Mandy Carter, co-founder of the National Business Justice Coalition, spoke on Thursday night on the power of history, unity and social justice.

Mandy Carter, an African American woman in the LGBT community, gave a speech on the importance of equality and social justice in the United States. Groups such as HUE, Vision, Women Who Love Women, and the Black Student Union attended the speech.

Carter started her speech at the University by talking about the importance of the recent legislation that passed Nov. 6, Referendum 74, granting Washington, Maryland and Maine gay marriage rights.

“There are some amazing demographic changes happening,” Carter said. “It’s critical for us to be visible, for people to see our face for the others who cannot.”

Now, there are more women in the U.S. Senate because of how men have used their role in the public to choose what is right for women to do and not do, according to Carter. She spoke about issues on women’s choice, rape, the war on women and how history has shown such progress for women in the United States.

“The other interesting demographic is women are now the miracle majority,” Carter said.

Transitioning to her own personal struggle as an out African American woman growing up during the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam war, Carter said it’s important for allies to support the LGBT community.

“Silence is the voice of complicity,” Carter said. “Each and every single one of us has the power to be a part of change.”

Carter said the most important part of college campus movements today is to create unity from organization to organization. Carter said no one should have to divide themselves into two groups when they identify with both organizations. Freshman Brittani Bylon agreed on Carter’s point of the power of unity of various organizations for change.

“I wanted to be exposed to the problems with not just African Americans, but African American lesbians,” Bylon said. “It’s about all of us coming together as one organization.”

Freshman Edward Vaughn agreed saying his favorite part of the speech was having Carter mention getting involved in the activism of the social justice community.

“The call for motivation, not just in the LGBT community, but everyone working together,” Vaughn said.

Senior LaShaunda Brown, member of HUE and coordinator for the event, said she was very happy with the turnout of the event. She said she has been e-mailing Carter since she went to see her speak in February 2011.

“Having all the groups here, it’s a coalition building aspect,” Brown said. “It’s building a bond. You need people to move forward.”

For more information on the National Business Justice Coalition, check out www.NBJC.org.