In a packed Maimonides Medical Center auditorium, hundreds of nurses, doctors and little girls this week learned about the historical contributions that Black women for the advancement of African-Americans, this country and the world.
The Black History Month ceremony opened with the angelic singing of more than a dozen young girls from The St. Mark’s Day School, 1346 President Street in Crown Heights. They were quickly followed by the Black National Anthem that was sung by a member of the Maimonides team, Kelly LuKule.
“The profound contributions that African-Americans have made for our country, our borough and our hospital, is why we are here today to celebrate. The diversity of our community and our workforce is one of our greatest strengths. Making an effort to share, learn about and appreciate the richness of each other’s cultures and allow us to realize the true strength of that diversity,” said Doug Jablon, reading a prepared statement from Maimonides CEO & President Kenneth Gibbs, who couldn’t attend the event due to a family emergency.
City Council Member Mathieu Eugene (D-Flatbush/East Flatbush) was also on hand for the festivities and called Maimonides Medical Center a great and outstanding institution that is providing state-of-the-art medical care to people all around New York City and beyond.
“It is an honor to pay tribute to the wonderful and outstanding women who have shaped the United States of America by their contributions. My family used to say, my son you see, the world, the society, is the result of the contributions of so many people from different backgrounds. And I can say that the United States is the best place because of the contributions of all these wonderful women,” said Eugene.
The Black National Anthem is also known as Lift Every Voice And Sing. James Weldon wrote it as a poem that was originally performed in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12, 1900. Eventually the lyrics were set to music in 1905 by John Rosamond, Johnson’s brother, according to News One.
Instead of having a keynote speaker, the hospital this year decided to put on a performance to honor those African-Americans who have positively impacted American history. A Maimonides employee portrayed each historical figure.
The pioneering African-American women highlighted in the day’s Black History presentation included Alice Coachman, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, Shirley Chisholm, Maya Angelou, Oprah Gail Winfrey, Mae Carol Jemison and Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama.
A few of the lesser known figures honored included Alice Coachman,the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal at the 1948 London Games in track and field, Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American women elected to congress in 1968 and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1972, and Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman to travel to space and orbit earth on the space shuttle Endeavor on September 12, 1992.
Jesse Evans, MS, Manager of Public Communications, who portrayed Maya Angelou, recited one of Angelou’s most famous poems Still I Rise.
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.
