Speeches & Op-Eds
Black History Month Celebration
British Colonial Hilton Hotel
February 29, 2008
Invited guests, Bahamian friends, American colleagues – welcome to the United States Embassy’s very special celebration of Black History Month 2008. On behalf of Ambassador and Mrs. Siegel, it is my pleasure to be able to welcome each and every one of you to this unique Embassy event. The Ambassador and his wife have been the driving force behind this event and very much wanted to be here today.
Americans have recognized black history every year since 1926, first as “Negro History Week” and, beginning in 1976, as “Black History Month.” What you might not know is that black history had barely begun to be studied, or even documented, when the tradition originated. Even though people of African descent have been in America at least as far back as colonial times, it was not until the 20th century that they gained a respectable presence in the history books.
We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study of black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born to parents who were former slaves, he spent his childhood working in the Kentucky coal mines and enrolled in high school at age twenty. He graduated within two years and later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. While at Harvard, Woodson was disturbed to find in his studies that history books largely ignored the black American population or depicted people of African descent in ways that failed to reflect their many and varied contributions to our nation’s history and development.
Woodson therefore decided to take on the challenge of writing black Americans into our nation’s history. He established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now called the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History) in 1915, and a year later founded the widely respected Journal of Negro History.
Then, in 1926, he launched “Negro History Week” as an initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people throughout American history. He chose the second week of February for this event because it marked the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass on February 14 and Abraham Lincoln on February 12.
Today we in the U.S. Embassy – both American and Bahamian staff – have joined together to mark this occasion along with our Bahamian friends outside the mission to celebrate our common cultural heritage.
We are here today to celebrate the rich threads of African-American culture in the beautiful and strong fabric of America’s diversity. And, we are here today to celebrate the richness of African-American and African-Bahamian food, art, and music – and recognize how closely it is intertwined with our own American tapestry.
The theme that our Embassy team has chosen – “A Common Past, A Future Together” – says it all. This is a time to reflect not only on our common heritage and our interwoven histories, but also on the strength that our cultural richness and diversity brings to our nations.
Our country’s motto “e pluribus unum” – out of many, one – and the Bahamian national motto: “Forward, Upward, Onward Together”, both highlight how our countries’ success depends on our ability to come together as one people of many backgrounds, histories, cultures and talents.
So during this celebration of Black History Month, we recall that our nations can only fulfill their potential when every American and every Bahamian has a chance to fulfill his or her dream.
During this election year, as our Bahamian friends are keenly aware, one of America’s political parties will make history. The Democratic Party will nominate either the first African-American or the first woman as a major party’s nominee for President of the United States. How far we have come.
And yet, how far we still have to go.
As we celebrate our history and our culture, let’s also look to the future and what we can all do to unite our countries: how we can promote literacy to guide the youth to a productive path in life, how we can keep children safe and secure in the face of crime, how we can inform young people about the dangers of HIV-AIDS, and how we can make available quality education for our children right through to university level.
So even as we celebrate our common past today, we know that we have a full plate of challenges and that we must master tomorrow’s challenges together.
Today, we can take comfort in the success of our forefathers in meeting the sometimes bitter challenges they faced in the New World. And just as they overcame all odds, and even knew how to celebrate in the face of adversity – so today shall we celebrate.
So please enjoy the food, the art and crafts, and – most importantly – the Bahamian music.
Thank you for joining us and HAVE FUN!