Our Welcoming Community

Black History Blast—President Birx Remarks

Plymouth State marked Black History Month in February with “Black History Blast” events that engaged the campus community. President Donald Birx thanked the blast’s organizers and spoke to the University’s commitment to share the knowledge gained on campus with the wider world.

President Donald Birx: Please join me in thanking the Black Student Union and its allies for great work in organizing the Black History Blast.

The blast includes it all, including Black Hollywood, Black History Bingo, a Black History Brainstorm trivia session, a Black History Month celebration, and even Black History Adaptations on Sherlock Holmes! There’s been a lot to learn this week and all through February, but the truth is that Black history is integral to our entire year—not just one month. There is no American history without Black history, and just as importantly, there will be no bright future for our nation that does not feature the contributions of our Black citizens.

In reflecting on this month’s events, there is much progress the nation has made since we were “all created equal, in the sight of God,” but there is much left to do. Still, I am hopeful. My grandfather was born shortly after the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation setting slaves free. But I remember his thinking and cultural viewpoints, though aligned with the times in which he lived, reflected only a partial fulfillment of the promise.

Over the next 75 years things seemed to ossify until the Civil Rights movement brought about the next set of changes. For the next 50 years there was improvement through affirmative action and other means, but then again stagnation well short of the promised equality. There always seemed to be push back. Today with Black Lives Matter, I believe we are finally within grasp of taking a significant step forward. I say this because this isn’t a movement brought about by new laws, but a cultural movement spanning individuals of all backgrounds.

I look forward to the years ahead. I’m excited by our new Center for Diversity, Equity and Social Justice, not as a response to Black Lives Matter protests or as the answer to years of discrimination, but as a way forward that builds on our heartfelt desires to build a truly inclusive world where the strengths of all of us are valued and which provides the greatest hope for our collective future.

Yes, we have challenges, and things are not as they should be or could be, and we know that even here on our beautiful campus, we’re not immune to incidents of intolerance and ignorance. Plymouth State is not a sheltered island, and we have work that we can do, together, to create a better environment for all. And given our motto of Ut Prosim—“That I may serve,” we are called to share the knowledge we gain here with the wider world to bring about change.

Change the world, you might say? Really, here at Plymouth State? Yes, we can. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time,” said President Barack Obama. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

Booker T. Washington said, “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed.” We need to recognize our accomplishments as we plan future triumphs, as Amanda Gorman, America’s first national youth poet laureate, encouraged us to do when she welcomed the year 2022 in her poem, “New Day’s Lyric.”

Be bold, sang Time this year,

Be bold, sang Time,

For when you honor yesterday,

Tomorrow ye will find.

Know what we’ve fought

Need not be forgot nor for none.

It defines us, binds us as one,

Come over, join this day just begun.

For wherever we come together,

We will forever overcome.

Thank you all, for all that you are doing. Thank you.