February is Black History Month and ETSU’s office of multicultural affairs is sponsoring events all month long to raise awareness about African culture.
Laura Terry, director of multicultural affairs, said “this year we are doing more health and education awareness and to make people aware of African culture” as well as events to raise social awareness.
The month’s events began with the passing out of red, black and green ribbons on the first and second. The ribbons, introduced by Marcus Garvey, represent the nationalistic interests of black people. The red symbolizes bloodshed during the struggle for liberation, the black symbolizes the unity of people of African descent all across the world, and green symbolizes Africa.
Two events this month that will raise health and education awareness are the Multicultural Career Fair and health awareness week.
The career fair, to be held on Feb. 22, will feature many employers looking to hire people from multicultural backgrounds.
The health awareness week, running from Monday through Feb. 16, will be used to raise awareness about health problems facing the black community, with daily displays about sickle-cell anemia, diabetes, HIV, AIDS, STDs and hypertension. There will also be free HIV testing on Feb. 16.
Social events for this month include a play that will be held on the Tuesday, “A Journey Through Black History.” The play was written by the students who will be performing it.
Another major social event is the mass choir and gospel ensemble workshop. The workshop will be Feb. 17 with dancing and vocal workshops, and the gospel ensemble will be singing the national anthem at the men’s and women’s basketball games throughout the month.
The mass and gospel choirs will be pulled together in a performance on the Feb. 18 at the Gospel Extravaganza, which will feature the Labor-aires singing group. Many community churches and campus ministries are helping with the extravaganza.
The final big event of the month will be the semi-formal dance, held on the 24th in the Culp Center ballroom. This dance is geared toward students of all races from throughout the campus community, and is designed to bring people together to show the diversity of the school.

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