The Nyumburu Cultural Center and the Black Student Union kicked off the first day of February with a soul food dinner and performances including the singing of the black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

They also invited motivational speaker Steve Birdine, four-time International Polaris of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. to discuss the state of black affairs.

Birdine spoke on various topics but the main piece of wisdom he imparted was the importance of changing our focus as a people.

“If you change your focus, you change your life,” he said.

Birdine, also, talked about how black people focus too much on the negative and how as result we stop thinking about the positive completely.

“We are the only people in the world that put our worst stuff on CD and sell it.” He went on to say that we must “regather the ability to love each other” so that we can be in a relationship with ourselves and our culture more than twenty-eight days out of the year.

The next event of the night was a panel discussion hosted by the Pan Hellenic Council.

They invited alumni from 1970s, 80s, and 90s to discuss the ways in which black Greek life has changed since they joined their respective organizations.

Each member of the panel touched on the topic of unity.

They referred to all members of the PHC as “the family” and talked about how they road tripped, stepped, and co-sponsored programs together.

Shaila Jackson, a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, talked about how every other school wanted to be like UMCP.  “It was the most exciting time of my life,” she said.

“We had a sense of community,” said Anthony Harris of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, “we stuck together because we had no one else.”

Overall the theme of the first night of black history month seemed to be the importance of unity. An important message to both the black community and the university as a whole.

And suddenly, like light in darkness, the real truth broke in upon me; the simple fact of Man, which I had forgotten, which had lain deep buried and out of sight; the idea of community, of unity. ~Ernst Toller