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Public
Employee Press
Black
History Month at DC 37
Part 1: events from Feb. 2- Feb. 12, 2009
A
legacy of hope
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Chosen
by Christ Praise Dancers performed on opening night of the 28th annual DC 37 Black
History Month celebration at union headquarters Feb. 2.
DC 37
kicks off 28th annual Black History Month with local presidents, AFSCME’s
Bill Lucy (third from right), and City Councilman Bill DeBlasio (left, third row).
| By DIANE S. WILLIAMS
In a year
of special significance, the DC37 Black History Committee celebrated “A Legacy
of Hope” at its annual February Black History Month observance.
The
month-long celebration recalled African Americans’ hard-fought struggles
for equality that climaxed during the 1960s civil rights era as Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington,
asking America to envision itself as a nation that would accept people based on
character and not skin color. Forty-six years later the nation and the world watched
the triumphant inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th U.S. president and first
African American president of the United States.
“We have witnessed
what few of us believed would ever happen in our lifetime,” said DC 37 Associate
Director Oliver Gray. “But there still is a way to go. We celebrate Black
History Month with the understanding that Black history is American history.”
The
Feb. 2 ribbon-cutting and opening-night ceremony was co-sponsored by the Committee
and Locals 1113 and 2627, whose presidents Deborah Pitts and Robert Ajaye are
the BHC co-chairs. The committee honored Cynthia Chin-Marshall, who served as
co-chair for more than 20 years, and its past chair, the late Kevin D. Smith,
who served as Local 1655 president, PEOPLE chair and a DC 37 vice president.
The
photos on these pages were taken on opening night and at programs held over the
next two weeks by locals 983, 371 and 1407, the Retirees Association and the Political
Action Committee. See page 16 for Family Day.
Opening night featured LA
Simply Skins, a multiracial drumming company, a libation and blessing by Togba
Porte, Local 420 2nd vice president and vice president of the Coalition of Black
Trade Unionists, and guest speaker AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy, a
human rights trailblazer who founded CBTU, led the U.S. anti-apartheid movement
to free Nelson Mandela and was the first labor leader to endorse Obama for president.
“This
is a special time, it’s Obama time, an idea whose time has come. It is a
time of reflection on African American achievements and contributions to the growth
and development of our nation,” Lucy said.
“In spite of all the
challenges we’ve faced as a people,” Lucy said, “this still is
the greatest nation on earth, because it is founded on the brilliant concepts
of freedom of worship, liberty, and opportunity.”
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