Living black history and learning it are two very different propositions with two invaluable outcomes, HBCU faculty and students say. But as the nation kicks off its annual celebration of Black History month the two propositions suddenly go head to head.
Do HBCUs, given their history and mission, need to celebrate Black History month?
“We shouldn’t have to promote black history, but we all should want to,” said Dr. Edna Greene Medford, Professor and Chair of Howard University’s Department of History. “We don’t neglect other history, but we’re well aware of our role in developing American society and the global culture.”
Several professors and deans at historically black colleges and universities are opting to integrate black history into the HBCU experience, but not through remembrance of heroes and role models past. Instead, by shaping the black history figures of tomorrow. Most of their work is done out of personal obligation, and because they believe some of today’s HBCU students don’t have the kind of connection with black history that they should, a connection that extends beyond familiar names like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harriett Tubman and Malcom X.
Dr. Medford, whose expertise focuses include Abraham Lincoln and the black American experience post-Civil War, says that the challenge of promoting black history, even on a black college campus, is in getting students to appreciate its value by understanding their role within it. One of her courses, African-American History to 1877, has in recent years struggled to attract more than 30 students at the Mecca for historically black higher education.
Read more here at Huff Post Black Voices.
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