This year’s Black Heritage Celebration commemorated and highlighted the Black community’s influence through history this month, sparking conversations about retaining representation amid President Donald Trump’s recent threats to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

This year’s Black Heritage Celebration, titled “The Blackprint: It’s Been Us,” kicked off Feb. 1 with a keynote speech from former Vine influencer Demetrius Harmon, followed by 21 events from student organizations throughout the month, including a “hairitage” showcase platforming natural hairstyles and an event celebrating The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s 116th Founding Day. Student leaders said this year’s programming emphasized the value of honoring the legacy of the Black community in the wake of the Trump administration’s recent attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs nationwide.

BHC Co-Chair Clarke Gilmore, a senior, said the theme of “The Blackprint” aims to incorporate history into BHC programming to add an educational dimension to the celebrations and reflect on the impact of earlier generations through events like panel discussions with GW alumni.

“It’s not just fun celebratory events because we definitely want to emphasize that too, but you’re also truly taking away maybe a new bit of knowledge with it and a new appreciation for Black culture when you attend these events that incorporate our theme,” Gilmore said.

Gilmore said all people of color are affected by the Trump administration’s threats on DEI. Trump issued several executive orders during his first month vowing to cease federal DEI programs and terminate funding for schools who use “racial preferences” as a factor in hiring, admissions and financial aid.

Gilmore said the goal of BHC is to unite Black student organizations on campus to showcase a shared sense of Black community, given that GW is a predominantly white institution.

“It is important that when there is an attack on any marginalized group that that group band together and celebrate one another in the face of adversity,” Gilmore said in a message. “This is why BHC is so crucial.”

Programming included events like Service Day at DC Central Kitchen, the annual Soul Revue talent showcase and the culminating Finale, which will be held on Feb. 28 at the Gathering Spot DC — a Black-owned event venue.

Gilmore said holding dozens of events through February provides students and staff an opportunity to attend at least one event hosted by BHC during Black History Month.

“We always try to have every single day of February filled with at least one event just so that everyone has something to go to every single day and really just have that repetitive nature of our theme being really spread to different Black orgs,” Gilmore said.

Senior Kyle Balfour, the president of Young Black Professionals in International Affairs, said the Trump administration’s DEI crackdown has taken a toll “mentally and emotionally” on students of color at GW who were hoping to work in the public sector and see guaranteed representation of all identities in the workforce under the previous administrations’ former DEI policies. He said this year’s BHC theme counters anti-DEI discourse by reminding students of the Black community’s crucial contribution to American culture and lasting presence like in pop culture, entertainment and politics. 

“No matter what is happening, you can’t remove the people that have been there from the beginning, and that is really Black people, members of the African diaspora,” Balfour said.

The organization hosted a panel with professionals in international affairs Thursday about different career opportunities in the public and private sectors. Balfour said the panel aimed to offer guidance to students affected by the “recent political climate” under the Trump administration and emphasize the Black community’s ability to “persevere and thrive” within their fields no matter what obstacles are thrown at them.

“I think this is showing that it’s like kind of reigniting something in a lot of us, showing that we have the ability to go out there and make change,” Balfour said.

BHC’s Co-Chair Ryan Titus said this is the first year that BHC held a student contest to determine its logo. She said this year’s logo, designed by BHC first-year representative Jude Poisson, focuses on hair and its ability to tell stories and illustrate the struggles the Black community has faced. The logo shows braids spelling “The Blackprint” woven on the back of a person’s head, accompanied with gold hoop earrings reading “It’s been us.”

“He created this because he knows that hair has been an essential element of Black culture,” Titus said. “Back in the day when slavery was happening, people would do braids as escape routes. That’s also another one of my favorite parts of the Black Heritage Celebration, the logo.”

Poisson said the hair in the logo symbolizes the use of natural hair as an expression of heritage and identity in the Black community.

“The biggest thing for me was just capturing one of those big elements of Black culture and encapsulating it,” Poisson said.

The Black Girl Mentorship Program, a student group aimed at easing Black students’ transition to a primarily white university through mentor-mentee relationships, hosted an event on Feb. 6 titled “The Origins of BGM: Legacy Unwritten.” Junior Kalah Neal, the president of the program, said they invited organization alumni spanning from the group’s founding in 2017 through 2020 to share their experiences of what life at GW was like during their time as students.

“It’s really important that we see that a lot of trends and fads are coming from the Black community and recognizing what kind of influence and power we have as a collective,” Neal said.

Co-President of the Black Women’s Forum Priya Kelly said the organization is collaborating with the GW chapter of the NAACP to commemorate the 116th anniversary of the civil rights organization’s establishment. The event, which is on Feb. 26, will function as a “meet-and-greet” between the NAACP’s new executive board and organization members, she said.

Kelly said the event demonstrates BHC’s theme of “The Blackprint” because the NAACP is one of the oldest and most renowned civil rights organizations in the country.

“It really just points to the fact that Black culture is American culture as well, and the event’s gonna be a lot of learning about more of the history of NAACP as well and focusing on that,” Kelly said.

Jennifer Igbonoba and Katya Luzarraga contributed reporting.