00                         SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 8                                                                        
01 Proclaiming February 2018 as Black History Month.                                                                       
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE:                                                                                           
03       WHEREAS we recognize the strength and value of our diversity as a state and nation;                             
04 and                                                                                                                     
05       WHEREAS the birthdays of Fredrick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln inspired Dr.                                     
06 Carter G. Woodson, considered the "Father of Black History," to establish Negro History                                 
07 Week, which later became Black History Month; and                                                                       
08       WHEREAS African Americans are woven into the fabric of this nation and contribute                               
09 to the attributes that make the nation strong and just, despite the nation's history of their                           
10 enslavement and unjust treatment; and                                                                                   
11       WHEREAS the pivotal role African Americans have played in building this great                                   
12 state has been uncelebrated for too long; and                                                                           
13 WHEREAS many African American residents have helped shape our state's destiny,                                        
14 including Blanche McSmith who, in 1959, after leading efforts to advance civil rights in the                            
15 period leading up to statehood, was appointed the first African American to serve in the                                
16 Alaska House of Representatives, where she fought tirelessly to end housing and employment                              

01 discrimination; and                                                                                                     
02       WHEREAS Mahala Ashley Dickerson, after moving to Alaska to homestead with her                                 
03 family, became the state's first African American attorney in 1959 and continued to fight for                           
04 equal rights for all into her 90s; and                                                                                  
05       WHEREAS our nation was founded on the principle that ''all men are created equal,                               
06 that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are                            
07 Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness''; and                                                                       
08       WHEREAS we have struggled through slavery, segregation, and racial injustice                                    
09 toward this ideal and are still fighting today to fulfill the promise of those words;                                   
10       BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate proclaims February 2018 as Black History                                         
11 Month.