Recognizing and celebrating black history and black contributions

During Black History Month, we venerate the indelible contributions African Americans have made to our nation’s identity. African-American men and women have persevered through hardship and pervasive discrimination to create an American identity inherent to the fabric of America.

The contributions of African Americans have made our country the great nation it is today. We have never given up on the hope that our country will fulfill its promise and live up to the creed that all men and women are created equally. Throughout our history, African Americans have demanded our country be a more perfect union.

{mosads}While we recognize and celebrate black history and black contributions here in America, we should do the same for black history and contributions around the world.

This Black History Month I was pleased to introduce a resolution recognizing the International Decade for People of African Descent (H. Res 133) and give a platform to the important issues facing Afro-descendants around the world.

Since entering the Congress, I have championed the rights of Afro-descendants. I’ve travelled to Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, as well as Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria – among many other nations – to discuss pathways towards reconciliation for the wrongs committed against Afro-descendants.

This week on Capitol Hill, I was honored to facilitate a discussion on Afro-Latinos and to hear from expert panelists on the rights and liberties under threat for many Afro and indigenous peoples in Latin America.

In 2011, the United Nations declared the International Year for People of African Descent to globally recognize, protect, and celebrate individuals of African descent. We cannot turn our heads to the fact that racism and xenophobia remain pervasive and persistent even in the connected, advanced world we live in today.

In the Americas, there are about 200 million people who identify as Afro-descendants, and they constitute some of the poorest and most marginalized communities in the world.

As long as human rights defenders, environmentalists, women, the LGBTQ community, journalists and many more remain under threat, this issue will never lose its salience.

The International Decade for People of African Descent is a beacon of hope in the pursuit of justice for Afro-descendants all over the world. Through productive relationships, governments and civil society can reaffirm their commitment to the fight against racism, discrimination, and intolerance.

My resolution acts as a marker, urging the people of the world to promote the history and heritage of people of African descent and to highlight exactly how much further we, as a global society, have left to go.

Congressman Johnson is a member of the House Judiciary and Transportation & Infrastructure committees and Secretary of the Congressional Black Caucus.