CANYON, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — West Texas A&M University is celebrating the uniqueness of black culture, and the struggles it’s faced throughout history.

“We think it’s important for our students to get together and learn about different cultures,” said Angela Allen, the Chief Officer for Diversity and Inclusion at WTAMU. “We also like to provide an avenue for students to learn different things.”

Allen told KAMR the school has planned several events to celebrate the richness of Black history, which is a very big part of American history.

“This year we have, we’re going to have a speaker session, where we will have Julian Reese will read the letter from the Birmingham jail, which is one of my favorites from Dr. Martin Luther King, and it’s one of those that is underrated, but says a lot,” she explained.

In the writing, Dr. King talks about the pillars of community and the human spirit.

“It addresses church, state, people community about what we need to do about human rights, and what we need to do and the direction that we’re that we’re going to go if we don’t take a stand. It talks about the freedom of people, and there was and whose responsibility it is for people,” she noted.

Allen told us that understanding the past is just as important as moving forward.

“We need to know about culture, not just one culture, all cultures. Our students need to know the past. They need to look at what’s going on in the present, because our students are going to be working in the future. When we send them out from WT, from the Panhandle to the world, they have to be able to work with all different cultures,” she said.

Because it’s hard to know where you’re going, if you don’t know where you’ve been.