Orange County Rings In Black History Month

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The streets of Anaheim were filled with opus and creation past play as thousands gathered to observe Black civilization and history.

Community organizations, schools, creation groups, section Black sororities and fraternities marched down Anaheim Blvd. during the 45th yearly OC Black History Parade successful solemnisation of the commencement of Black History Month.

“This year’s taxable is ‘We Are One,’” said Dwayne Shipp, Executive Director of the Orange County Heritage Council. “So with everything going connected successful the world, particularly California, our taxable ties into what we are experiencing now. People are coming together, and they’re sending resources. There are radical connected the crushed doing the work.”

“We are inactive celebrating portion doing the enactment successful participating and serving our community.”

Dimetria Jackson, a nonmigratory of Irvine, attended to spot her 2 boys successful the 100 Black Men of Orange County conception of the parade.

“It’s important we stock achromatic past with the adjacent generation,” Jackson said. “We conscionable privation to exposure them truthful they cognize wherever they travel from and each the contributions that radical who look similar them person made.”

Keva Dembaye, a 41-year aged Irvine resident, besides has a lad successful the 100 Black Men of Orange County organization. On apical of the parade, she celebrates achromatic past period by teaching her lad astir antithetic nationalist figures.

“We effort to speech to our lad astir not lone the celebrated figures from the past but besides those that are forgotten, truthful we tin walk the baton and support them from being genuinely forgotten,” Dembaye said.

While Orange County’s Black assemblage is comparatively tiny — astir 2% — these residents person historically had a important interaction connected the region.

This year’s Unity Festival had the largest ‘food village’ of erstwhile years, with 30 unsocial vendors offering psyche food, planetary nutrient and different classical festival eats.

Karneisha Christian, proprietor of the Pucker Up Lemonade Company, has been selling astatine the festival for 5 years.

“I emotion that [the festival] brings unneurotic each of Black Orange County,” she said.

This festival is conscionable 1 halt for them, arsenic they instrumentality the period to pop-up astatine different Black past events arsenic well.

The archetypal parade took spot disconnected Santa Ana’s Raitt St. successful 1980.

Originally known arsenic the Black History Parade and Cultural Faire, the solemnisation was founded by Santa Ana nonmigratory Helen M. Shipp, who besides served arsenic president and co-founder of the Orange County Black Historical Commission.

[Read: Recognizing Orange County’s Black History]

The Shipps championed Black pridefulness and excellence amidst their neighbors – a community of Latino, Cambodian, Tongan, Vietnamese and Samoan families.

Multi-cultural unity is inactive emphasized successful the parade decades later.

“The intent of the Orange County Black History Parade and Unity Festival is fostering assemblage engagement and unity,” Shipp said. “We are celebrating our shared history.”

“The parade and the festival service arsenic a level for transportation and education, and arsenic a solemnisation of affluent taste practice wrong our community.”

Observed successful February annually, Black History Month began arsenic “Negro History Week” successful the 1920s, founded by historiographer Carter G. Woodson to grant African American achievements. The solemnisation was timed to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass successful February, expanding to a month-long successful 1976.

“In 2025 Black History Month is peculiarly important fixed what whitethorn consciousness similar a looming nationalist sentiment to erase divers lived experiences,” said Dr. Mark Hopson, Professor of Communication and Director of Africana Studies astatine Chapman University.

“Yet galore radical recognize the worth down a period dedicated to this portion of US American history. Indeed, California and the United States are strengthened by the contributions of assorted people.”

“Black History Month is astir US history. It is astir today,” helium said. “It is astir forces that spot distant astatine our corporate consciousness. It is astir knowing that contention and racism are not specified coincidence oregon figments of our imagination.”

“It is astir the world that students tin postgraduate from precocious schoolhouse oregon assemblage with small to nary cognition of Black contributions to society.”

Erika Taylor is simply a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow and photojournalist. You tin find her connected Instagram @camerakeepsrolling oregon email astatine etaylor@voiceofoc.org

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