D. W. Perkins Bar Association HONORING OUR LEGACY
Hazel Gillis, president of the James Weldon Johnson Branch of ASALH in Jacksonville, Florida was the speaker at the February luncheon of D. W. Perkins Bar Association, Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association on February 5, 2026.
In the D. W. Perkins Bar Association March Newsletter under FEBRUARY MONTHLY LUNCHEON they wrote: We held our February luncheon featuring an affirming program titled “Honoring Our Legacy: The Past, Present and Future of Black Excellence.” Our incredible speaker, Hazel Gillis, brought us a timely and impactful presentation to celebrate Black History, Black Excellence, and the legacy we work every day to leave behind.
President Gillis talked about Dr. Carter G. Woodson. The fact that ASALH is the organization that sets the theme for Black History Month each year, 2026 Theme: A Century of Black History.
She stated: We Proclaim it! Celebrate Black History Month 2026. She stated: Our president of ASALH Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead wrote: This is our moment to work even harder to protect, preserve, and promote Black History. This is our moment to stand firmly in the House of Woodson and uplift, center, and celebrate the historic contributions we have made to this country. This is our moment to proclaim once again that February is Black History Month!
In 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, one of the founders of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the son of formerly enslaved parents, a former sharecropper and miner, and the second Black person to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University—launched the first Negro History Week. He intentionally chose February because the Black community had already set aside the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14) to recognize and celebrate their contributions to emancipation and abolition.
The goal of Negro History Week was to study, teach, and promote the significant contributions that Black people had made to American society. From our writers to our inventors, our politicians to our teachers, our artists to our musicians—it was designed to document our lives from American slavery to freedom and to fill in the historical gaps that were deliberately overlooked in an effort to miseducate our children.
Black History is American History, and we must continue to teach the truth not leaving out any detail.
ASALH adopted Lift Every Voice and Sing as its Official Song on February 21, 2020.
Black history is American history, and we must celebrate the contributions that we made to not only this nation but to the world.
President Gillis reported that the James Weldon Johnson Branch was chartered June 6, 1995. In June 2005 they voted to change their name from the Jacksonville Branch to the James Weldon Johnson Branch. They meet on the 4th Saturday of each month except for July and August at Jacksonville Urban League, 903 W. Union Street, Jacksonville, Florida 32204.
The James Weldon Johnson of ASALH Black History Freedom School meet on Saturdays 11:30 a.m. – 1:00p.m. at Mt Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, Rev. B. J. Lane Annex, 1036 Silver Street, Jacksonville, Florida 32206. The current term ended March 21, 2026.
Woodson Quotes:
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.
When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.