Campus honors black heritage in annual event
by CL Collins, reporter

    SE Campus will celebrate Black History Month with performances by the Ayubu Kamau Sacred Afrikan Drum group tomorrow, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. in the ballroom.

    A community event, the celebration provides an opportunity for people of all races to learn about black culture and will focus specifically on the song, dance and folk stories that were originally based in Africa.

    Charles Harris will serve as this year’s storyteller. He will describe the infiltration of black culture into everyday life as well as relate some ancient folk stories that originated in Africa.

    For the younger crowd, the Sacred Afrikan Drum Group will perform African mating dances that resemble the rhythmic sway prevalent in contemporary hip hop dance.

    The SE Gospel Choir, under the guidance of Marion Nesvadba, assistant professor of music, will perform traditional black spirituals. Students from Arlington’s Bowie High School will join in the singing to commemorate those wh

o triumphed and made advancement in the black community.
    Refreshments will be provided.

    Celebration of black history began with Dr. Carter Woodson, dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Howard University. The former high school teacher grew tired of black children in America having no identity with or ties to the African culture.

    With its inception in 1916, Woodson’s Journal of Negro History provided its reader a sense of black pride as well as an identity.

Until that time, African-Americans knew little about where they came from, and it became apparent that they had no concept of roots with another country as compared with Anglo-Americans, who could trace their roots back to the soil of many European provinces.

    Young black children thought that the blacks in Africa were estranged from them because the children knew nothing about the language, customs or rituals of their ancestors in Africa. Woodson wanted to enlighten the masses about their roots by educating them on the achievements of blacks.

    His fight for blacks to have their heritage remembered paved the way for Black History Week in 1926. This week made the achievements of blacks known throughout the world. In 1976, the week turned into a month-long celebration.