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Hereby declaring the week of September 25th through October 1st “Philadelphia Legacy Week,” which will be set aside to commemorate those who have made major contributions to the Philadelphia community through their dedication, hard work and creativity.
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WHEREAS, Philadelphia Legacy Week, to be celebrated the week of September 25th through October 1st, will honor Philadelphia’s legacies, those living and deceased, who have left an influential mark on the City of Philadelphia, that new generations can build upon; and
WHEREAS, In the past few months, Philadelphia has lost many local legacies, including Barbara Daniel-Cox, Billy Miller, Jerry Mondesire, Acel Moore, Billy Paul, Samuel Staten, Sr. and Jerry Wolman; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia’s living legacies should also be celebrated. Among them are David and Falaka Fattah, co-founders of the House of Umoja. Through the House of Umoja, David and Falaka were able to end a territorial gang war in our City. They helped over three thousand boys to grow up through the House of Umoja; and
WHEREAS, Another legacy, Charles Blockson, founded one of the nation's leading research facilities for the study of the history and culture of people of African descent. This collection of over 500,000 items has materials on the global black experience in all formats: books, manuscripts, sheet music, pamphlets, journals, newspapers, broadsides, posters and photographs; and
WHEREAS, Henry Nicholas is the union leader of one of Philadelphia’s strongest unions, AFSCME's District 1199C. Under Nicholas’ leadership, the Philadelphia local has continued to grow annually and District 1199C now represents more than 15,000 hospital and health care employees in 110 health care institutions in the Delaware Valley area; and
WHEREAS, Larry Robins owned and operated Robin’s bookstore for three generations. During that time many have reported having their lives either saved or transformed through literature obtained at this family owned business. Robins later founded the Black Writing Conference, Philadelphia Poetry Week and continues to run four history programs a year throughout our City; and
WHEREAS, Sherwin Seligsohn is the founder of both Interdigital Communications and Universal Display Corporation. Through these efforts Mr. Seligsohn established himself as an important innovator in digital radio wireless communications and in transmitting light through organic light emitting diodes, which provide brighter, crisper displays on electronic devices. Mr. Seligsohn may be remembered as America’s greatest visionary in the second half of the twentieth century. His legacy is just beginning; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby declares the week of September 25th through October 1st “Philadelphia Legacy Week,” which will be set aside to commemorate those who have made major contributions to the Philadelphia community through their dedication, hard work and creativity.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be made to commemorate this event as evidence of the sincere respect and appreciation of this legislative body.
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