Tavis Smiley, the host of a two-hour weekly talk show on Public Radio International, spoke about the importance of black history to an audience of about 400 at a special program on the campus of UNC Pembroke on Feb. 11.
“We celebrate Black History today because someone did something yesterday,” Smiley said. “What would America be like with out her Negro people?”
During his talk, Smiley listed the contributions of a number of African Americans, including George Washington Carver, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis , and Madame C.J. Walker.
“All of these people were ordinary, but they did extraordinary things,” said Smiley.
Smiley asked the audience at the Givens Performing Arts Center, “Do you live just because or for a cause? You can’t live a life of hell and think you are going to heaven,” he added.
Instead of people asking each other, “How are you doing?,” he said perhaps people should ask each other, “What are you doing?” He urged the audience to “live a life of service, sacrifice and struggle.”
“We won’t live in an America as good as its promise if our aim is too low. The struggle is not for the faint at heart.”