NO Blacks Allowed

The Democratic Society of Southern University presented the “No Blacks Allowed” forum in their efforts to inform students on their rights, the importance of voting, and to encourage voting during state and local elections amongst the students at Southern University. The forum began with an important message from Dr. Albert Samuels, the chair of the Political Science Department. Samuels discussed certain matters that could relate to the average age group in the room. These topics included the history of the state of Louisiana, the history of corruption within the state itself, and which governor candidate would best for the state. There are four candidates remaining in the race, three of which are republicans. The candidates are republicans Scott Angelle, Jay Dardenne, David Vitter and Democrat John Bel Edwards.
Soon after the introduction, there were technical difficulties with the videos that were supposed to be played. President of the Southern University Democratic Society Angelle Bradford did not panic when these difficulties occurred. She simply took matters into her hands. Bradford opened up the floor for discussion on any topics that involved or affected black people. Soon after the conversation and interaction started flowing it was easy to see that no one cared to watch the videos any more, they wanted to discuss and debate on issues that affected and will affect them both directly and indirectly.
A plethora of material was reviewed that night. Students disputed over topics like corruption within the United States as a whole, stereotypes of a black individuals, and having pride in going to an HBCU. The attendance ranged from undergraduate freshman to students who are striving for their master’s degree.
The one topic that enraged the students more than anything was definitely the controversial topic of gun control. Many students felt that there should be gun control in regards to the number of guns in the U.S. Others felt as the issue was within the person who owns the gun. Another topic that caused a rather convulsed reaction was the problems and corruption within the Electoral College, how outdated it is and how it isn’t needed during presidential elections.
The Democratic Society at SU decided to put on the forum after they noticed that a lot of people weren’t getting registered to vote for local elections. In their efforts to raise the level of participation at Southern University, they decided to the forum to inform and familiarize the students.
“We felt like this was necessary in order to have some type of viable future for the black community not just at Southern, but surrounding Southern also,” said DSS president Angelle Bradford.
Moving forward from the forum the Democratic Society urged everyone to vote in local elections on Saturday October 24 2015.