The Black History Month Planning Committee partnered with the Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement and has been working since early last spring planning and organizing Black History Month events to ensure activities were available almost every weekday.
“We hosted our first planning meeting in April,” Shawnboda Mead, committee director, said. “At the end of last spring, we already had room reservations and started to think about keynote speakers. It really is a year-long process, so as soon as we finish Black History Month 2016, we’ll start to think about next year.”
The committee is made up of various student and community organizations as well as different departments on campus. Meetings are only hosted a few times each year starting in April.
“The committee does change in size and participation, but on average at least 15-20 people are involved in the planning and providing feedback that would contribute to the overall success of the month,” Mead said.
Mead said the committee experiences difficulty of developing new, fresh ideas each year while also hosting signature events such as soul food luncheons, lectures, dialogues and concerts.
“We want people to be interested and we want to offer new and innovative things, so I hope that every year we will be able to offer some new aspect that will keep people interested while keeping those signature events,” Mead said.
The committee hosts a variety of events occurring throughout the day, Mead said, so everyone has an opportunity to visit something they are interested in.
A keynote speaker completes the month of activities every year.
This year’s keynote speaker is Alicia Garza. Garza is a social activist and co-creator of the viral Twitter hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.
“I am looking forward to Alicia Garza speaking and I am curious to hear about what her philosophy is and her ideology,” Charles Ross, African American studies program director, said.
One returning event is the Black Student Union’s Black History Month Gala, which celebrates the achievement of black students and faculty at the University.
“I thought they did an excellent job of organizing the event,” Mead said. “Students enjoy themselves. It was really festive, fun, but also an educational opportunity for the people who came.”
One of many new events this year was the Sankofa African-American Museum on Wheels. The exhibit allowed students to explore what happened to the people who came from Africa in shackles and how they prevailed over slavery. The exhibit covered history dating back to 1860.
“I would say that my favorite event is the Museum on Wheels,” Allison Bradshaw, Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement student assistant, said. “I really like seeing the different parts of history and the pictures and artifacts kind of puts in your face some of the things we don’t like to discuss about black history.”
The committee’s goal is to work and establish partnerships with various other student organizations and departments and get people from all over the University community to participate.
“I feel like people should take away from these events that there is a lot to be said about each culture and we should take pride in our history, because if we don’t pay attention to it, you never know, it could eventually come around and repeat itself,” Bradshaw said.
