TJC’s Black Student Association is developing activities to protect African American legacy on campus and it is open to new members interested in joining.
Black History Month, created in 1926 as “Negro History Week,” is a time to celebrate African American culture and history, according to blackhistorymonth.gov. As years before, the BSA will be holding a Black History Month banquet to highlight the importance of this month
at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 in the Apache Rooms. The event will include talks and other activities highlighting African American culture.
The BSA is a student organization that has been sharing the legacy of African American culture and mentoring black students on campus since 2006.
“BSA started (…) years and years ago. When we started, we had a club, an organization called ‘Brothers and Sisters,’ and that was supposed to be a safe place for students of color, predominantly Black students, to kind of have a safe place to interact with each other and have a voice,” Emmanuel Sims, BSA adviser, said.
Dra’nalon Burnett, TJC sophomore and BSA vice president, said his aim in joining the BSA was demonstrating his value as a person indistinctly of race.
Courtney McQueen (left), TJC freshman and Dra’nalon Burnett (right), TJC
sophomore and vice president of the BSA, both celebrate Black History Month. For Burnett,
Black History Month is a time to celebrate culture and express themselves.
“People mislead us in a wrong way, you know, majority of other races, they may think we’re ghetto, or they may think we’re not intelligent, you know, and for me to join this organization in
my plan and perspective is to show people that we’re not just which I’ll go based off, you know, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, you should always go into details with that book,” Burnett said.
For Burnett, Black History Month is a time to show respect for their ancestors and commemorate history.
“It’s the only time of the year we get to really celebrate our culture really around. So, you know, when it comes to this time, this month, is the time for us to express ourselves,” Burnett said.
Emmanuel Sims, TJC staff member and BSA adviser has been a part of the BSA since it was called “Brothers and Sisters.” The original goal of the club was to make a space for students of color to feel at home.
For Courtney McQueen, TJC freshman, this month “is about knowing what happened back
then, for us to be here now and giving thanks to our ancestors, for putting for what they’ve been through.”
Sims said Black History Month is his “motivation month.” Looking back to the people who had preceded him in history he now asks, “What can I create, (…) what kind of history can we make?”
There are numerous examples of African Americans who continue inspiring today to look further and walk forward. From highly known activists like Harriet
Tubman, transporting African Americans from slave to free states, to characters that have occupied the most diverse areas of expertise. People like George Washington Carver, the scientist who discovered how cotton crops had depleted the soils in America and how they could be restored by growing nitrogen-
fixing plants like peanuts; like Mary Elizabeth Lange, a nun who was the first Black foundress of a Catholic religious community in America, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, dedicated to “bring joy, healing and the liberating, redemptive love of the suffering Jesus;” or like Fredrick McKinley Jones,who invented an air-cooling unit for trucks to carry food. The invention was also life-saving during the war, when those units were used to carry blood.
Sometimes it is not necessary to look too far
away to find models. Courtney said the person she looks up to as an example is her mother.
For more information regarding the Black History Month banquet or the Black Student Association call 903-510-3322 or email at [email protected].
