Here and now
Flash forward to 2008. The Neo-Black Society is still helping people exercise their right to vote. During NBS Week in late fall, they co-sponsored a “Get Out the Vote” march from the Fountain to early voting at the Old Courthouse. Last semester's president, Aaron Smith '08, worked the NBS booth, explaining some of their upcoming activities. Free HIV testing on campus. Breast cancer fundraising. Sickle cell anemia fundraising. The Mr. & Miss NBS Pageant.

Students join NBS for individual reasons, he explains. For many, it's the chance to be of service and make an impact on the campus and community. For others, it's the modeling troupe or the black heritage emphasis. There's a group specifically for each of those, and for many others. For many it's the choir. The NBS is a wide tent.

Shandra Scott points out that the NBS plays much the same social function that a fraternity or sorority might, but it's much more affordable.

The society has evolved. No longer is it advocating for change on campus — its efforts to ensure the Elliott University Center would again have an NBS Lounge in 2004 was its last major one. It's making a difference in service to UNCG and the larger community. In providing leadership opportunities. And in providing a nurturing place where African-American students can academically and socially thrive.

Sisters, brothers, all
Reaching back. Pulling others up. NBS students helped the university in the 1970s and 1980s recruit the most academically promising African-American students, Cynthia Johnson '87 points out. They then provided a welcoming environment in which those students could thrive once on campus. Members saw progress — they literally made progress — step by step, as if they were enveloped in the old spiritual “Jacob's Ladder.” We are climbing higher, higher. All the while, helping students of other races understand black culture, history and perspectives.

Alumni from earlier decades hold a special place with the current students, who are well aware of this 40-year milestone. Vice President Whitley Harwell’s mother, Shelby Johnson Harwell '78, was a member in the mid '70s, a time of “Black Power” emphasis. When she attends a wedding with her mother, Whitley says she finds herself surrounded by NBS alumni, inquiring about its current activities. “It's an extended family.”

Because members from the first decades put so much effort into helping make UNCG a better place for black students, she says, current NBS students can focus their energies on other things. Community service. The arts. Academics. But they don't forget. President Jaren Troutman adds, “If you don't know where you're coming from, you don't know where you're going.”

We are climbing higher, higher — sisters, brothers, all.