Troy State University has again outdone itself with their first African-American Leadership conference held Friday and Saturday on the Troy campus, to kick off Black History Month.

The quality of people at this conference was impressive to say the least and the atmosphere was also very impressive as well.

The two keynote speakers for the event, Dr. Michael Thurman and Col. Wilson E. Barnes broached subjects that too often fall to the wayside and are covered up or just simply not talked about. Both men should be admired for talking about racial profiling in our court systems, lower wages for African-American than their caucasian counterparts and poor health care services for those who can’t afford top-notch doctors.

All of these things and many other subjects the two men broached while speaking to the leaders of this community were true and should be discussed at length until what to do to fix them is figured out.

Leadership by African-Americans was also a main topic during both speaker’s discussions. Both emphasized the need for those of African-American descent to step up to the bat and take charge of the future. They also emphasized the need to groom young black people to become leaders among their peers and not be afraid to speak out about what they think is right.

The organizers of this even should be given a loud ‘hurrah!’ for their hard work in making this event worthwhile. Their choices of speakers and subject matter were top-notch and should set a precedent for other conferences in the future.

 

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