    [United States Statutes at Large, Volume 128, 113th Congress, 2nd Session]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    PROCLAMATION 9080--JAN. 31, 2014

    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.

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    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.
    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.
    BARACK OBAMA