Month: June 2022
Juneteenth 2022: Message from Our President
June 19, 2022As we celebrate the second national observance of the Juneteenth holiday, America’s second Independence Day, we celebrate in spirit with the 250,000 plus formally enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Tex., when their freedom was declared in the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19,1865.
The legacy of Juneteenth is the history and the story of the strength and resiliency of Black Americans who refused to give up during the most painful period in American history when they were torn from their lives in Africa to endure centuries of enslavement in the Americas.
Remembering, preserving, and celebrating these stories of resiliency is what makes the mission of the African American Resources and Cultural Heritage (AARCH) Society so pertinent and relevant today. We recognize that June 19th, 1865 marked the beginning of a journey that promised to lead to freedom, equality, and justice for formerly enslaved Americans. We know that the journey continues. Though progress has been made, 157 years later, we still have much work ahead to realize the full promise of emancipation and equality.
As the Society moves closer to opening its African American Heritage Center in 2023, where the often-omitted stories of African Americans in Frederick County, Md., will be recognized, presented, and celebrated, we take the banner from the ancestors whose day of emancipation we celebrate on Juneteenth.
We thank the community for its support as we make progress toward realizing the vision of William O. Lee Jr. and David V. Key, are now among the ancestors. We are grateful for a Board of Directors, funders, volunteers, and members who believe in and support our mission and the vision for the future. We encourage everyone to learn about the history of Juneteenth and to find ways not just to celebrate emancipation day but to continue to find ways to effect positive change in their communities and in the world.
Protean Gibril, President
AARCH Society Board of Directors
Human Relations Commission Honors AARCH Society
June 8, 2022On May 26, AARCH Society was honored to receive the 2022 Lord D. Nickens Community Service Award from the Human Relations Commission of Frederick County and thrilled that AARCH Society Board Member Rose Dorsey Chaney earned the Theodore W. Stephens Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ms. Chaney is a founding member of AARCH Society and a driving force in our growth and ongoing success. In 2021 Ms. Chaney was named a Wertheimer Fellow for Excellence in Volunteerism by the Community Foundation of Frederick County.
Michael Hughes, Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer for Frederick County, presented the keynote address at the ceremony, which was held virtually.
The Lord D. Nickens Community Service Award is given to an individual or organization (school, business, non-profit agency, etc.) in Frederick County that has shown a strong commitment and compiled a solid record of achievement in promoting justice, tolerance, affirmative action, cultural diversity, and inclusion in the community at large.
AARCH Society was noted for our planned establishment of Frederick’s African American Heritage Center on the corner of All Saints and Carroll streets in 2023 and “… its programs, services, and activities, its research, archival and cultural materials, objects and collections and … support of a dedicated and hard-working corps of volunteers … shar[ing] the stories about the history, the contributions and extraordinary resiliency of African Americans in Frederick County despite the challenges they faced during slavery, the Jim Crow era and beyond.”
The Theodore W. Stephens Lifetime Achievement Award is given to an individual with at least 10 years of active involvement in community services in Frederick County and a record of outstanding contributions over the course of time.
At the award ceremony, Ms. Chaney was lifted up for her longstanding and wide-ranging dedication to community service. “For several years, she has spearheaded the task of creating and emailing a weekly African American Community Calendar that promotes local events. You can also find her periodically emailing job postings and other announcements that she’s gathered from various sources. The list of contributions reaches far and wide and ranges in varying degrees,” the Human Relations Commission noted in their introduction.
AARCH Society congratulates Miss Rose for this well-deserved recognition and expresses our deep appreciation to the Human Relations Commission for the awards acknowledging the work being done by AARCH Society and our members on behalf of Frederick County.
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