[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2014)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 6797-6798]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-02535]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 24 / Wednesday, February 5, 2014 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 6797]]


                Proclamation 9080 of January 31, 2014

                
National African American History Month, 2014

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Americans have long celebrated our Nation as a beacon 
                of liberty and opportunity--home to patriots who threw 
                off an empire, refuge to multitudes who fled oppression 
                and despair. Yet we must also remember that while many 
                came to our shores to pursue their own measure of 
                freedom, hundreds of thousands arrived in chains. 
                Through centuries of struggle, and through the toil of 
                generations, African Americans have claimed rights long 
                denied. During National African American History Month, 
                we honor the men and women at the heart of this 
                journey--from engineers of the Underground Railroad to 
                educators who answered a free people's call for a free 
                mind, from patriots who proved that valor knows no 
                color to demonstrators who gathered on the battlefields 
                of justice and marched our Nation toward a brighter 
                day.

                As we pay tribute to the heroes, sung and unsung, of 
                African-American history, we recall the inner strength 
                that sustained millions in bondage. We remember the 
                courage that led activists to defy lynch mobs and 
                register their neighbors to vote. And we carry forward 
                the unyielding hope that guided a movement as it bent 
                the arc of the moral universe toward justice. Even 
                while we seek to dull the scars of slavery and 
                legalized discrimination, we hold fast to the values 
                gained through centuries of trial and suffering.

                Every American can draw strength from the story of 
                hard-won progress, which not only defines the African-
                American experience, but also lies at the heart of our 
                Nation as a whole. This story affirms that freedom is a 
                gift from God, but it must be secured by His people 
                here on earth. It inspires a new generation of leaders, 
                and it teaches us all that when we come together in 
                common purpose, we can right the wrongs of history and 
                make our world anew.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the 
                United States, do hereby proclaim February 2014 as 
                National African American History Month. I call upon 
                public officials, educators, librarians, and all the 
                people of the United States to observe this month with 
                appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

[[Page 6798]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                thirty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
                two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
                eighth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2014-02535
Filed 2-4-14; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295-F4