Pasadena Black History Month Magazine - February 2024 | Pages 13 & 14

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: A UNIQUELY AMERICAN STORY

PASADENA HAS ITS STORY!

In this, the Late Councilmember John Kennedy's final essay on Black History Month for Pasadena Now, Kennedy looks at a Pasadena working to reconcile with a past that has not always been admirable

Originally published on Monday, February 15, 2021

Black History Month honors the influence and contributions of African Americans to United States history. Black History is, and has been since the beginnings of our great country, American History! The observance evolved from "Negro History Week," which was announced and created by renowned historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro life and History in 1926. Since 1976, every U.S. President has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month.

Like other cities as well as states around the country, the City of Pasadena proudly celebrates Black History Month. We do so with the knowledge that Pasadena has and continues to occupy a prominent place in Black History and correspondingly in American history. That history has not always been admirable. However, here in Pasadena there are ongoing and active efforts to establish truth and reconciliation. One example of a new path forward is encapsulated in the recent actions by the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology that approved the removal of the names from its buildings and anyplace on the Institute's campus of its past leaders who were in direct contact with the National Socialist Party of Germany. Evidence exists that at least one of those leaders was in contact with Adolph Hitler of Nazi Germany. Additionally, the Human Betterment Foundation was headquartered on the campus of Caltech. The Foundation practiced eugenics and was responsible for the forced sterilization of 9,000 Black Servicemen, amongst other atrocities. Those activities were the precursor of the implementation of the "Final Solution" in Nazi Germany.

"BLACK HISTORY IS, AND HAS BEEN SINCE THE BEGINNINGS OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY, AMERICAN HISTORY!

Pasadena Black History Month Magazine - February 2024 | Pages 13 & 14

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: A UNIQUELY AMERICAN STORY

PASADENA HAS ITS STORY!

In this, the Late Councilmember John Kennedy's final essay on Black History Month for Pasadena Now, Kennedy looks at a Pasadena working to reconcile with a past that has not always been admirable

Originally published on Monday, February 15, 2021

Black History Month honors the influence and contributions of African Americans to United States history. Black History is, and has been since the beginnings of our great country, American History! The observance evolved from "Negro History Week," which was announced and created by renowned historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro life and History in 1926. Since 1976, every U.S. President has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month.

Like other cities as well as states around the country, the City of Pasadena proudly celebrates Black History Month. We do so with the knowledge that Pasadena has and continues to occupy a prominent place in Black History and correspondingly in American history. That history has not always been admirable. However, here in Pasadena there are ongoing and active efforts to establish truth and reconciliation. One example of a new path forward is encapsulated in the recent actions by the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology that approved the removal of the names from its buildings and anyplace on the Institute's campus of its past leaders who were in direct contact with the National Socialist Party of Germany. Evidence exists that at least one of those leaders was in contact with Adolph Hitler of Nazi Germany. Additionally, the Human Betterment Foundation was headquartered on the campus of Caltech. The Foundation practiced eugenics and was responsible for the forced sterilization of 9,000 Black Servicemen, amongst other atrocities. Those activities were the precursor of the implementation of the "Final Solution" in Nazi Germany.

"BLACK HISTORY IS, AND HAS BEEN SINCE THE BEGINNINGS OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY, AMERICAN HISTORY!

Pasadena Black History Month Magazine - February 2023 | Pages 13 & 14

KING TO CALTECH STUDENTS: 'SEEK TO SOLVE LOCAL PROBLEMS'

"WE MUST HAVE ACTIVE COMMITMENT RATHER THAN MERE ACADEMIC ACCEPTANCE IF WE ARE TO SOLVE THE RACIAL PROBLEMS THAT FACE AMERICA TODAY.

"The oppressed peoples of the world are coming through the wilderness of adjustment and into the promised land of liberty," King said in an address in Dabney Hall Tuesday night.

"The older order of segregation is passing away and a new order of justice and freedom is gradually coming into being." The accompanying world tensions are "the usual pains that accompany the birth of anything new." King pointed out that there are "challenges to be met if the new order is to survive.

The first is to rise above the narrow confines of individual concerns to the broad concerns of all humanity."

"There are four things a Caltech student could do to help the racial situation," King said in an interview with the California Tech. "He should seek to give impetus to movements and to influence political leaders. He should seek to solve local problems. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

"He should give support, both moral and financial, to freedom fighters everywhere. The vast majority of people believe in integration, but they need organization and support. And finally, he should help to educate himself and others. Very few people are totally free of misconceptions about Negroes."