National African American History Month, 2014

Proclamation 9080 of January 31, 2014

National African American History Month, 2014

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Americans have long celebrated our Nation as a beacon
of liberty and opportunity--home to patriots who threw
off an empire, refuge to multitudes who fled oppression
and despair. Yet we must also remember that while many
came to our shores to pursue their own measure of
freedom, hundreds of thousands arrived in chains.
Through centuries of struggle, and through the toil of
generations, African Americans have claimed rights long
denied. During National African American History Month,
we honor the men and women at the heart of this
journey--from engineers of the Underground Railroad to
educators who answered a free people's call for a free
mind, from patriots who proved that valor knows no
color to demonstrators who gathered on the battlefields
of justice and marched our Nation toward a brighter
day.

As we pay tribute to the heroes, sung and unsung, of
African-American history, we recall the inner strength
that sustained millions in bondage. We remember the
courage that led activists to defy lynch mobs and
register their neighbors to vote. And we carry forward
the unyielding hope that guided a movement as it bent
the arc of the moral universe toward justice. Even
while we seek to dull the scars of slavery and
legalized discrimination, we hold fast to the values
gained through centuries of trial and suffering.

Every American can draw strength from the story of
hard-won progress, which not only defines the African-
American experience, but also lies at the heart of our
Nation as a whole. This story affirms that freedom is a
gift from God, but it must be secured by His people
here on earth. It inspires a new generation of leaders,
and it teaches us all that when we come together in
common purpose, we can right the wrongs of history and
make our world anew.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim February 2014 as
National 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 programs, ceremonies, and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord
two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
eighth.