On Feb. 1, history was made in St. Petersburg.
Amid applause, whoops and laughter, Mayor Rick Kriseman raised a flag over City Hall commemorating 40 years of Black History Month.
The flag featured the likeness of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, an educator, author and historian who is known as the father of Black History Month.
After the flag was raised, Terri Lipsey Scott, chair of the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum in St. Petersburg, praised Kriseman for the important gesture.
She commended him for doing what no other St. Petersburg mayor has done, which was “to acknowledge and commemorate the contributions that African-Americans have made to this nation by flying – over a government institution – a flag in honor of not only Dr. Carter G. Woodson, but African-American history.”
In response, Kriseman said that “one of the many things that makes our community so special is our black history and the countless contributions that black individuals and families have made, and continue to make.”
Last March, Kriseman also won plaudits when he announced that the city will try to purchase and preserve the Woodson museum, a long-simmering point of controversy between the museum board and the museum’s landlord, the St. Petersburg Housing Authority.
Two months earlier, the Housing Authority board had voted 4-3 to sell the small community museum at 2240 Ninth Ave. S.
In praising Kriseman’s recognition of the city’s diversity and the importance of keeping its history alive, Scott quoted Woodson: “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”
Woodson, who was born to former slaves in 1875, announced the celebration of Negro History Week in 1926 in effort to preserve African-American history, which had been routinely overlooked in history books.
In 1976, 26 years after his death, Negro History Week was extended to encompass the entire month of February.
Some say that the establishment of Black History Month runs counter to Woodson’s intent – that relegating black history to one month limits its full integration into mainstream education.
The flag Kriseman raised on Feb. 1 was not the first banner the mayor has unfurled to demonstrate the city’s inclusiveness.
During Pride Week in 2015, Kriseman flew the LGBT Pride Flag over City Hall and returned as the parade’s honorary grand marshal along with former St. Petersburg Assistant Police Chief Melanie Brevan.
