Declared as an inactive chapter on campus in January, Ashley Taylor, junior, took the lead as president to bring the NAACP chapter back active on Jan. 22 from zero to 108 members in three days.

BGSU NAACP chapter had their second meeting yesterday in the Union at 7 p.m. to put solutions into action, while reflecting on Reverend Jesse Jackson’s speech given at the Union on Jan. 25.

“I hope the BG black population can take from our meetings a positive attitude,” Brent Fuller, junior and vice president, said. “I hope from the meetings they can come up with solutions and turn them into actions.”

The BGSU NAACP chapter is a national organization known throughout the United States.

On Jan. 22 the regional director of the Midwest region for NAACP had to attend the chapter’s election because the chapter was starting over from scratch.

“I think it’s important for BG to have a NAACP chapter because, even though we do have organizations such as Black Student Union, this chapter is national and actions can actually be done,” Taylor said.

In addition, Taylor said the chapter takes actions and has the ability to go beyond Bowling Green.

Taylor said the goals for the chapter this semester are to have a higher male rate, keep people informed about issues and to understand not to be afraid of the struggle and to fight for what is right.

“One of our goals is to have a higher male turnout because I know and see a lot of black males who are very intelligent and they need to be here,” Fuller said. “I just sit back and think of how many black males could impact this organization.”

Also the chapter is just not solely an organization, but has committees that are part of the chapter.

“Some of our committees are community service, health and political action,” Taylor said. “Our chapter is just not about meetings, but it is about putting things into action.”

The BGSU NAACP chapter started their meeting with a film of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream.”

After the showing of the video there was discussion about what the members gained from the video that was different than usual.

“Watching the film made me realize how we as a people take things for granted because our mothers and fathers got on the grind to make life better for us and we just don’t appreciate it,” a student member said.

Other members agreed, saying that black people are not motivated because of being too comfortable.

There were many perspectives that the members gained from the speech ranging from African Americans working within themselves before they confront outside issues.

But Taylor made the connection of Jesse Jackson’s speech given at the Union and Dr. King’s speech.

“Before the Jesse Jackson speech I didn’t know the ‘I Have A Dream’ speech was really the ‘Broken Promise’ speech,” Taylor said. “The speech wasn’t about the dream but it was about how the United States had broken its promise to the black people.”

Overall, members said the chapter’s meeting was influential and a great turnout.

“I enjoyed the meeting because I gained an understanding on what I am not doing to help my community and how I take things for granted,” Theresa Smith, freshman, said.

Also on the executive board, members were pleased with the student turnout.

“I was very happy with the turnout we got tonight because we filled up all the rows,” Taylor said. “A person told me it is easy to have a big crowd for your first meeting, but a challenge to get as many people to come for the second.”