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<br />There are more to events planned through to August 2020. The Human Relations Commission
<br />will keep you informed as those event dates become available.
<br />
<br />Deborah Stroman read the proclamation:
<br />
<br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
<br />400 Years Proclamation
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, in 1619 unfree Africans, “some 20. and odd Negroes,” arrived in the English
<br />settlement that would become Virginia; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, this historic arrival marked the beginning of the period in America where people of
<br />Africa were forcibly taken from their homeland, transported to the American colonies and later
<br />the United States, and committed to lifelong slavery and racial discrimination; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, after the Civil War, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the
<br />U.S. Constitution were ratified, ending slavery in the U.S. and granting the newly freed slaves
<br />freedom, citizenship, the equal protection of law, and the right to vote; but despite these
<br />Amendments, Blacks were quickly subjected to Jim Crow, a legally sanctioned institutionalized
<br />system of racial segregation and subordination, as well as white resistance and violence; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, despite efforts such as the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, anti-racism
<br />advocacy, progressive legislation, and the election of President Barack Obama, Blacks continue
<br />to face oppression and inequities across systems and institutions; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, Orange County is home to Black citizens who are descendants of Africans who
<br />were kidnapped and enslaved 400 years ago; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, Blacks are diverse, respected residents who have worked to transcend the
<br />continuing impacts of slavery and racial segregation and contribute to our community’s
<br />economic, political, social, and spiritual well-being; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, Blacks, whose experiences, generational wisdom, and work to triumph over racial
<br />oppression, connect us to the past and help us meet the challenges of the future; and
<br />
<br />WHEREAS, our community must strive to understand and address the history and legacy of
<br />racism, its impacts, and the evolving challenges and needs of all its residents as a result of
<br />those impacts, and
<br />WHEREAS, today, and every day, let us remember the harrowing experience of the Africans
<br />who first came to the shores of English North America and the plight and burden of their
<br />descendants;
<br />
<br />NOW, THEREFORE, we, the Orange County Board of Commissioners, do hereby proclaim
<br />August 1, 2019 through July 31, 2020 as a year of remembrance to commemorate the 400th
<br />anniversary of unfree Africans first arriving in English North America by working towards racial
<br />healing and justice through revisiting the past and learning about efforts to win freedom and
<br />equality, and encourage the Orange County Human Relations Commission to, over this
<br />anniversary year and beyond, to:
<br />● plan programs to acknowledge the impact that slavery and laws that enforced racial
<br />discrimination and inequity had on the United States; and
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