The Black Students' Association (BSA) hosted Gore 2000 Campaign Manager Donna Brazile in its first event celebrating the completion of Black History Month yesterday.

The intimate gathering, co-sponsored by the College Democrats and the Harvard NAACP, of about 40 students applauded several student performances representing the past and present experiences of blacks in the U.S.

Offerings ranged from a reading of Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird" to a reenactment of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.

Brazile then took the floor, telling the story of how she first became politically active--at the age of eight--when she joined her New Orleans neighborhood's demonstrations that formed the night of King's 1968 assasination.

"That was my first political movement and my first act of defiance against my mother," said Brazile, who is an Institute of Politics fellow this semester.

Brazile's mother had wanted her children to remain in the house for safety reasons.

"That became the night of my baptism," she added.

In addition to the civil rights movement, Brazile said traveling to Africa and learning about her family's history had made her realize the responsibility she bore.