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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E557-E558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING THE 29TH ANNUAL D.C. BLACK PRIDE
______
HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON
of the District of Columbia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of
Representatives to join me in recognizing the 29th annual D.C. Black
Pride and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
This Memorial Day week the National Capital Region welcomes members
of the African American LGBTQ community to celebrate ``Our Truths In
Harmony'' at the 29th annual D.C. Black Pride.
The festivities begin May 20th at 5:00 p.m. with the Damian
Ministries' Black Pride Kick Off Reception and they close at 6:00 p.m.
May 27th with Helping Us People Into Living's ``Pride In the Park''
festival at Fort DuPont Park.
On May 21st, D.C. Black Pride honors its 2019 award winners at the
D.C. Black Pride Awards Reception. The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) President and Chief Executive
Derrick Johnson receives the President's Award. The 2019 Welmore Cook
Awards go to Bishop Allyson Nelson Abrams, founder prelate and pastor
of Empowerment Liberation Cathedral, her spouse, Bishop Emerita Diana
Williams, and Dr. Dii-Quartelai Quartey of the National Association of
Retired Persons (NAARP) and the Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Steven ``Kahos'' Wilson, Founder and CEO of Ovah the Top Productions
and Executive Director of the OASIS Dance Company, receives the Unsung
Hero Award. Black Pride recognizes True Colors United Senior Program
Officer Kahlib Barton with the Leadership Award. Shi-Queeta Lee, noted
DMV Drag Entertainer and costume designer, is honored with the Earline
Budd Award.
Black Pride acknowledges U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Health Impact Specialist Derrick Caomei ``Strawberry'' Cox as the
Charlotte Smallwood Volunteer of the Year for 2019. Gail Oliver and
Nana Amuah-Afenyi VI (born Peggielene Bartles, known informally as
``King Peggy''), chief of Tatum Ghana, receive the Curtis L. Etherly,
Jr., Ally Award. Michael Beale of Mb Staffing Services, LLC, receives
the D.C. Black Pride Small Business Award.
This year, Black Pride initiates the Alan Sharpe Award for
contributions to art by awarding it to its namesake, Alan Sharpe,
Founding Artistic Director of Washington, D.C.'s African-American
Collective Theater.
Black Pride continues through Memorial Day with town halls,
educational workshops, a poetry slam hosted by Mary Bowman, an
interfaith worship service, and social events, including breakfasts,
brunches, dinners and happy hours.
D.C. Black and Lesbian Gay Pride Day began my first year in Congress.
On Sunday, May 26, 1991, 800 people gathered at Banneker Field on
Georgia Avenue. I have watched it mature from an ad hoc event to one of
the world's preeminent Black Pride celebrations. Now D.C. Black Pride
draws more than 50,000 participants from the United States, Africa,
Europe and the Americas to our nation's capital.
D.C. Black Pride fostered the beginning of the Center for Black
Equity (formerly known as the International Federation of Black Prides,
Inc.) and the ``Black Pride Movement,'' which now consists of 53 Black
Prides on four continents. I commend the volunteer Advisory Board that
assists Earl D. Fowlkes, Jr., Jeffrey Richardson, Michael S. Hinson,
Jr., C. Hawkins, Kenya Hutton and Genise Chamber-Woods in the planning
and execution of D.C. Black Pride.
As Black Pride comes to town, I also take this opportunity to inform
the celebrants and to
[[Page E558]]
remind my colleagues of the various limitations Congress has placed on
the District of Columbia. Despite paying more federal taxes than 22
states and paying the highest per capita federal taxes in the United
States, the residents of Washington, D.C. still do not have full voting
representation in Congress.
I ask the House to join me in welcoming all attending the 29th annual
D.C. Black Pride celebration.
____________________
