As the 50th anniversary of the integration of The University of Alabama campus nears, several campus organizations are finding different ways to join this year’s Black History Month celebration.
Cassandra Simon, associate professor of social work, said each year her department plans an event as part of the Dr. Ethel H. Hall African-American Heritage Celebration.
“Alabama was the center of so much during the Civil Rights Movement, so it’s almost like we have a special debt to society,” Simon said. “I know the University is planning events for the summer since that’s when the integration actually occurred. Here at the school of social work one of our main goals is promoting social justice so we feel a special commitment to commemorate it.”
Simon said she hopes to honor Black History Month by enlightening students on current issues.
“We’re finding that our students don’t understand the past, so that makes it difficult for them to understand racial tensions,” Simon said.
(See also “Program honors Tuscaloosa’s role in civil rights”)
She said, though it’s important to commemorate the past, she hopes to use this Black History Month to make students aware of the civil rights issues still pressing.
To do this, the School of Social Work plans to educate students on contemporary civil rights issues by bringing in Lecia Brooks, outreach director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that locates and tracks the activities of hate groups.
Brooks will give a lecture titled “Fighting Hate, Teaching Tolerance, Seeking Justice: The Southern poverty Law Center” on Feb. 11 in Little Hall.
“She’s a person from an organization that very much deals with civil rights and has kept a watchful eye on both hate and intolerance,” Simon said.
The Women’s Resource Center will join in the black history activities with their annual “Black Women Who Dared” poster campaign.
Terrence Merkerson, events and awareness coordinator for the WRC, said the posters are displayed around campus and showcase both contemporary and historical black women who had successful careers in fields like medicine, military and politics.
“One of the problems we see is that the image of black women is usually someone who’s in the in the entertainment industry,” Merkerson said. “The goal of the campaign is to show women accomplishing great things outside the entertainment industry and it gives an alternative perspective of what a successful black woman looks like.”
The Women’s Resource Center will also host an “Every Woman Book Club” event on Feb. 28 and will co-host the “National African-American Read-In” with Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and the Student Leadership Council.
Other events will include “The Immortal Life Across Cultures Documentary Series,” hosted by the Honors College, a black film screening and bus ride to Selma.
The Crossroads Community Center organized a calendar for black history events on campus as part of the UA is Culture initiative to educate students on the different cultures present at the University.
“Crossroads’ role is to encourage intercultural exchange on campus,” said Lane McLelland, director of Crossroads “The calendar itself is the way we can encourage everyone to see all that’s available.”
For a complete list of events, visit crossroads.ua.edu.
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