Bill Text: VA HJR235 | 2020 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Commending Black Women United for Action.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 19-0)
Status: (Passed) 2020-02-28 - Bill text as passed House and Senate (HJ235ER) [HJR235 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2020-HJR235-Enrolled.html
WHEREAS, for 30 years, Black Women United for Action has held an annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Slave Memorial at Mount Vernon to honor individuals who lived and died as slaves; and
WHEREAS, Black Women United for Action, a grassroots organization designed to increase the visibility and community engagement of African American families in Northern Virginia, worked with the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association to hold its first wreath-laying ceremony in 1990; and
WHEREAS, the Slave Memorial at Mount Vernon was designed by Howard University students as a tribute to the skills, talents, and spiritual resilience of enslaved people; Black Women United for Action's ceremony brings attention to their suffering and sacrifices in addition to celebrating the liberty and freedom they hoped to one day achieve; and
WHEREAS, Black Women United for Action's ceremony includes poetry readings, speeches, and liturgical dance and music performed by students from Howard University and other historically black colleges and universities; and
WHEREAS, through its wreath-laying ceremony, Black Women United for Action has provided generations of attendees with an occasion for both somber remembrance of the past and joyful hope for the future; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend Black Women United for Action on the occasion of its 30th annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Slave Memorial at Mount Vernon; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Black Women United for Action as an expression of the General Assembly's admiration for the organization's important work to preserve the history and memory of enslaved people at Mount Vernon and throughout the United States.
