Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued a proclamation declaring February 2016, as Black History Month in the State of California.

PROCLAMATION

The theme for Black History Month 2016 is “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memories.” When we preserve and visit places of significance to our common past, we honor the people who came before us who toiled, suffered and triumphed as they helped create the world we live in today.

Throughout California there are sites we can visit to remember the great contributions of African-Americans to our state history: the State Historic Park at Allensworth in Tulare County, a town founded as a self-sufficient African-American community in 1908; the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial in Contra Costa County, where hundreds of black servicemen lost their lives in the worst accident of the World War II era; and Biddy Mason Park in Los Angeles, named in honor of the woman, born a slave, who became the first African-American landowner in that city and was so successful that she was able to donate the land for the First African Methodist Episcopal Church. Each of these sites, as well as many others around our state, stand as testament both to the great barriers that African-Americans have faced in our history and the great contributions they have made in spite of those barriers.

This Black History Month, I hope that many Californians will visit these historic sites and pay homage to the important role of African-Americans throughout the history of our state.

NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim February 2016, as “Black History Month.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 1st day of February 2016.



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EDMUND G. BROWN JR.
Governor of California

ATTEST:



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ALEX PADILLA
Secretary of State