Four campus organizations came together to teach Prairie View students about black history Feb. 23 in the Memorial Student Center.
Panther Advisor Leaders, Office of Student Activities and Leadership, Mr. and Miss Prairie View A&M University 2007-2008 Jamie Jackson and Mark Anthony Williams, II, and the Zeta Gamma chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. sponsored the event.
Titled “Shaping the History of Black America,” the seminar was an attempt to inform students and give them a stronger appreciation for the contributions of alumni and black Americans.
The seminar began with a welcome by Whitney Hawkins, vice president of PALS, and was followed by a prayer given by Williams.
Marchandra Boyer, president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, presented the speaker of the seminar Mayor Frank Jackson.
Jackson opened his lecture with information concerning accomplishments made by the African race.
Jackson addressed the history of other nations, such as Rome and Greece, and how they became powerful by learning from Africans in Egypt.
“The world deliberately deformed blacks,” Jackson said.
Jackson gave details on how the institution began as an experiment in Texas to observe the African American learning process.
John D. Rockefeller- an American industrialist who revolutionized the petroleum industry, gave over $121 billion to an education fund to shape the mind of Negroes, Jackson said.
“We still have work to do,” he said, as he stressed the importance of voting this year. “Political power is what gets you what you want. If you don’t vote, you won’t get a damn thing.”
John Miles, a chemical engineering major, said he enjoyed the seminar.
“It was very informative. I just wish that more students would have come to learn more about the history,” Miles said.