WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ- On February 12th, Monmouth University’s African American Student Union hosted the Annual Black History Month Tribute in Anacon Hall located in the Rebecca Strafford Student Center.
Vice president of Monmouth’s African American Student Union Arianna Gordon stated, “The big purpose behind the event is to get people out and make them aware of what’s going on. Fortunately enough we are in a time where most people know that February is Black History Month, but that doesn’t mean that they know about Black History. Even if we got them thinking or got them intrigued, or if they only heard one fact, that is the purpose behind the event.”
Songs like A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke, The Greatest Love of All by the late Whitney Houston, and the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing were all sung , along with poems written by Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou.
President of the African American Student Union, J’lyn Martin read a speech delivered by the Honorable Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on October 6, 1966 at Monmouth University. In his speech, Dr. King noted that we had “come a long, long way; but … that we still have a long, long way to go before the problem of racial injustice is solved.”
According to College Board Statistics on Monmouth University , only about 5% of the student population identify as Black or African American. To this community, events like this are very important. Freshman Kion Glover said, “The school has a lack of diversity and events like this show black culture the way it should be represented.”
She is not the only student who feels this way. Another freshman, Brielle Mayes, said “It is great to see black people come together after a year of loss to police brutality. An event like this can spread awareness to the celebration of this culture.”
The goal of this year’s Black History Month Tribute was to spread awareness of black culture and portray it in a positive light . According to the students who attended and participated, the event did just that.
