Proclamation reading, music are part of event
By Teresa Sargeant
Apopka Chief Staff
Twenty-eight Black Apopka legends were recognized at the third annual Celebrating Legends of Apopka Black History Month event on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at the Apopka Community Center. Families of the deceased were in attendance to receive the honor on the legends’ behalf.
The Apopka Youth Council organized the event as well as compiled Volume 3 of the booklet “Celebrating Legends of Apopka in Honor of Black History Month” with local historian Francina Boykin and the city of Apopka.
In addition, the event will feature a special proclamation by Mayor Bryan Nelson, a reception for attendees, and special music performances by Mark Wright-Ahern and the Wekiva High School Chorus.
“This is just unbelievable each year. It keeps growing and growing and growing, and we’re just so, so proud of the work that our Apopka Youth Council and the leadership of Stephen Cribb have given us,” Mayor Bryan Nelson said, who read a proclamation declaring February 2025 as Black History Month in Apopka.
The concept of Black History Month originated in 1915, when minister Jesse E. Moorland and historian Carter G. Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History for researching and promoting Black Americans’ achievements. The association later became known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
In 1926 the Association for the Study of African American Life and History started National Negro History Week and selected the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
Through Moorland and Woodson’s efforts, educational institutions and communities put together local celebrations, performances and history clubs for National Negro History Week. In subsequent decades, the week eventually expanded into what became known as Black History Month.
President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976. Every year since then, every American president has designated February as Black History Month with a specific theme. This year’s theme is African Americans and Labor.
The Apopka Chief is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving the greater Apopka area in Central Florida since 1923.
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