, and
8 join all Americans in recognizing February as the month to
9 commemorate the contributions of African Americans to our
10 society, and
11 WHEREAS, in 2016, across this great nation, we celebrate
12 the Black History Month theme, “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of
13 African American Memories,” and
14 WHEREAS, long ago, an estimated 12 million African men,
15 women, and children were forcibly removed from their homelands,
16 enslaved, and placed on ships that sailed to the Western
17 Hemisphere, and
18 WHEREAS, approximately 2 million African men, women, and
19 children died on the Middle Passage, but 10 million survived and
20 arrived in America, where they and their children lived in
21 slavery, and
22 WHEREAS, the Civil War erupted because the ideals upon
23 which this country was founded are in direct conflict with
24 slavery, a tenet recognized by the ratification of the
25 Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United
26 States of America, and
27 WHEREAS, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by
28 President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, and, in 2013,
29 Floridians celebrated the 150th anniversary of that declaration,
30 which made slaves in all confederate states “free forever,” and
31 WHEREAS, our nation has celebrated Black history during the
32 month of February since 1926, when Carter G. Woodson established
33 Negro History Week, and
34 WHEREAS, the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century
35 began in an effort to correct the failures of Reconstruction and
36 erase the remnants of slavery still evident in Jim Crow laws, in
37 continued segregation in nearly every aspect of daily life, and
38 in the persistence of second-class citizenship for African
39 Americans, and
40 WHEREAS, in August 1963, the historic March on Washington
41 for Jobs and Freedom, led by the late Dr. Martin Luther King,
42 Jr., who delivered his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the
43 steps of the Lincoln Memorial, was a catalyst for the passage of
44 the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and
45 WHEREAS, as a testament to the strength of all African
46 Americans throughout these struggles, we note the contributions
47 to the political and social growth of American society of
48 Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Booker T.
49 Washington, George Washington Carver, Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B.
50 DuBois, Malcolm X, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
51 Fannie Lou Hamer, Thurgood Marshall, Barbara Jordan, Shirley
52 Chisholm, Dorothy Height, and President Barack Obama, and
53 WHEREAS, the culture of the United States of America has
54 been vitally enriched through the contributions of African
55 American musicians, artists, and writers, including Charlie
56 Parker, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count
57 Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Marian Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald, James
58 DePreist, Leontyne Price, Andre Watts, Phyllis Wheatley,
59 Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Alex Haley,
60 Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker,
61 Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Hill Harper,
62 Anika Noni Rose, and Jennifer Hudson, and
63 WHEREAS, African-American sports figures have demonstrated
64 their ability to be role models on and off the field and in and
65 out of the ring as they stood up for their rights and beliefs,
66 and these legendary athletes include Jesse Owens, Arthur Ashe,
67 Lee Roy Selmon, Freddie Solomon, Muhammad Ali, Venus and Serena
68 Williams, and Florida native Robert “Bullet Bob” Hayes, the
69 first athlete to earn both an Olympic Gold Medal and an NFL
70 Super Bowl Ring, and
71 WHEREAS, the fields of medicine, science, and technology
72 have all been advanced by the contributions of African-American
73 men and women, including Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, George
74 Washington Carver, Dr. Charles R. Drew, Garrett Morgan, and Dr.
75 Mae C. Jemison, and
76 WHEREAS, native Floridians, including Mary McLeod Bethune,
77 Joseph E. Lee, James Weldon Johnson, Harry Tyson Moore,
78 Harriette Vyde Simms Moore, Zora Neale Hurston, Asa Philip
79 Randolph, Charles Kenzie Steele, Jesse K. McCrary, Jr., and
80 Patricia Stephens Due have proudly represented our state as they
81 contributed to the history and culture of the United States of
82 America, and
83 WHEREAS, it is important to celebrate the many achievements
84 of African Americans in an effort to offer each American a
85 broader perspective of the history of this nation and an
86 appreciation for the diversity that makes this great nation
87 strong, NOW, THEREFORE,
88
89 Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
90
91 That February 2016 is recognized as “Black History Month”
92 in Florida.