February marks the start of the national, annual observance of Black History Month, and celebration of the achievements of African Americans. The theme for 2022 focuses on the importance of Black Health and Wellness^[1]. 

Black History Month was started by Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard-trained historian, who founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915, and later announced "Negro History Week" in 1926, which grew until it's formal recognition in 1976.^[2] That year, U.S. president Gerald Ford extended the recognition to “honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Black History Month has been celebrated in the United States every February since. Woodson selected the second week of February for the inaugural celebration because it includes the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist, and former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. 

Members of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus gather for a press conference today to discuss an agenda to empower and elevate Black New Yorkers.

The theme of Black History Month 2022 is Black health and wellness. Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn issued the following statement in recognition of the month:

James McCune Smith, born in NYC in 1813, was the first African American to earn a medical degree, educated at the University of Glasgow in the 1830s, when no American university would admit him^[3]. In addition to this achievement, Smith was an abolitionist and writer. He was the first African American to publish peer-reviewed articles in medical journals; he also wrote essays and gave lectures refuting pseudoscientific claims of black inferiority and forecast the transformational impact African Americans were destined to make on world culture.

This year, civil rights activist and writer, Maya Angelou became the first Black woman to be featured on a quarter-dollar. Angelou was also the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President Barack Obama. Angelou is the first of five women whose likeness are set to be featured on new 25-cent coins in 2022 as part of the American Women Quarters Program^[4].

Stacy Abrams, a Democrat is running a campaign for governor of Georgia, which, if successful, would make her the first Black woman to govern any state in the nation. She is a nationally recognized voting-rights champion, author, and activist.

Edward A. Johnson became the first African-American elected to the New York state Legislature in 1917 to represent the 19th Assembly District. Johnson gained national attention for his writing, including a children’s history book on African-American achievements and was also a well-known lawyer, educator and historian^[5].

As a teenager in 1955, Claudette Colvin protested Alabama’s prejudiced bus segregation laws. Months before the December Montgomery bus boycott - and even before Rosa Parks made history for her act of civil disobedience - Colvinrefused to give up her seat to a white passenger and was forcibly detained by Montgomery police, then held in an adult jail cell. This year, her record was, at last, expunged^[6]. During an interview, she encouraged young people to persevere saying “I have lived long enough to tell the young people my story, and they should stay strong and not get discouraged.”

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn represents the 42nd Assembly District in the New York State Assembly representing the Brooklyn communities of Ditmas Park, Flatbush, East Flatbush and Midwood. She is currently the Chair of the Task Force on Women's Issues and Chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs), and serves on the following committees: Housing, Government Operations, Economic Development, Banks, Health, and Higher Education. She is also a member of the Task Force on Women's Issues and sits on Governor Hochul's Domestic Violence Advisory Council and Mayor Adams MWBE Task Force.

As a current Assemblymember and District Leader, Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn has been an outspoken advocate on issues concerning immigration, education, economic development, unemployment, education reform, health care access, senior citizen centers, affordable housing, school safety, women's and LGBTQ rights, as well as other issues affecting the quality of life in the community.