Unity Day
By: Barbara Harmon, Assistant Editor
Fred Bailey will be speaking at Volunteer State Community College for Unity Day on Jan. 27 in the Caudill Auditorium at 12:45 p.m.
Bailey is the founder of Children Are People, Inc. (CAP), located in Gallatin.
“As one of fifteen children of sharecroppers from Gallatin, Tennessee, Fred was born without the gift of full sight,” the Children Are People website (childrenarepeopletn.org) wrote.
“Despite an intimate relationship with disadvantage, he received a Bachelor’s degree from Tennessee State University, worked at General Electric and served as a middle school and high school wrestling coach,” the website noted.
Unity Day is a Vol State event that leads up to Black History Month and encourages the unity of all people.
“It always follows after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and we host this event to bring enlightenment about Black History Month,” said Dr. Kenny Yarbrough, Director of Student Life and Diversity Initiatives.
“I hope students, faculty and staff will gain insight and enlightenment on black history as well as see a living testament of someone who is not just making black history, but history in general.
“Students will gain first-hand knowledge of the plight and accomplishments of our speaker, Mr. Fred Bailey, who is a renowned business man and motivational speaker from Gallatin,” said Yarbrough.
Bailey started CAP as an after-school program to help children succeed.
Yarbrough went on to say that students would hear about Bailey’s struggles and how he overcame them to help his community.
The office of Student Life and Diversity Initiatives annually sponsors unity Day in January.
“I feel like more students should attend Unity Day,” said Kat Lambert, a sophomore at Vol State.
“I believe that it is important for students to learn all history, because it is our past and it shows how far America has come as a nation,” said Lambert.
Students wanted to encourage others to attend this event at Vol State and express its significance.
“It is important for students to show up to events like Unity Day because with politics and racial profiling issues and all the controversy of the last year.”
“It is important to remember we, as college students, are all people with the same goal of furthering our life through higher education,” said Autumn Finley, student at Vol State.
“While there are many differences between Vol State students’ races and social and economic classes and cultures, we still have a united common goal. It puts things in perspective,” Finley said.
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