CALTRANS NEWS

HQ Division of Planning Hosts 2nd Annual Black History Celebration

By Mike Gordon
Rotation Program Manager, DOTP

The Division of Transportation Planning (DOTP) celebrated the 2nd annual Black History Celebration Feb. 28 in Sacramento.

The two-hour celebration included information, games, food and a laptop computer photo collage, “Living the Legacy,” about the lives of two great Americans, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King.

Event organizers are, from left, Helen Rainwater, Marleece Peart, Mike Gordon, Curt Davis, Mitchell Baker, Sabrina Watts and Carl Payne.

Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus led to the 381-day Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott organized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It resulted in a 1956 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended segregation in transportation. Corretta Scott King, Dr. King’s widow, was a widely recognized advocate for human rights.

Committee members Helen Rainwater, Mitchell Baker, Curt Davis, Carl Payne, Mike Gordon, Sabrina Watts, and Marleece Peart organized the event.

Rainwater, the event’s emcee, said, “In any legacy, there is a give and take. Our theme this year, ‘Living The Legacy,’ is about leaving behind a foundation for future generations to build upon. That’s the ‘give’ side. The ‘take’ is the responsibility of those left behind to pick up the banner of progress and move it further than it had ever been before,” she said.

Carl Payne recited a biographical sketch of American historian Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D. (1875-1950). Dr. Woodson founded “Negro History Week” in 1926. It later became known as “Black History Month.”

“Dr. Woodson chose the second week in February [for this event] to commemorate the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom he considered having the greatest influence on Black America,” Payne said. “Son of former slaves, and a Harvard graduate, Dr. Woodson founded (1916) and later edited (1916-1950) the quarterly Journal of Negro History.”

In the “Guess The Famous Person” game, DOTP employees Jake Smith and Michelle Robinson won, respectively, Man of Excellence and Woman of Excellence tee shirts for leading their teams to victory.

In a “Map-Reading” exercise, event committee members traced their roots from Africa to the east coast of the U.S., and then to Sacramento. Represented states included Mississippi, Illinois, Louisiana, Connecticut, Missouri, Texas, Washington State, California, and even New York by way of the British West Indies. Each supplied a unique piece of an intricately woven tapestry of the path to Sacramento, as colorful as it was geographically diverse.

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