Over past forty years, genes have gradually gained a new value as raw resources or building blocks of an already happening biotech revolution that has been penetrating virtually every industry in world markets. Those who have been involved in race of deciphering genetic code of life forms on this planet have also been part of a more vicious race of acquiring patents and intellectual property rights.

A tribute to our past, present and future. Here’s to winner in all of us.

The history of a noble race, running roughshod over bondage, obstacles and time eternal. Fearless, proud and infinitely hopeful, that is essence of our heritage. In honoring Black America we celebrate rebirth of nation’s most maligned ethnic group.

We celebrate present by expounding on our achievements and reliving great moments from past. We celebrate our ancestors who toiled in midday sun, under sweltering heat of oppression. Exhausted, their hands covered with abrasions from cotton’s prickly thorns, they refused to buckle under indignation, creating courage of highest magnitude.

We celebrate legacy of Marcus Garvey, Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Dubois, crying out against injustice. We celebrate NAACP, National Urban League and Southern Christian Leadership Conference in their crusade to remove insufferable stench of racism gone awry.

We celebrate strength of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Ida Wells-Barnett, women of unrelenting persistence, rebelling against savagery of hate and inhumanity.

We celebrate uprisings of Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey in their ill-fated attempt at freedom. So strong were these men in their quest for freedom, they preferred death to enslavement. We celebrate Civil, Political and Equal rights so long denied and withheld. We celebrate our triumphs, disasters and heritage.

We celebrate political activism of Jesse Jackson, Fannie Lou Hamer and charismatic Adam Clayton Powell, eloquent strategists demanding granting of voting rights to every adult, young and old.

We celebrate soldiers on battlefield. From rebel retreat of Fort Wagner during Civil War to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unsung heroes fighting and dying to keep America safe for democracy.

We celebrate literary genius of James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks and Maya Angelou, urging America to redeem its pledge of equal rights for all via written word.