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Cobb County Fleet Management staff honor Black innovators during Black History Month
Summary
Employees of Cobb County Fleet Management used a meeting segment to highlight Black History Month, naming historical figures including Harry Pace, Alfonso W. Schomburg, Homer B. Roberts, Jackie Robinson, Joseph Lee and Alice Parker.
Cobb County Fleet Management employees used part of a department presentation to mark Black History Month and spotlight several Black innovators and leaders.
The remarks, delivered by multiple Fleet Management staff and opened by Al Curtis, director of Cobb County Fleet Management, named historical figures whose work the speakers said influenced music, business, invention and civil rights. "Harry Pace, I salute you," Curtis said while introducing the segment and several colleagues who each highlighted a different figure.
The staff members framed the mini-presentations as a way to acknowledge contributions they said are often omitted from mainstream histories. The figures discussed included Harry Pace, founder of Black Swan Records; historian Alfonso W. Schomburg and the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Homer B. Roberts, an early African American automobile dealer; Jackie Robinson, the baseball player; inventor Joseph Lee; and inventor Alice H. Parker.
Speakers gave brief biographical notes and, in several cases, cited dates or figures mentioned in historical accounts. For example, the presentation said Harry Pace was born in 1884 in Covington, Georgia and founded Black Swan Records in the 1920s; a staff member described Alfonso W. Schomburg as having built a collection that became the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. A separate presenter said Homer B. Roberts opened Roberts Motor Mart in 1923 and later expanded to Chicago, and another staff member noted Jackie Robinson "was named the National League MVP in 1949." Presenters also described Joseph Lee's inventions for baking and cited a patent sale figure and modern equivalent as discussed by staff.
The remarks mixed short direct quotations and paraphrase of biographical details. In closing, Curtis thanked Fleet Management team members for their work on the presentation and said, "Black history is American history." The segment ran as part of the department's Black History Month observance and did not include a request for formal board action or a vote.
