By Megan SaylesAFRO Workers Writermsayles@afro.com
Officers, businesses, organizations, marching bands, residents and guests braved the blistering chilly on Feb. 17 for the inaugural Black Historical past Month Parade in Baltimore Metropolis. The celebration kicked off on the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Eutaw St.
The parade, which carried a theme of “A Stroll in Legacy,” commemorated the wealthy historical past of Black trailblazers, leaders and Black achievements in Appeal Metropolis. Earlier than main the march, Mayor Brandon M. Scott addressed the bundled up crowd.
“We all know how essential it’s on this second to indicate unity, to indicate energy, to indicate love, to indicate care and to indicate homage to our ancestors,” mentioned Scott. “That’s why we’re out right here as we speak as a result of now we have an entire world of oldsters attempting to inform us that we’re lower than and that we’ll by no means be capable of obtain our greatness. However, we all know that every one civilization comes from us. As we speak, we’re right here to showcase to all of Baltimore that Black historical past is the reply.”
The parade comes as leaders in federal and state authorities lodge assaults in opposition to Black historical past within the classroom. In January, the forty seventh president signed an government order ending what he known as “radical indoctrination” in Okay-12 public colleges. The president intends to withhold funding from any faculty that engages in “discriminatory fairness ideology.” Some fear this may occasionally embrace school-based pupil unions for marginalized teams or vital race idea (CRT), which argues that racism is embedded in legal guidelines, polices and societal programs.
A number of states, together with Florida, Alabama and Georgia, have already handed laws to ban CRT and limit how race is mentioned in lecture rooms.
Dr. Tonja L. Ringgold walked within the parade alongside her Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority sisters, decked of their pink and inexperienced. Ringgold is a proud member of the Epsilon Omega Chapter, the oldest chapter within the North Atlantic area.
“A part of our mission for Alpha Kappa Alpha is to provide service and provides again to the neighborhood,” mentioned Ringgold. “We’ve been taking part within the Baltimore parades for over 15 years, and we’ve been in Baltimore celebrating and dealing with the neighborhood for over 103 years.”
She praised the parade’s concentrate on legacy.
The town of Baltimore has no scarcity of Black pioneers. Civil rights giants, like Supreme Court docket Justice Thurgood Marshall and NAACP Washington Bureau Director Clarence M. Mitchell Jr., have been born within the metropolis.
Baltimore was additionally a hub for protests and demonstrations throughout the Civil Rights Motion. Notably, droves of activists from Maryland, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., assembled at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Baltimore on July 4, 1963, to protest segregation on the park.
“We’ve to carry on to our previous, but in addition transfer ahead for our future,” mentioned Ringgold. “This is essential. Given this time, now we have to strengthen the that means of what Black historical past is about. We can’t overlook.”
Buddies Leetice Pierce and Denise Cooper additionally attended the celebration, carrying Black history-themed apparel. They thought-about the occasion “historical past within the making” because it was the primary of its variety in Baltimore and praised Scott for creating it.
(AFRO Picture/Megan Sayles)
“I’m pleased to be part of the primary Black Historical past Month Parade. I really feel prefer it’s lengthy overdue,” mentioned Cooper. “It’s a good looking factor. I’m pleased to be part of it as a result of it simply appears like Baltimore.”
Charles Younger, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity got here out to the parade out of affection for his metropolis. He grew up close to the intersection of Patterson Park and North Avenue.
“In mild of what’s happening within the White Home, we have to make it possible for we level out all the innovations and various things that Black individuals have carried out on this nation,” mentioned Younger. “Black historical past is essential, and we have to make it possible for it’s being taught within the faculty as a result of lots of people on the opposite aspect of the aisle need to take it out of faculties and libraries.”
