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Campus community celebrates African-American history month

Djembe drumbeats echoed throughout the University Student Union Thursday as students and faculty gathered for the 15th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.

The event, which celebrated Black History Month, continued in the Beach Auditorium with spoken word, a panel discussion and West African drums.

“[The event] is a community grassroots effort to bring the university together,” said Jade Turner, co-chair of the event. “It’s about Dr. King, and we incorporated Nelson Mandela in this year’s celebration given his recent passing, but it’s really about all of us coming together.”

Panelists at the event discussed topics ranging from the importance of knowing one’s roots to using skillsets to improve both life and the university.

Senior psychology and communications major Kameron Lyons said she was inspired by the event.

“It was a [different] take on a [classic] Martin Luther King [Jr.] celebration,” Lyons said. “It made us think about what we’re doing individually and what we can do to uplift our own people.”

Sophomore pre-nursing major Shantel Livingston said she learned a lot from the event.

“It was great just being able to see faculty and students that are so inspiring on campus,” Livingston said. “I think that this was a very centering event.”

Valerie Bordeaux, chair of the annual MLK celebration, founded the event in 1999 with fellow faculty and staff on campus. Volunteers meet annually over the course of six weeks to organize the one-day event.

“We didn’t have a budget 15 years ago, so we started from scratch,” Bordeaux said. “It began as a program in the Sunset Lounge, and a couple years later moved to the multi-purpose room since it became so large. Our goal is to move it to the [Walter Pyramid].”

The MLK Planning Committee also held an essay contest, the results of which were presented at the event. CSULB students were encouraged to write an essay about how King or Mandela influenced their lives as well as how they plan to use their education to pursue social justice.

During the event, Turner presented scholarship awards to two students who won the essay contest. The first-place prize of a $300 scholarship went to sophomore business economics and public relations double major Taylor Jeffrey and the second-place prize of $100 went to sophomore Jamie Vance.

The committee convened at the end of the celebration to honor Bordeaux for her contributions to the celebration and people at the university. The celebration builds “community coming together towards a common goal,” Bordeaux said.

“[It is] social justice in action, which is what Dr. King and Mandela were about,” she said.

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