North Texas Daily

Andrew Freeman / Staff Writer

Throughout the month of February, the Multicultural Center is putting on several events meant to promote and educate all UNT students on the history and culture of Black History Month.

Using the yearly budget the Multicultural Center is given, the center will have ten calendar events in February. Seven events remain.

CNN news anchor Don Lemon kicked off the festivities by being the keynote speaker at the Equity and Diversity conference on Feb. 1. He spoke on the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

“The Equity and Diversity conference was at the beginning of the month, being the biggest event,” Kellen Hill, Student Service Coordinator for the Multicultural Center said. “Typically it is the nationally renowned speakers that take most of our budget, but it is fairly low cost, with a lot of local and grassroot activities and advertising.”

For computer engineering junior Olayinka Oiefeso, black history month is exciting, and a way of closing the gap that might still remain, he said.

“It’s different for me because I am a first generation American, but I can still respect America’s history and accomplishments, such as what Martin Luther King Jr. and others did,” Oiefeso said.

Pre-biology freshman Clarimar Mandujano, a Hispanic student, said the celebration of Black History Month has an impact on different races as well.

“I feel it’s a milestone that shows we have overcome history,” Mandujano said. “I feel it intertwines with Hispanics because there was a time when we couldn’t be seen as just human beings, but now we take pride in that we can.”

The next event on the ten event list is the Emancipation Proclamation that will be held from 9-4 p.m. in the Union Courtyard, an event intended to inform students about slavery.

On Feb. 18 a panel to empower black male students will take place in the Business Leadership Building, followed by a panel discussion of being African-American in modern America the next day.

For a full list of events, the Multicultural Center has calendars in its office, located on the second floor of the Union.

“For the campus, it goes beyond seeing what you see on a daily basis,” Hill said. “We aren’t segregating ourselves or anything like that, we are just giving a universal knowledge of the struggles [of African Americans] and its history.”