PINKNEY NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

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February is Black History Month

Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of blacks in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.

The theme for 2020 – African Americans and the Vote

The year 2020 marks the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment and the culmination of the women’s suffrage movement.  The year 2020 also marks the sesquicentennial of the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) and the right of black men to the ballot after the Civil War. 

Origins of Black History Month

The story of Black History Month begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States.

That September, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by black Americans and other peoples of African descent.

Known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the group sponsored a national Negro History week in 1926, choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The event inspired schools and communities nationwide to organize local celebrations, establish history clubs and host performances and lectures.

In the decades that followed, mayors of cities across the country began issuing yearly proclamations recognizing Negro History Week. By the late 1960s, thanks in part to the civil rights movement and a growing awareness of black identity, Negro History Week had evolved into Black History Month on many college campuses.

President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, calling upon the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

(from History.com)

February 1, 2020 · Pinckney admin · One Comment
Posted in: Uncategorized

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• Helpful Lawrence Area Links

  • Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center
  • City of Lawrence, Kansas
  • Heartland Community Health Center
  • Just Food Douglas County
  • Lawrence – Douglas County Health Department
  • Lawrence Memorial Hospital
  • Lawrence See-Click-Fix Reporting for Potholes, Parks Issues, Etc.
  • Pinckney Elementary School

• Other Neighborhood Associations

  • Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods
  • Brook Creek
  • Delaware Street Commons
  • East Lawrence
  • North Lawrence
  • Old West Lawrence
  • Oread
  • Sunset Hills
  • University Place
  • Schwegler

• Changing our Neighborhood Name

  Our neighborhood name of “Pinckney” was recently changed to “Pinkney.” This change occurred because Pinckney with a ‘c’ was associated with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a Revolutionary War general who signed the Constitution and who also was a slaveholder who believed slavery was fundamental to the American way of life (he owned a large plantation in South Carolina). Given this problematic history, neighborhood residents voted to change our neighborhood name. To learn more about the year-long process, go to our dedicated webpage. The final round of voting ultimately landed on the name of “Pinkney” in honor of William Pinkney, who gave a famous anti-slavery speech in 1789.