Written by Zenobia Harris, Asst. Features Writer

On Feb. 20, the Collegiate Women of VSU along with Black Student League, Women of Diversity, and Gay-Straight Alliance hosted a peace rally on Palms Quad from 3 to 7:00 p.m.

The event featured a variety of activities including making tie-dye shirts, flower headbands, henna tattoos, and painting. The festival was just one of many events that have taken place this month in celebration of Black History.

Justine Proctor, president of Collegiate Women of VSU, felt that the festival would be a great way to bring students together on the VSU campus.

“We decided to coordinate a peace rally because we wanted to create an event that was an all-around “feel good” event,” Proctor said. “With so much discrimination, hate and rejection of the unfamiliar, we wanted to remind the campus of the love that could be shared between people of different races, ethnicity, religions and sexual orientation.

“It was important to have the ‘peacefest’ during black history month to raise awareness of the injustices that people of different backgrounds face but still projecting love. If one is anti-hate, one must spread love.”

The festival was directly followed by a showing of the James Brown biopic, “Get on Up,” and a community service event on Saturday morning at Second Harvest Food Bank.

This week features the last of the Black History Month events starting with the Robert Pierce-Drewnell Thomas Scholarship Gala on Tuesday night. The week will come to an end with a showing of “Harlem Nights” on Feb. 27 in Bailey Science Center Room 3009 at 5:00 p.m.

This will be the last black history movie night and event, bringing an end to the month-long celebration entitled, “Refreshing the Black Essence: Celebrating Our Past, Critiquing Our Present, and Moving Forward.”