Twitter
Facebook
In observance of Black History Month, the Kaiserslautern African American Heritage Committee will sign a proclamation with Brig. Gen. Mark Dillion, 86th Airlift Wing and KMC commander.
This year’s national Black History Month theme is “The History of Black Economic Empowerment.”
The need for economic development has been a central element of black life. After centuries of unrequited toil as slaves, African Americans gained their freedom and found themselves in the struggle to make a living. The chains were gone, but racism was everywhere. Black codes often prevented blacks from owning land in towns and cities, and in the countryside they were often denied the opportunity to purchase land. Organized labor shut their doors to their brethren, and even the white philanthropist who funded black schools denied them employment opportunities once educated.
In the South, whites sought to ensure blacks would only be sharecroppers and day laborers, and in the North, whites sought to keep them as unskilled labor.
Pushing against the odds, African Americans became landowners, skilled workers, small businessmen and women, professionals and ministers.
In the Jim Crow economy, they started insurance companies, vocational schools, teachers’ colleges, cosmetic firms, banks, newspapers and hospitals. To fight exclusion from the economy, they started their own unions and professional associations. In an age when individuals proved unable to counter industrialization alone, they preached racial or collective uplift rather than individual self-reliance.
The late-19th and early 20th centuries witnessed an unprecedented degree of racial solidarity and organization.
In 1910, a group of dedicated reformers, black and white, gathered to create an organization to address the needs of African Americans as they migrated to U.S. cities. The organization they created a century ago became what we all know as the National Urban League.
For a century, they have struggled to open the doors of opportunity for successive generations, engaging the challenges of each age. The KAAHC celebrates the centennial of the National Urban League by exploring racial uplift and black economic development in the 20th century.
Below is a listing of events that have been planned in observance of Black History Month. Every member of the KMC is welcome to join and further learn and dialogue about the creating opportunities for future economic successes.
• KAAHC Gospel Fest 2010, 7 p.m. Feb. 20, Vogelweh Chapel
• KAAHC Banquet, 6 p.m. Feb. 27, Ramstein Officers’ Club
(Information courtesy of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, www.asalh.org)
KAAHC annual banquet
The Kaiserslautern African American Heritage Committee holds “The History of Black Economic Empowerment” annual banquet at 6 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Ramstein Officers’ Club. Guest speaker will be Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward, commander U.S. Africa Command. Cost is $31 for members and $33 for non-members. Dress is semi-formal civilian attire.
For details and to purchase tickets, call Shon Barnwell at 480-6536 or Robert Forest at 478-6987 at Ramstein; Michele Johnson at 0631-413-8359 at Panzer Kaserne; Rodney Floyd at 0151-5286-6364 or Delone Mcneary at 06371-86-7058 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
