Heritage Months

2022 marked the 46^th year the U.S. celebrated Black History Month, or National African American History Month, an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of African Americans and reflect on the central role African Americans have played throughout our country’s history.

Alameda’s banner illustrates the influential faces of John Lewis, Maya Angelou, Ruby Bridges, Barack Obama, Barbara Lee, James Baldwin, and Elector Littlejohn.

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America's history and are instrumental in its future success.

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. A rather broad term, Asian/Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

1. Patsy Mink: First Asian American woman elected to Congress, first woman elected from the State of Hawaii, first Asian American to seek the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.
2. Dwayne Johnson: Samoan and African American former Pro-Wrestler and Actor. Most famous for role in Fast and Furious movie franchise
3. Gene Luen Yang: Chinese American comic books writer of Avatar the Last Airbender, American Born Chinese and Boxers and Saints. Appointed the National Ambassador to Young People's Literature. From Bay Area.
4. Lea Solanga: Filipino American Actress and Singer. Performed in Les Miserables on Broadway, and is the singing voice of Mulan and Jasmine in Disney movies Mulan and Aladdin
5. Fred Korematsu: Japanese American civil rights activist who objected to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland and attended Castlemont High School in Oakland.
6. Chloe Kim: Youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding medal when she won gold at 17 years old.
7. Mindy Kaling: Indian American Actress, Producer and Comedienne
8. Eugene Huu-Chau "Gene" Trinh: Vietnamese American biochemist who flew aboard NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-50 as a Payload Specialist, becoming the first Vietnamese American astronaut in space.

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of Jewish Americans who have helped form the fabric of American history, culture and society.

On April 20, 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed that May would be Jewish American Heritage Month. The announcement was the crowning achievement in an effort by the Jewish Museum of Florida and South Florida Jewish community leaders that resulted in resolutions introduced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania urging the president to proclaim a month that would recognize the more than 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American culture. The resolutions passed unanimously, first in the House of Representatives in December 2005 and later in the Senate in February 2006.

1. Levi Strauss: German American businessman, founded first company to manufacture blue jeans in San Francisco
2. Albert Einstein: developed theory of relativity, received Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, became a US citizen in 1940, died in 1955
3. Elie Wiesel: author of Night, holocaust survivor, received Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Peace Prize, died 2016
4. Steven Spielberg: American filmmaker, co-founder of DreamWorks studios, graduated from Saratoga High School, attended USC and Cal State Long Beach
5. Ruth Bader Ginsburg: U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 2^nd woman appointed to the position
6. Gertrude Elion: biochemist and pharmacologist, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988, developed new drugs including the first treatment for leukemia and the first immunosuppressive drug used for organ transplants, died in 1999
7. Aly Raisman: American gymnast and two-time Olympian
8. Bella Abzug: U.S. Representative, lawyer, activist in the women’s movement, led the National Advisory Commission for Women

Cesar Chavez was an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962.

José Moreno Hernández is an American engineer and former NASA astronaut. Hernández was assigned to the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-128.

Sandra Cisneros is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel The House on Mango Street and her subsequent short.

Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician, and activist whose contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest or social justice, Baez has performed publicly for over 59 years, releasing over 30 albums.

Juan Felipe Herrera is a poet, performer, writer, cartoonist, teacher, and activist. Herrera was the United States Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017.

Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American composer, lyricist, playwright, and actor best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights.

Sylvia Mendez is an American civil rights activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican heritage. At age eight, she played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946.