February 6, 2025
The Boost News
Every February, Black History Month honors and reflects on the stories and contributions of Black Americans. Also every February, it’s given a theme by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
This year’s theme is African Americans and Labor. Its purpose, says ASALH, is to encourage “broad reflections on intersections between Black people’s work and their workplaces in all their iterations and key moments, themes, and events.”
ASALH also notes that 2025 marks the 100-year anniversary of the creation of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids, the first Black union to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor.
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The New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) began its observation of the month with a statement from Acting Commissioner Willow Baer:
“Whether it’s people we support, their family members, or people we employ, we cannot understate the contributions that Black communities add to our system and people’s lives. In fact, 40% of frontline staff working at service providers across New York State self-identify as Black, according to the most recent National Core Indicators State of the Workforce Survey.”
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Black history of course also includes disabled history.
The ARC has a stellar list of Black disabled leaders in history, including Lois Curtis, a disability rights advocate with cognitive and developmental disabilities who spent nearly 20 years in institutions at different points in her life.
“The landmark Supreme Court ruling on her case, Olmstead v. L.C., that institutionalizing people with disabilities was discriminatory, was a monumental and watershed moment in the Independent Living Movement,” The Arc writes.
Johnnie Lacy helped found the Berkeley Center for Independent Living in 1981, which the center says is the first independent living center in the country organized and operated by persons with disabilities.