[Communications] MWRD Commissioner Du Buclet Special Black History Month Edition #1

Fri Feb 5 14:11:31 CST 2021

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February 1st kicks off Black History Month at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago.

Throughout the month representatives from MWRD's staff and elected officials will recognize contributions made by African Americans.

For more details about
MWRD's daily presentations please click on the following link ** MWRD Black History Presentations (https://mwrd.org/african-american-heritage-month-2021)
Origin of Black History Month
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history.

The origin of Black history month began in
September of 1915 when historian Carter G. Woodson and a well-known minister Jesse E. Moorland founded an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by Black Americans and other peoples of African descent.

In 1926, the
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History later called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) played a key role in sponsoring a national Negro History week. ASALH chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas.

The creation of
Negro History Week inspired schools and communities nationwide to organize local celebrations, establish history clubs and host performances and lectures during the same week.

For the next three decades events celebrating this week would grow as mayors of cities across the country began issuing yearly proclamations recognizing
Negro History Week.

Led by students on college campuses having month long celebrations during the height of the
Civil Rights Movement, Negro History Week would evolve into Black History Month.

It would not be until
1976 that President Gerald Ford would officially recognize and designate February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world also devote this month to celebrating Black History.
Origin of the Black Flag
The Pan-African flag, also called the Afro-American or Black Liberation flag, was designed to represent people of the African Diaspora to symbolize "black freedom".

For several years the leader of the Universal Negro Improvements Association (UNIA),  Marcus Garvey, talked about the need for a black liberation flag.

Garvey felt that a flag is a necessary symbol of political maturity. According to Garvey, the fact that the black race did not have a flag was a mark of the political impotence of the black race. So acquiring a flag would be proof that the black race had politically come of age.

The banner, with its horizontal red, black and green stripes, was adopted by the UNIA at a conference in New York City in 1920.

The Pan-African flag's colors each had a symbolic meaning.

RED represents both the blood shed by Africans who died in their fight for liberation and the shared blood of the African people.

BLACK represents the people

GREEN represents a symbol of growth and the natural fertility of Africa.

For black people, the flag means that they have some way of identifying themselves in the world. The flag also projects to those people who are not members of this particular national community that they too belong, that they have membership in a world of communities, a world of nations.

The
Pan-African flag was the template for all the flags of African countries as they gained independence. Ghana, Libya, Malawi, Kenya and many other African countries adopted the red, black and green often with the addition of gold, which sometimes symbolizes mineral wealth.
MWRD Black Flag Raising Ceremony

On February 1st MWRD marked its second annual raising of the Black Flag at our Main Office Building at 100 East Erie, Chicago.

To watch video of MWRD's Flag raising ceremony please click on the following link ** MWRD Flag Raising Ceremony (https://youtu.be/WBc3dD382LU)
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Contact Information
Our mailing address is:

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District
Commissioner Kimberly Du Buclet
100 East Erie Street
Chicago, IL 60611

Phone Number
312-751-5086
** Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/Kim4Water )
** Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/KIM4MWRD/)
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