Students, staff and faculty members stopped traffic Friday while participating in the Black Student Union’s “Black Down Memory Lane” Black History Month event.

The event started with a mock sit-in at the Campus Life Building. Many students and organizations came to support the event, including DeKalb High School’s Black Student Union.

Jennifer Lewis, a junior at DeKalb High School, said the group participated in the event because it wanted to learn more about what actually happened during the civil rights era.

“The reason why we came to ‘Black Down Memory Lane’ is because our generation has never been able to truly grasp the sweat, tears and faith that went into the civil rights movement,” Lewis said. “This is our way to pay respect and connect with those who came before us.”

BSU secretary Conecia Jackson said there was more than 100 students who participated. Students marched holding signs that were reminiscent of those displayed in the civil rights movement and stopped traffic twice while marching from the Campus Life Building to the Center for Black Studies.

Once students reconvened at the center, guest of honor the Rev. James Luther Bevel, who participated with Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement, performed Libations, an African tradition of acknowledging ancestors.

Bevel’s presentation focused on the lack of collaboration in the black community.

“Anyone who says their people are oppressed and is not working full-time to help them has a mental defect,” he said.

Bevel said for people to be free, they must know two things: history, meaning they must know what happened; and science, meaning they must know how things work. Bevel said not knowing makes someone a slave.

The strongest legal position in the world is the American citizen, Bevel said. He said the supreme authority of American citizens is the American college student.

“When American students speak, people listen,” he said.

Mansong Kulubally, a culture worker, also spoke at the event. He educated students about reparations. Kulubally said the wealth created by the servitude of the black slaves has been passed down through the generations by whites.

“The slave master and the African slave is gone,” Kulubally said, “but the wealth is not.”

Kulubally said much of the money generated by slavery is being used in the Iraq war.

Martez Williams, a first-year law student, said the event was excellent.

“I think this event was invigorating because it helped constitute the misconception conceived by the masses,” he said.