Fairfax City got Black History Month off to a meaningful start with a special ceremony, Jan. 28, inside the City Hall atrium and in Council chambers. The evening began with a catered reception with Rev. Jeffery Johnson, pastor of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfax, as the guest of honor.

Johnson gave a dramatic recitation of the iconic “I Have a Dream” speech originally delivered by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Aug. 28, 1963, March on Washington, D.C. Then Mayor Catherine Read presented a Black History Month Proclamation to him in front of City Council:

“Dr. Carter B. Woodson, a distinguished African American author, editor, publisher and historian, founded Black History Month, based on the belief that African Americans and all Americans should know their past in order to participate in the affairs of the country. We celebrate the diversity of Black people in the City of Fairfax, the Commonwealth of Virginia and our nation.

“We acknowledge that we have never fully lived up to the founding ideals of this country that all people are created equal. And we have often failed to acknowledge the contributions of those Black Americans whose courage, sacrifices and relentless efforts helped to build this country from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619.

“We acknowledge systemic racism has resulted in Black Americans being more likely to die at an earlier age from all causes, with persons of color more greatly impacted by health inequities, disproportionately over-represented in our prison system and among our homeless populations, causing trauma over multiple generations within the Black community.

“We recognize that all people have inherent value and worth and are deserving of respect, dignity and basic human rights that have often been denied to Black Americans through institutionalized racism that persists to this day. 

“We celebrate this year’s Black History Month theme of ‘African Americans and Labor,’ focusing on the various and profound ways that [Black] work of all kinds has shaped this country … including [via] thought leaders from Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells, Nannie Helen Burroughs and Rosa Parks, to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Barack Obama …

“Barriers to the full employment of African Americans have historically included exclusion from higher education, segregation of the federal workforce and military, disenfranchisement at the ballot box, and racism in hiring in many industries over hundreds of years.”

The proclamation further stressed the investment generations of Black Americans have made to “the greatness of the American experience. We recognize those contributions go beyond our own borders to impact some of the great accomplishments in science, literature, diplomacy, the arts and athletics around the world.”

Read then officially proclaimed February 2025 Black History Month in the City of Fairfax and encouraged residents to “seek out the many stories of the African American experience in our country through books, theater, movies, documentaries, features and other events. Black history is American history, every month of the year, and it is incumbent on all of us to know our country’s full history and the importance of centuries of African American labor that built this nation.”

Afterward, Johnson noted that his church was established in May 1870, nearly 155 years ago. He then told Read, “On behalf of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church and its parishioners, and the citizens of this great City, I thank you for this proclamation, I thank you for the regard and respect for African American history. And I also thank you that here, in this administration, our voices are welcome and our thoughts are considered.”