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Thank you for joining us as we celebrated Black History Month in 2022. Throughout this month, we have been focusing on various leaders, trendsetters, and first-generations of Black History figures. These men and women, who could have been forgotten to time, were given their proper place amongst more knowable names like W. E. B. DuBois, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks. They were activists, members of the Army, inventors, engineers, and much, much, more.
These individuals and many more embody the encouragement, the drive, and the motivation to strive forward in the face of adversity, of disbelief and of injustice. All of these historical leaders like Dr. Charles Richard Drew, Brigadier General Sherian Cadoria, or Dorothy Height, leads us to modern day leaders such as Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, Police Chief Carl K. Dunn, or Vice President Kamala Harris.
Being represented as a people helps us to represent our voices and stories. The knowledge of our history encourages us to continue to strive toward an equitable society, to come together and act on one accord. As I stated at the beginning of this month, “…it is imperative, now more than ever, for us to come together and continue to manifest the dream!”
Black leadership, as seen in the City of Baker, is not only something that we can be proud of it is fundamental to our collective success. The City of Baker, is in the top twenty-five most populated cities in the state of Louisiana and has the highest percentage population of Black residents. We are number one in this metric and for us have our elected leaders 100% comprised of Black men and women is a monument to our success.
The Baker Chamber of Commerce is another fine example of Black leadership in our fair city. Comprised of Black men and women who uphold the mission statement of being “the voice of the business community”, their diligent work welcoming new businesses, connecting businesses with resources they need to thrive and creating celebrations for these businesses is key to shaping the future. It is said quite often “representation matters” and here we have people who know what it means to live in this city, to see what needs to be done and are actively working on growing, leading and healing our community
This is history being made right now, where we live and everyone here is a part of it.
Our Black leadership is a reminder and an inspiration to the Black children of this community showing them that they can achieve any goal they set their eyes on. Students can hold their heads up with pride as they see a person of color in the White House, and in their local government. These Black children can gain a new sense of self as they see how far their forefathers and foremothers have come and how the leaders of the past set down the foundation for their futures. As Maya Angelou said, “If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.”
As we are thankful to all of the Black leaders, past and present, within our city and all over the world, the ones that should be remembered, taught about, and talked about that achieved goals that were once thought impossible let’s do our best to remember them, let’s know their names! Today and every day!
As we look to history and our leadership, drawing upon the many examples of bravery, grace and wisdom for inspiration may we be equally as inspired as they were and are; may we be moved to serve others so we can ensure the American ideal of “all men are created equal”. May we remember that we all have the same vision for this nation and ourselves of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Let’s look at home as well as abroad to recognize the leadership we have and the history that is being made every day in the City of Baker and say “I still have a dream”.
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