WHEREAS, Maine enjoys a large, vibrant Franco-American community, largely as a result of French Canadians immigrating to the state between 1840 and 1930; and

WHEREAS, at least twenty-five percent of Maine citizens claim Franco-American heritage, and French is the second-most spoken language in the state; and

WHEREAS, the significant cultural, economic, and civic contributions made by Franco-Americans have enriched the culture and lives of Maine people; and

WHEREAS, An Act To Create a James Weldon Johnson Annual Observance Day and an Observance Task Force was enacted in Maine on June 20, 2021, to honor the life and perpetuate the legacy of one of our nation’s great Civil Rights leaders, that of the author, educator, journalist, lawyer, and diplomat James Weldon Johnson; and

WHEREAS, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, officially ending slavery in the United States; and

WHEREAS, the freedom of most slaves depended on the advancement of the Union Army led by General Gordon Granger, who enforced the President’s order in Texas on June 19, 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed; and

WHEREAS, Robert Browne Hall was born into a musical family living in Bowdoinham, Maine on June 30, 1858; and

WHEREAS, R.B. Hall accepted a call to rebuild the Bangor Band in the early 1880s and he accomplished this task with such skill that the grateful citizens on Bangor presented him with a gold Boston Three Star Ne-Plus cornet; and

WHEREAS, throughout our nation’s history, women have served honorably and courageously both on and off the battlefield, though initially in limited and traditional gender roles such as nurses, cooks, and in other administrative support roles; and

WHEREAS, during World War I, women enlisted in the Navy as Yeoman (F) and the Marine Corps as Reservists (F) to serve on the home front as truck drivers, mechanics, radio operators, translators, and munitions workers, filling in for men who were deployed overseas; and