An immunologist who helped develop the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, Rep. Maxine Waters and civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump were honored Friday at a virtual ceremony to mark the start of Los Angeles’ African American Heritage Month programming.
“This month, we honor the heroes in our history books but also those in our midst … we think about our Black doctors and nurses in our hospitals, we think about the Black frontline workers that we depend on to stock our warehouse shelves, to drive our buses and trains, those lives that have been lost,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
“Through the courage and contributions of so many people, we mark how Los Angeles was founded. A majority of our founders were Black. That’s right, 42 pobladores (settlers) who came here, 26 of them with African heritage. We are a Black city made strong by the contributions of Black people.”
The ceremony, which was hosted by ABC7 anchor Leslie Sykes, was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous years, it was held on the south lawn of Los Angeles City Hall.
“I’ve long enjoyed participating in this annual event because along with being a time to celebrate the accomplishments of our ancestors, African American Heritage Month is a reminder of the solid foundation on which we stand, and our responsibility to continue to strive for greatness in all,” Councilman Curren Price said.
“It reminds us of struggles we have overcome and highlights the challenges that we still have to break through. Moreover, it’s a remembrance of the strength, resilience, wisdom and courage, the rich heritage gives us that we come from.”
“Hall of Fame Awards” were presented to Waters, D-Los Angeles; Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a viral immunologist at the Vaccine Research Center; and Crump, who’s known as “Black America’s attorney general.”
Waters, appearing from her Washington, D.C., office, used her time to honor other Black leaders across several communities and industries, from Vice President Kamala Harris to actress-director Regina King, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, National Youth Poet Laureate and Los Angeles native Amanda Gorman, and Lloyd Austin, the first Black U.S. secretary of defense.
Corbett, who was part of the National Institute of Health team that worked with Moderna on the development of its COVID-19 vaccine, said: “I have been given so many awards this Black history season, and I am just so grateful for the opportunity to shine my light and my knowledge upon the world, to have the world see what is the brilliance of a Black woman be put on display, and to have that brilliance for once actually be put on display as what it is, and that is that Black people have always had our mark in history.”
“We have always had our mark in scientific advancements. We have always had our mark in inventions, but oftentimes they went overshadowed and unseen as `hidden figures,”’ she said. “And so it is absolutely amazing that I get to stand in what are the footprints of the giants that came before me, and then I get to be able to speak out loud and what it is that I have developed, so proudly so, in the COVID vaccine,” she said.
Crump, who is known for representing families whose loved ones have been killed by police, said he was “so very honored to receive this recognition, especially I receive it for the many clients I have had the honor to represent and champion their cause with justice.”
“My heart is heavy today, as I receive this award, because I will be remiss if I didn’t share with you today is Trayvon Martin’s birthday, and so I receive this award thinking of him,” Crump said of the 17-year-old Florida youth, who was shot to death by former neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in February 2012.
The R&B group The Manhattans, recipients of the “Living Legends Award,” have “enjoyed an almost 60-year of musical excellence, chart topping hits and millions of records sold,” Price said. “Although the group has seen several different lineups, there’s no denying that the present day Manhattans, featuring Gerald Alston, continues to preserve the integrity and carries forward the musical tradition of Philadelphia soul.”
The city’s African American Heritage Month event is sponsored annually by Our Authors Study Club, which was created in 1945 with a mission to research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about African American life, history and culture.
The club’s president, Ernestine Gordon, spoke about The Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s national theme this year: “The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity.”
“One of the things that I believe we forget is that families were brought over in the 1600s, it was families, not just individuals, so the Black family has always been a unit of strength, and the Black family has always been supportive of one another, too,” she said. “…They wanted more for their children, educationally, they wanted their children to thrive and to survive, and so the Black family has always been a very critical point.”