Marshall University’s Black History Month celebrations kicked off with the Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum’s annual Black History Month Poster Competition Awards on Feb. 2 at the Visual Arts Center.

Assistant Provost Cicero Fain spoke  on “African Americans and Labor” as the event’s distinguished speaker.

Students from grades K-12 and Marshall were awarded for their poster designs. The K-12 winners were Abby Mobley, a ninth-grader; Lauryn Coffman, an 11th-grader and Liam Hager, a third-grader. Karson Echard, junior and graphic design major, won the competition, and Brooke Olivarri, senior and advertising and public relations major, received the Merit Award.

Burnis Morris, professor of journalism and mass communications at Marshall University, said the event was great and had a good turnout. He also said the quality of entries has increased in recent years. Morris said he hopes to carry the momentum of the celebration into the rest of the month.

“The entries were excellent,” Morris said. “The students put a lot of work into them. We couldn’t ask for a better collection of student work.”

“The quality in the last several years has been better than ever,” he said. “The students are very good. Their teachers are very good. They’re very good students, and we received the best work.“

Avi Mukherjee, the provost and the senior vice president for Academic Affairs at Marshall University, gave the welcome speech. He said he loved giving it and was proud of the event.

“What I really celebrate is bringing everyone from different parts of the campus together and really celebrating who we are as a community,” Mukherjee said.

“So, it’s all about inclusion, it’s all about our legacy and it’s all about our future,” he said. “Really, it all connects in this kind of an event, so I was just delighted to be there and speak to them.”

Mukherjee also said he enjoyed the posters this year and looking at them makes him think about what they mean and about Black History.

“The poster entries were really good,” he said. “I really enjoyed seeing the diversity of thoughts there again in the posters. They are very colorful and very attractive and really eye-popping. But at the same time, there are also things that really make us think, and I’ll take a better look at it, of course, as I walk through.”

Mukherjee also said he was proud of the event and we need to remember Huntington’s long and unique history with Black History.

Carter G. Woodson, the Father of Black History, credited his time in Huntington, West Virginia, as the turning point in his career, leading him to create the first “Negro History Week” in February 1926.

“We are where Black History Month sort of started and developed, right,” Mukherjee said. “So, it has a long and unique history, and we need to remember that. We don’t want to forget that, so I’m very proud that we still remember the legacy. We come together to celebrate Carter G. Woodson and what he stood for and really what it means for our community, not just today but many years down the line.”

Luke Campbell can be contacted at [email protected].