After Booker T Washington’s death, Tuskegee students constructed a grave out of brick on a hill that overlooks the campus.
Aaron Walton
Staff Writer
On Feb. 9, 16, and 25, in the Reid café from 12-1 p.m. the Black Students Association (BSA) of Lewis and Clark Community College will host their first “Black Facts” event highlighting prominent African-American figures.
In hopes to further educate students, the BSA is proud to organize this event for L&C students as a chance to learn uncommonly known facts about some of the most well known individuals throughout African-American history.
Some of these figures will include famous musical artists such as singer/songwriter, Etta James, and inventors such as Garrett Morgan who invented the modern traffic signal, as well as various hair products.
Etta James formed a girl trio at the age of 12 called the Creolettes.
“We’re [the BSA] mostly focusing on national figures and not local figures for this event such as Booker T. Washington, Jackie Robinson and Althea Gibson as well as others who have made an impact in the African American community,“ BSA Adviser Jared Hennings said.
One of the figures that will be presented is Arthur Ashe, who was the first African American tennis player to win the men’s singles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and the first black American to be ranked No. 1 in the world.
Althea Gibson is featured on the 36th stamp in the Black Heritage Series. Gibson is the first female athlete to be commemorated in this series.
Hennings has approached the BSA members themselves to provide the information for the students in attendance of the “Black Facts” event. These unsung facts have been gathered from history books as well as biography websites.
Members of the BSA will also be dressing the part of the historical figures they will be discussing in order to interact more with the audience.
“Participating in this event has been a good experience for me because after learning about what these people have done to help the African American community when they didn’t have that many resources makes me want to do more with the resources that we now have,” said Mikeith Teague, Communications major and BSA member.
For more information on the “Black Facts” event, contact Hennings at, jhennings@lc.edu.
Contact Aaron at Aron3111@gmail.com
