[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 69 (Tuesday, May 3, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E645-E646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 26TH ANNUAL DC BLACK PRIDE CELEBRATION

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 3, 2016

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of 
Representatives to join me in celebrating the 26th annual DC Black 
Pride celebration on May 27-29, 2016.
  DC Black Pride 2016 is a multi-day festival featuring a reception, 
films, a poetry slam, a church service, educational workshops, 
community town hall meetings, a basketball tournament, an awards 
ceremony, and a health and wellness expo, among other events. We in the 
District of Columbia are pleased and proud that the DC Black Pride 
celebration is widely considered to be one of the world's preeminent 
Black Pride celebrations, drawing more than 30,000 people to the 
nation's capital from across the United States as well as

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from Canada, the Caribbean, South Africa, Great Britain, France, 
Germany, and the Netherlands.
  As the very first Black Pride festival, DC Black Pride fostered the 
beginning of the Center for Black Equity (formerly known as the 
International Federation of Black Prides, Inc. (IFBP)) and the ``Black 
Pride Movement,'' which now consists of 40 Black Prides on four 
continents. The Center For Black Equity, the celebration's organizing 
body, chose: ``I AM U. U R ME. WE ARE PRIDE!'' as the theme for this 
year's celebration.
  DC Black Pride is a project of the Center For Black Equity and is 
coordinated by Earl D. Fowlkes, Jr. and Kenya Hutton with assistance 
from a volunteer advisory board, which coordinates this annual event 
and consists of Andrea Woody-Macko; Shannon Garcon; Genise Chambers-
Woods; Reginald Shaw-Richardson; and Gladece Knight.
  I ask the House to join me in welcoming all attending the 26th annual 
DC Black Pride celebration in Washington, D.C., and I take this 
opportunity to remind the celebrants that United States citizens who 
reside in the District of Columbia are taxed without full voting 
representation in Congress.

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