A MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Psalm 16:11
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr., Publisher
Before the Celebration
As we step away from the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and step into Black History Month, we are reminded that honoring our greatness is not confined to a single day or moment.
Dr. King’s legacy calls us to be of courage and conscience. Black History Month calls us to memory, responsibility, and truth—to remember the people, struggles, and institutions that carried our story forward when recognition was denied and resistance was constant.
Before we celebrate, we pause to remember. Our history was preserved by sacrifice, sustained by faith, and recorded by those determined that our story would not be erased.
Only then can the celebration truly begin.
Before we celebrate milestones, we must remember the meaning.
As the Westside Gazette prepares to mark 55 years of service, it is important that our anniversary week be grounded in the deeper purpose of Black History Month itself, why it exists, who envisioned it, and whose sacrifices gave it life.
Black History Month did not begin as a marketing moment or a ceremonial footnote. It was born out of necessity and urgency through the work of Carter G. Woodson, often called the Father of Black History. Woodson understood a dangerous truth: a people who are disconnected from their history are vulnerable to erasure. In 1926, he launched Negro History Week to correct omissions, challenge distortions, and affirm the dignity and contributions of African Americans in a nation that largely ignored them.
That week would later grow into Black History Month not as a concession, but as a correction.
Woodson’s vision was never about confining Black history to one month. It was about ensuring that our story could never again be denied, dismissed, or forgotten. His work laid the intellectual and moral foundation for Black newspapers, Black scholars, Black educators, and Black institutions that continue to document truth when others will not.
As we reflect on that legacy, we must also call the roll of those whose courage shaped our collective freedom.
We remember Fannie Lou Hamer, who taught America that being “sick and tired of being sick and tired” was not a complaint but a declaration of resistance.
We honor Ella Baker, who reminded movements that strong people do not need strongmen, and that grassroots leadership is the heartbeat of real change.
We lift up Fred Shuttlesworth, whose fearless defiance of segregation in Birmingham helped bend the arc of justice, even in the face of bombs and threats.
We remember Myrlie Evers, who transformed grief into purpose and ensured that the struggle did not end with loss but continued toward accountability and remembrance.
And we honor Florida’s own martyrs, Harriet Moore and Harry T. Moore, whose lives were taken on Christmas night because they dared to demand voting rights, equal pay, and dignity for Black citizens. Their blood is part of this state’s soil—and their courage is part of our inheritance.
These she-roes and heroes are not distant names. They are the reason Black newspapers matter. They are the reason we must control our narrative, preserve our memory, and tell our own stories—truthfully, boldly, and consistently.
Black History Month reminds us that documentation is resistance. Memory is power. And institutions like the Black press exist because silence was never an option.
As we move into the Westside Gazette’s 55th anniversary week, this reflection serves as our grounding. Before we celebrate what we have built, we honor why it had to be built in the first place.
This is not just history.
This is responsibility.
This is legacy.
