Forney Mayor Darren Rozell read a proclamation at the February 19, 2013 City Council meeting, which proclaimed February as Black History Month in the City of Forney. The Mayor was joined in front of the Council by 11 alumni of Forney's former Booker T. Washington High School.
Forney Mayor Darren Rozell read a proclamation at the February 19, 2013 City Council meeting, which proclaimed February as Black History Month in the City of Forney. The Mayor was joined in front of the Council by 11 alumni of Forney's former Booker T. Washington High School.
Booker T. Washington High School was purchased by the City of Forney late last year in order to ensure it would not be torn down. The school was originally opened as a one room building in 1842, though the current building is from the 1950's. The High School closed at the end of the 1966-1967 school year. The school has significant meaning to Forney's African-American community members because it was the first school in Forney specifically built for black students. At the time, segregation was observed in Forney schools.
The proclamation read by Mayor Rozell commemorated “significant events and achievements of the African-American population of the United States.” Black History month began being celebrated in the U.S.A. in 1976. Each year Black History Month has a different theme. The 2013 theme is, “At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington.”
It acknowledges that in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln enacted the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all slaves in the United States. 2013 is also the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech which was delivered at the March on Washington. The Booker T. Washington alumni thanked the Mayor and Council after receiving a standing ovation from those community members in attendance.
