Presidential Documents

5217

Federal Register

Vol. 65, No. 22

Wednesday, February 2, 2000

Title 3—

The President

Proclamation 7270 of January 31, 2000

National African American History Month, 2000

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Each year during National African American History Month, as we explore

the history and culture of African Americans, we discover anew a treasure

of stories about the triumph of the human spirit, inspiring accounts of

everyday people rising above the indignities imposed by prejudice. These

stories are not only an important part of African American history, but

an essential part of American history.

We are awakened to such stories through the power, beauty, and unflinching

witness of poets and writers like Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Paul

Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Toni Morrison,

and Alice Walker. We find them in the lives and voices of Frederick Douglass,

Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, and others who, rising above slavery,

brutality, and bigotry, became great American champions of liberty, equality,

and dignity. We see them written in the achievements of civil rights leaders

like Daisy Bates, James Farmer, John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood

Marshall, Mary Church Terrell, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young.

Forty years ago this month, a new chapter in African American history

was written. On February 1, 1960, four courageous young men—freshmen

at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro—sat

down at a segregated lunch counter in a local store and politely refused

to leave until they were served. Their nonviolent action challenged a barrier

that, symbolically and practically, had separated black and white Americans

for decades and denied equal treatment to African American citizens. The

extraordinary bravery and determination of Ezell Blair, Jr., Franklin McCain,

Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond galvanized young men and women

of conscience across America, setting in motion a series of student sitins in more than 50 cities and 9 States. Subjecting themselves to verbal

abuse, physical violence, and unjust arrest, thousands of black and white

students peacefully demonstrated to end segregation in restaurants, theaters,

concert halls, and public transportation and called for equality in housing,

health care, and education. Their story of conscience and conviction and

their ultimate triumph continue to inspire us today.

The theme of this year’s African American History Month is ‘‘Heritage

and Horizons: The African American Legacy and the Challenges of the

21st Century.’’ It is a reminder that the new century on which we have

just embarked offers us a unique opportunity to write our own chapter

in the history of African Americans and of our Nation. We can use this

time of extraordinary prosperity and peace to widen the circle of opportunity

in America, to recognize that our society’s rich diversity is one of our

greatest strengths, and to unite around the fundamental values that we

all share as Americans. We can teach our children that America’s story

has been written by men and women of every race and creed and ethnic

background. And we can ensure that our laws, our actions, and our words

honor the rights and dignity of every human being.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution

and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 2000 as National

5218 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 22 / Wednesday, February 2, 2000 / Presidential Documents

African American History Month. I call upon public officials, educators,

librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month

with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs that raise awareness

and appreciation of African American history.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day

of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the Independence

[FR Doc. 00–2452

Filed 2–1–00; 10:57 am]

Billing code 3195–01–P

of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.

œ–