Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham
Dear ASALH Members and Friends:
It is my great privilege and
honor to greet you at the start of 2016 as President of the Association
for the Study of African American Life and History. It is indeed a
momentous occasion for me, since ASALH has entered into its second
century. I take the helm of this great organization with a mindset that
looks backward and forward.
Looking at our past, I will be
forever grateful for Carter G. Woodson's indomitable spirit and tireless
commitment to building this organization in the first half of the
twentieth century. His death in 1950 did not permit him to see the
significant social transformation in America brought on by the movements
for civil rights and black pride. Nor did he ever see the unprecedented
surge of publications on the black experience brought on by what
historian John Hope Franklin described in 1957 as "the valid
interconnection between the history of a people and their drive for
first-class citizenship."
Franklin admitted then as we all know
now that the surge in black history did not occur over night, or even in
a decade, although it certainly grew steadily with each passing year
because of the foundation laid by Carter G. Woodson and ASALH. Thus I
must express a debt of gratitude to all the former leaders since Woodson
who have taken ASALH to this point and especially our past president
Daryl M. Scott and the Executive Council members whose terms ended in
our Centennial year.
Like you, I can say with tremendous pride
that ASALH continues its important mission of collecting, promoting,
studying, and disseminating historical materials of people of African
descent. At the dawn of this new era in the life of our organization, I
look forward to joining with the new elected officers, Executive Council
members, and Executive Director Sylvia Y. Cyrus in exciting black
history programs, to visiting branches, to growing our membership, to
including more of you on various national committees, and to
participating in the development of new ideas and partnerships. Most of
all, as your president, I look forward to working with each of you in
2016 and beyond.
Happy New Year!
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, National President
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