TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — TROY’s Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society celebrated Black authors during the 2023 African-American Read-In.

Organizers said the reading was significant because passages from “Walking With the Wind” by John Lewis were read in front of the building named after him.

“It’s just overwhelming that we are able to do this,” Sigma Tau Delta Co-Sponsor Dr. Theresa Johnson said. “It is just something that I feel we have to do every year.”

Professors and students reflected on the words written by “The Boy from Troy” as well as references to him from other authors. Poetry and excerpts of stories from other Black authors were also recited.

“I read a poem called “A Poet to his Baby Son” by James Weldon Johnson,” Sigma Tau Delta President Jason Frye. “It’s essentially a poem about an African American American man who tells his son that if he is intelligent at an extremely young age, that he should choose another career path other than a poet. He kind of like talks about some of the issues of being a poet in that day and age.”

Although a day in February is set aside to bring awareness and to celebrate African-American authors, organizers hope that by continuing to read their literature it will broaden the community’s perspective.

“As someone who is an English major I think that it’s important for us to gain different views of the world from different people because it helps you understand the universal Human Experience,” Frye said.