Kicking off Black History Month events and activities, Rev. William Harris, director of the Center for Community Engagement at the University of Cincinnati, will speak of the issues and concerns of being a minority student among the majority on campus.
Harris, speaking at 7:30 p.m. in Cardinal Hall A in the Student Center, will focus on African American students on a predominantly white campus, said Michelle Hudson, president of the Black Student Association.
Harris works with student development and leadership, outreach and education at the University of Cincinnati. He is also the associate director of American Baptist Campus Ministries and founded the Foundation for Higher Opportunities for Progress through Education.
"He will verbalize what people are feeling," said Terry Frazier, assistant director of the Multicultural Center. "A lot of people will understand how African-American students feel on campus."
Frazier said he believes Harris will expose how some students react to being minorities.
"It will bring to our knowledge how African-American students are feeling in the classroom. A lot of students feel alienated because there is a lack of culture around campus as a whole."
Hudson said that she hopes Black History Month activities will lessen that sense of isolation.
"It's important to take a step back and see where we've come," Hudson said.
Other events for Black History Month include discussions of the history of the hip-hop culture, poetry readings and jazz performances.
Hudson said that she has never felt alienated on campus. Coming from a mostly white high school, Hudson said she is used to being a minority.
"But some haven't had to walk into an all-white classroom before," Hudson said. "Some-times it's hard, and you wish you had someone else here."
Hudson said that is why she believes it's important to have groups such as BSA. But she also stressed the importance of going outside one's comfort zone.
"The more you reach out, the more willing people are to accept you," she said. "If you want to make a friend, be a friend."
Frazier said he believes that Black History Month activities should be a learning experience.
"We're at a university and our objective is to gain knowledge," Frazier said. "But so many people have a one-sided view. It's important that we have a strong understanding of other people's culture."
Black History Month actually began as Negro History Week in 1926. The week was launched by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the son of former slaves, according to www.infoplease.com, a Web site of the Family Education Network, which owns the Information Please almanacs.
Woodson, after earning a degree from Harvard, formed the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. It was through this organization that Negro History Week was born. In 1976, the week was extended and became nationally recognized as Black History Month.
According to the Web site, Woodson chose to celebrate black history during the second week of February because the time commemorates the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, two leaders who influenced the lives of blacks in the nation's history, according to the Web site.
February also includes such pivotal dates in black history such as the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Feb. 12, 1909. The Fifteenth Amendment, granting blacks the right to vote, was passed on Feb. 3, 1870 and W.E.B. DuBois, a civil rights leader and co-founder of the NAACP, was born on Feb. 23, 1868, according to the Web site.
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