During the Feb. 8 Black History Month forum in Renton, the topic of Black history and perseverance were a through-line as local leaders, activists, students, community vendors, performers, a special keynote speaker came together to discuss the past, the present and the future — with the current presidential administration being referenced throughout the four-hour event.

“It’s amazing. Everybody is not only just sharing their experiences, but they’re able to relate to people,” said Saleea R. Cornelius of Renton Technical College’s Associated Student Government, commenting on the event held at the school. “We had a wonderful speaker, Carl Mack share the truth about Black history and what truly is happening in America and how we can impact it in a positive manner.”

The event kicked off with the National Black Anthem, which was sung by Ayana Freeman for the second year in a row. An invocation by Pastor Linda Smith, of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Baptist Church, was followed by a welcome from Elevate PR’s Fancy Vargas and then Doris Martinez, Renton Technical College’ss executive director for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

“Our communities, my community, is being attacked. Both of them, equally Black people and Latina,” Martinez said, referring to her Black and Hispanic backgrounds. “I think it’s really important in times of hardship that we all stay connected.”

Martinez shared a story from a few weeks prior when the forum was being organized and she was talking with Smith and Benita Horn, a former equity consultant to the City of Renton and one of the creators of the Renton Equity Commission.

As an equity consultant, Horn created the training outline that eventually became the standard foundational required diversity training for all City of Seattle employees. The work that Horn has done to promote diversity in government and in businesses is now often referred to as DEI.

She had told the two women about how tired she was about “what was to come” with the Trump administration (the story took place right before the 2025 presidential inauguration).

“Miss Benita Horn and Dr. Linda laughed at me, they gave a little chuckle like, ‘This ain’t no time to be tired,’” Martinez said. “They were like, ‘Uh uh, we’ve been here before. This is not a time to be tired, this is the time to be in the collective. This is the time to be united.’ And I remember sitting in that Zoom room, planning virtually, and thinking to myself, ‘These queens are absolutely right.’”

In his presentation, Mack, former president of the Seattle King County NAACP, referred to the history of Black History Month (the month of February was decided because it was the birth month of President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass). He also talked about “America’s assault on Black history” and misrepresentations of holidays and dates important to Black history, honing in on the details that have often been left to the wayside.

He reminded the room that the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 was an executive order that only affected the executive branch of the government. Mack used this reminder as an example of the recent and current flurry of federal executive orders that are being signed, which includes DEI being ended on the federal level with Executive Order 14151.

“An executive order only applies to the executive branch. Now, the executive branch makes an impact to citizens of the country, but an executive order in and of itself does not apply to the citizens,” said Mack. “So, just like that, Trump is rolling back DEI. How is he doing that? So Trump just says to any department in the federal government that hands out federal grants, ‘Do not give federal money to anybody who is proclaiming DEI.’”

Mack told the crowd that if a county service like Metro King County, for example, can function without federal funding, than Trump’s executive order to ban DEI doesn’t apply to the service. He also pointed out that an executive order does not affect private entities or citizens that are not part of the federal government.

Mack also spoke about the 366-day Black Heritage Day calendars he has created, where each day has a different biography or summary of a significant person, event, organization or date in Black history, including a women’s version, inspired by the words of Malcolm X.

“I realized that I don’t have equal representation of Black women. And I hear the words of this brother,” he said, referring to X. “He said the most disrespected person in America is the Black woman, the most unprotected person in America is a Black woman and the most neglected person in America is a Black woman, so I’m listening to Malcolm now.”

He ended his presentation with excerpts from his calendar, highlighting the different Black women of the Pacific Northwest and their amazing achievements, like Mount Vernon’s Cheryl Linn Glass, who was the first Black female professional race car driver, or Constance W. Rice, who was the first Black woman to earn a doctorate from University of Washington’s College of Education.

Following lunch, the ASG led the Fishbowl Interactive Panel, where chairs were put into a circle and people from the crowd were able to talk to each other about their different stories and experiences related to race and Black history. One of the panelists was John Houston, who has spoken about his family’s struggle for reparations from the Renton School District in the previous forums, and Vargas, who helped put on the forum event. She was asked when she first realized that her racial identity was a challenge.

“Literally right out of the birth canal, I knew it was a challenge,” said Vargas, talking about her Panamanian mother, who became an activist at 12 and was speaking out about racial inequities in her country. “My father is Mexican so we are always aware of our otherness, and also my mother always made sure to let us know that because we were technically considered biracial and that just gave us a privilege she did not have.”

After the panel, Alejandro Snead performed his own spoken word writings, and 14-year-old Eleanna Smith performed a modern dance to Rihanna’s “Same Ol’ Mistakes.”

To close out the forum, GEAR UP district coordinator Kirsten Thornton, who works for the Renton School District, was joined by local high school students to talk about the district’s upcoming Historically Black College and University (HBCU) tour and fundraiser on Tuesday, March 4. The fundraiser will be at the Weatherly Inn in Renton at 4550 Talbot Road S., from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with special keynote speaker (and former Seattle Seahawk) Doug Baldwin.