PEP, March 2005: Black History Month. Remembering the past, building the future.

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Honoring the past with eyes on the future, the DC 37 Black History Committee kicked off the union’s 24th celebration of Black History Month with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Feb. 1 followed by a salute to the U.S. military presented by Motor Vehicle Operators Local 983.

“One month can’t begin to tell the story,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

“DC 37’s history is tied to the civil rights movement and the struggle of all people, not just African Americans.”

With guest speaker Helen Foster, a City Council member, Local 983 recognized African Americans in the military from the Buffalo Soldiers, who protected westbound settlers, to those serving today in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan. “The price of war is high, but the value of freedom is higher,” said President Mark Rosenthal.

Honor freedom fighters
To honor the vast contributions of African American inventors, scholars, musicians and more, DC 37 locals celebrated the culture with food, dance and testimony throughout February. (The April PEP will cover events after Feb. 9.)

Electronic Data Processing Personnel Local 2627 held its Black History Film Night Feb. 2 showing the PBS film “At the River I Stand,” which tells of the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers’ strike and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Library workers in Local 1930 heard from author Toby Thompkins, whose new book “The Real Lives of Strong Black Women,” was inspired by the “reality of strong black women and the sacrifice, joy and fulfillment involved in being ‘everything for everybody.’ ”

“People in the civil rights movement helped us get where we are today,” said Local 371 President Charles Ensley, who included Ms. Roberts, AFSCME Secretary Treasurer William Lucy and actor Ossie Davis, who died Feb. 4, among those freedom fighters. Charlene Mitchell, who fought to free Angela Davis, and City Council members Helen Foster, Robert Jackson, Bill Perkins, Charles Barron, Annabel Palmer and Carl Perkins joined guest speaker Cynthia McKinney, a U.S. Congress member from Georgia, at the event. “We must construct a plan based on a new political vision and work that plan, and we need leadership to give voice to that vision,” Ms. McKinney said.

Family Day

Black History Month: Family Day Photo Album

The Black History Committee celebrated Family Day with about 300 DC 37 members and their children. New York Liberty head coach Patty Coyle demonstrated basic basketball moves, and members’ children delighted in Maddie, the team mascot. Union families bonded at workshops on bead making, spin art, the history of the African drum, and more. And the IMPACT Repertory Theatre, a Harlem youth troupe, inspired DC 37 members’ with song, dance and poetry.

Local 768’s Feb. 9 celebration featured the Jeff King Band and Kerri Edge Children’s Dance Ensemble in a “Step Back in Time with Music and Dance.”

Real Estate Employees Local 1219 praised inventor Granville Woods, musicians Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and James Brown, barrier-breaking athlete Jackie Robinson, and producer Russell Simmons, who all hailed from Queens, at their Feb. 8 event. Guest speaker Caroline Kennedy of the Louis Armstrong Museum, a historic landmark in Corona, Queens, said, “Mr. Armstrong looked past the injustices and only talked about a wonderful world, because he saw the potential for good in all of us.”

Great legacy
As DC 37 continued to honor the great African American legacy, Ms. Roberts said, “Our contribution to humanity, our contribution to black history, was because we wanted the things others had.

Today we don’t call it black or white because in the union we are all sisters and brothers. Black history — our history — is really about being concerned about each other. It goes beyond skin color.”