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The city of Springfield, Massachusetts kicked off Black History Month with an annual observance.
Each year for 35 years now, a ceremony has been held on February 1st in Springfield City Hall that features music, speeches, and culminates with the raising of the African American Heritage Flag.
The tradition was started by Ruth Loving, known as Springfield’s mother of civil rights, who died in 2014 at the age of 100. State Rep. Bud Williams now organizes the ceremony in Loving’s honor.
Ruth Loving would say rain, snow, sleet, or shine, we are going to raise that flag , said Williams.