Congressman Gregory W. Meeks on Celebrating Black History Month this February

This year’s celebration of Black History Month occurs at a pivotal moment for our country in which America will choose either to regain its balance, renew its momentum, and confidently move forward from recession to recovery and rejuvenation, or give in to negative politics, distraction, disunity, restoration of the retrograde policies that caused the crisis in which our nation finds itself, and go backward. In making the momentous decisions that lay before us — above all in the coming presidential and congressional election — every American, regardless of race, religion, region, orientation, or country of origin, can draw inspiration from the historic struggle and historic achievements of Americans of African descent.

My hope is that Americans will attend programs and events as well as participate in forums and discussions about how through individual initiative, group cohesion, and faith in the possibility of a brighter future, African Americans succeeded in making a way out of no way. Their centuries-long struggle from 1619, when about 20 Africans were deposited at the Jamestown colony in Virginia, all the way to the present, is replete with examples and episodes, movements and struggles in which Black Americans have been able to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to make vital, unique, and indispensable contributions in every field of human endeavor: governance, economic innovation, education, law, foreign affairs, science, technology, medicine, culture, arts, athletics, religion.

I call on my constituents and fellow citizens, including my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both houses of Congress, to utilize Black History Month 2012 to engage in a conversation about the ways and means of overcoming historic and contemporary discrimination that African Americans continue to face, as well as the ways and means of achieving equality and opportunity for all Americans. The country should use this month in this momentous year to revisit the epic struggles that expanded civil rights and deepened American democracy itself, to rethink the historic strategies that abolished slavery, ended Jim Crow segregation, and created a legal and legislative edifice that enabled America in the space of two generations to go from the Selma march for voting rights to the election of the first African American as president of this great nation, and to reengage the challenge of completing the unfinished business making the American Dream accessible to every American.

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