Southeast to celebrate Black History Month with movie night, presentation on slavery

Southeast Missouri State University will celebrate Black History Month with a movie night and a presentation on the early years of African slavery in the Americas, school officials said.

On Tuesday, the movie, �I Am Not Your Negro,� will be shown at 6 p.m. in Dempster Hall�s Glenn Auditorium. The event is open to Southeast faculty, staff and students, and community members.

The documentary by Raoul Peck is based on James Baldwin�s unfinished manuscript, �Remember This House,� according to a university news release.

Black History Month events will continue at Southeast on Feb. 28 with a presentation titled �Hispaniola: The Early Years of African Slavery in the Americas.�

The presentation is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the University Center Indian Room.

Lissette Acosta Corniel, Southeast assistant professor of history, will discuss free and enslaved blacks in 16th century Santo Domingo, the initial port of entry on the island of Hispaniola for the transatlantic slave trade.

The island is now home to the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The presence of blacks in the Americas occurred as early as 1492 in Christopher Columbus� first voyage, university officials said.

Subsequently, free blacks arrived to explore and enslaved blacks were brought to be exploited, according to the news release.

�At Southeast, we are proud to celebrate Black History Month,� said Sonia Rucker, assistant to the president for equity and diversity and dean of students.

�We hope these activities involve and educate our students, faculty, staff and community members,� she said.

Black History Month was first introduced as �Negro History Week� in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, whose goal was to focus attention on the many contributions to American history that have been made by black people.

At that time, Negro History Week was celebrated the second week of February, chosen by Woodson because it marks the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, two men whose efforts helped end slavery.

In 1976, during the U.S. Bicentennial, the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History expanded Woodson�s week into what is now known as Black History Month.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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