BHM Founder’s Commission: 'Martin Luther King Memorial...a great achievement of the collective conscience of our nation'

[Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson (1875-1950)]

Violinist Raycurt Johnson brings this draft proclamation for Black History Month to the attention of AfriClassical:

PANAMERICAN-PANAFRICAN ASSOCIATION

Administrator of US/Latin America-US/Africa

Educational, Cultural and Economic
Exchange Permanent Programme Units

Four Seasons at Historic VA
3986 Melting Snow Pl.,
Dumfries, VA 22025
Tel: 202-487-4143 * Fax: 703-373-2347

The Panamerican-Panafrican Association, Inc.
is a NGO in Consultative Status (Category II)
with the Economic and Social Council
of the United Nations

e- mail: papaassociation@yahoo.com

website: papausa.org

TO: PROCLAMATION OFFICERS OF STATE GOVERNORS AND MUNICIPAL MAYORS

FROM: THE BHMO STATE AND REGIONAL FOUNDER’S COMMISSION

= DRAFT =

MONTH-OF-FEBRUARY “YEAR 2011”

BLACK HISTORY MONTH OBSERVANCE

46th ANNIVERSARY PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS: the BHM Founder’s Commission encourages all celebrants of the BHM to welcome the August 11, 2011 unveiling of the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, DC as a great achievement of the collective conscience of our nation in honoring one of the greatest leaders of the civil rights movement and the first African-American to be honored on the National Mall, so that his legacy may not only be passed on to a younger generation that did not live through the Civil Rights Movement, but that it may also serve as an inspiration to a new generation of Americans of all colours, creeds and ethnic-origins to find non-violent means not only to resolve conflicts but to also moderate differences of opinion; and…

WHEREAS: In recognition of the contributions that African-Americans made in the construction of our Nation’s Capitol Building, Congress has finally erected a memorial to take note of the sacrifice and toil of those enslaved Americans of African descent who suffered through Washington DC’s oppressive summer heat and humidity, to chisel and pull massive stones out of snake- and mosquito-infested quarries, fighting through the bone-chilling winter as they were rented from their owners for $5.00 per month to build one of the world’s most recognizable buildings…. And finally memorialized in a plaque displayed in the Capitol so that at least in death they may receive a level of dignity that they were denied in life; and…

WHEREAS: In light of the 16% unemployment rate amongst African-Americans and particularly the over 20% unemployment rate amongst African-American youth, the BHMO State and Regional Founder’s Commissioners call upon the American “body-politic” and the American “body-economic” to join together in a renewed effort to remove all of those educational, economic and institutional barriers that continue to inveigh against the full accession of American citizens of African descent to the educational and economic advancement “Rights and Privileges” that have been traditionally obtained and enjoyed by Euro-Americans; and…

WHEREAS: The Black History Month Observance Founder’s Commission encourages municipal and state communities to support the United Nations Millennium Development Goals as a unique opportunity to reflect not only on the common destiny of the world’s peoples at a moment when we find ourselves interconnected as never before, but also to share the United Nation’s commitment to encourage nations to coalesce in light of the success of the Darfur referendum and the devastation caused by the Haitian earthquake and the global HIV epidemic; and…

WHEREAS: the Black History Month Founder’s Commission encourages our citizenry, elected officials, church leaders, educators and business leaders to promote greater understanding between our culturally diverse communities as the cornerstone of the Black History Month Observance which was conceived and promulgated by Dr. Robert Pritchard as a continuation of the legacy of Black Community Observances began by Frederick Douglass, who presided over the Colored Peoples Day Observance on 25 August 1893 at the Chicago’s World’s; 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 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.

NOW THEREFORE, I,________________________________________________, DO HEREBY PROCLAIM the Month-of-February / Year 2011 as:

“BLACK HISTORY MONTH”

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 _________________.