Black History Month at Peace is packed full of fun and educational events for students, staff and faculty to attend. Throughout the entire month of February you can expect to see ways to get involved.
Larry Futrell, a senior at WPU, is serving as President for the Black Student Union on campus and has helped organize and publicize several of the upcoming events and highlights four that are expected to see a large turn-out across campus.
- February 6th 5pm “The Black Experience” TED talk on the Black Experience with special guest Dr. Telika McCoy – 2nd Belk
This event will focus on how Black people have moved from chains to change and how we have progressed over the years from being enslaved to innovative with our culture.
- February 8th 7-11pm The Ebony Ball – The American Institute of Arch
This event features food, a DJ, and a glamorous way to enjoy each others company no matter a person’s background.
- February 14th 5-6pm Black Love – 2nd Belk
The first Black Love event saw a great turn-out and everyone left satisfied. While last year they focused more on the panelist, this year’s Black Love event will focus more on audience participation.
- February 26th 6-8 pm Flowe 110 African American Quiz Bowl
Four teams will be competing against each other in a Jeopardy-style like battle. The four team captains include: Professor Lee Melomo, Kayce Meginnis – Payne MP, Mark Cushman, and Alexandra Daniels. They are currently recruiting old and new members for their teams. Each team will be practicing their skills and learning questions about certain individuals and events from black history that has impacted the way of living.
“It is a time to come together as people and show it is important, without African American culture there would be no America. We’ve created things such as the traffic light, the iron and iron board. We’ve progressed so much as people just from King to Obama,” said Futrell.
He looks up to Dr. Martin Luther King and Obama because of the leaps they have helped the black community make as well as Angela Rye who got him interested in news and voting. One significant person that helped him decide what he wanted to be growing up was Adam Foss, a prosecutor that showed African Americans can use your power for good use.
Futrell believes that prosecutors are the greatest actors in the criminal justice field and they often fail because their is not enough diversity, there is only one race serving a diverse population, things often go wrong because we need diversity. When races don’t relate to other races that don’t understand another groups race and culture.
95% of prosecutors are white and then 75% are white men having to defend black males according to Futrell.
This Black History month is full of so many events that focus on the progression we’ve made over time and celebrating the victories we’ve made small or big. Be on the lookout for these events around campus!