2023 Black History Month Lecture

As part of the very identity of our organization, AASU celebrates the legacy and achievements of black people year round. But during Black History Month we expand our celebration and acknowledgment of blackness in solidarity with those participating in the month all over the world. The Black History Month lecture is the marquee event of AASU’s programming during February. With the support of various campus partners, we bring a famous, influential, successful, and insightful black figure to campus to help us increase our understanding of the black condition and how we can work together to improve it. In the past, we have had luminaries such as Melissa Harris-Perry, Benjamin Crump, and Opal Tometi.

This year, the speaker we will be inviting is Zion Clark. Zion Clark was born September 29th 1997 in Columbus, Ohio with a rare birth defect called Caudal Regression Syndrome which caused him to be born without legs. Zion didn’t let this stop him from learning new skills, he picked up wrestling and music at a young age which became his outlet from an abusive living situation. Through resiliency and resistance and consistently Zion continued to figure out his way of approaching some of these passions and earned his position as an All-American wrestler, and lead drummer of his church. He continues to defy all odds with his optimistic approach and no excuses mentality he embodies. This event is open to the entire Georgia Tech community as well as the greater Atlanta community. We hope that through this initiative we can bring together all the different communities at Georgia Tech and give them a new perspective on what it means to be Black at Georgia Tech, to be Black in Georgia, and to be Black in America.