Colorado Springs City Council announced a proclamation recognizing February as Black History Month at Tuesday’s meeting, two weeks after a first attempt at a proclamation was rejected by the body.

After the delay, it had appeared that the recognition might not take place. Shirley Martinez, outgoing president of the MLK Legacy Committee, said that this year made it especially important for the month to be recognized.

“As we reflect on 250 years of America and 150 years of Colorado statehood, we acknowledge that Black history has shaped every chapter of that story,” Martinez said. “But today is not only about looking back, it is also about looking forward. Our youth are the future authors of this story.”

Councilmember Kimberly Gold had requested a proclamation take place during a Jan. 27 council meeting but it was not supported by other councilmembers. That led to the president of the Colorado Springs NAACP branch and other community members taking issue with the decision at that meeting.

According to Colorado Springs records, the City Council had approved a resolution or issued a proclamation for Black History Month in eight of the past nine years.

A local governmental body that is not explicitly recognizing Black History Month is the Pikes Peak Library District. Library spokesperson Denise Abbott said that, beginning in 2019, the district had tried to recognize about 90 cultural and national holidays throughout the year with programs or specialized displays.

“We found, however, that regardless of how determined we were to acknowledge everyone, we were either forgetting special groups or alienating others. That is not the Library’s objective. We want to make sure that everyone feels they are part of the Library District,” Abbott said.

Abbott said that in 2024, PPLD cultural recognitions were channeled into the Rising Voices event, which celebrates a mix of different nationalities.

At this City Council meeting, Terrance Beasley appeared in Civil War garb to talk about historical reenactments and presentations his group did as the Colorado Front Range Buffalo Soldiers. Minister Earl Shaffer Jr. listed prominent Black residents of Colorado Springs and inventors from across the country.

Councilmember Roland Rainey spoke about the history of Black residents rising from slavery to the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. Rainey also talked about his personal journey from a farm in the South to being elected to the City Council.

Rainey said Black History Month is not about the qualities of a specific ethnicity but about celebrating the generations of work that it took to get to the current level of progress.

“As a collective whole, never allow us to allow the celebration of Black history to be the pawn of a chess game of self-serving political ideology. It is truly about the history, about us and about what makes us great as a country.”

Other events for Black History Month are taking place across the city. The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and the Downtown Ventures nonprofit hung up banners for the month along Pikes Peak Avenue downtown as part of the recurring Cultural Corridor program. Martinez promoted an upcoming screening of “I’m Carl Lewis!” by the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival.