A Seat at the Table: Celebrating 100 Years of Black Excellence, an event hosted by S.W.E.E.T Melanin, celebrated Black History Month with food, music and stories.
“This was a great space to have to start the month,” said freshman Bianca Taylor of the event. “Especially being on a PWI (predominately white) campus, I feel like it’s important for everybody to have a space to belong.”
S.W.E.E.T Melanin is an MTSU-based women’s power organization that’s dedicated to fostering sisterhood, growth, and focuses primarily on empowering women of color and minorities.
“A Seat at the Table represents bringing family together, fellowship, and having a space for people to come together,” said Reyonna Wesby, the organization’s secretary.
The dinner was led with a personal story from TeRiyon Williams as she recalled the time of her Black dorm neighbors helping her during a dispute. Williams told attendees, “We are all we got.”
After some opening remarks, Mya Wallace, the president of the organization, read Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. The poem details society’s critiques of Angelou as a Black woman, and how she rises despite them.
After, the floor opened for food and music, with everyone lining up for plates and the crowd breaking out into dance multiple times throughout the night.
“It [A Seat at the Table] means being able to come together as one, not turn each other down, but being able to support one another,” Wallace said. “There’s already so much going on in the world, so many other people tearing us down and breaking us apart, I feel like it’s important for us to stick together rather than tear each other down, because we already get that from other people.”
After food and music, guest speakers were then called up to present meaningful or little-known Black history facts. Many of the speakers highlighted black achievements, particularly firsts.
Some of the figures mentioned were Dr. Daniel Hill Williams, who performed the first open heart surgery; Louise Stanton, the first African American woman to achieve a college degree; and Claudia Pan, the first African American female police officer. One speaker also mentioned how, after witnessing a dangerous crash, an African American man created the first traffic light.
“This year’s Black history is student-led,” Wesby said, citing the recent DEI legislation as the reason why it’s important for organizations to host Black History Month events. “It’s very important to us that we continue to fight and strive for better and continue to show up so that our presence on campus stays strong.”
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