TEACHERS SAYS BLACK HISTORY SHOULD BE BROUGHT OUT OF CLOSET

Black history needs to be brought out of the closet and into the classroom, a Cape Girardeau public school teacher said Monday.

Mae Sherwood, a second-grade teacher who is black, said elementary school children need to be exposed to black history.

Sherwood has been doing just that for years in her classroom at Washington School. But black history, she said, is not in the district's standard lesson plan.

Sherwood made her remarks at a public forum one of several events held at Southeast Missouri State University Monday in celebrtion of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday commemorating the birth of the slain civil-rights leader.

Prior to the forum a crowd of more than 300 people attended a memorial breakfast on the university campus.

In addition to the scheduled events in the University Center, a handful of demonstrators paraded outside early Monday to voice their concerns about issues such as fairness and equality.

Sherwood's remarks came in response to a comment by keynote speaker Melvin Terrell, vice president of student affairs at Northeastern Illinois University.

Terrell told the approximately 50 people in attendance that it's important for colleges to teach "ethnic studies" and educate people about black history.

That prompted Sherwood to reply that such education needs to begin in elementary school, not college. Some teachers also need to be taught about black history, she said.

In an interview following the forum, Sherwood elaborated on her remarks.

Like King, Sherwood graduated from high school at the age of 15.

Sherwood, who grew up in the Hayti area, enrolled at Lincoln University in 1952. She graduated in 1956.

She taught for a year before deciding to pursue graduate studies at Southeast Missouri State University in the summer of 1958.

She said she and her roommate were the first blacks to stay in a campus dormitory at Southeast.

She recalled that the house mother at Leming Hall used to let students go to the air-conditioned movie theaters in town to escape the heat. The dormitory had no air conditioning.

But Sherwood said she and her roommate were denied admission to all three movie theaters on Broadway because of the color of their skin.

A longtime educator, Sherwood said that in 1970 she was the first black to be employed as a regular classroom teacher in the Cape Girardeau public schools. For more than two decades she has taught in the Cape Girardeau School District.

Sherwood said she makes a point to educate her second-graders about the accomplishments of blacks. "You've got to start early for attitudes to be changed; it has to start at the roots," she said.

Blacks, she said, have been responsible for a number of inventions. But little is said about them, Sherwood said.

Blacks invented such familiar items as the red, yellow and green traffic signal and the pencil sharpener, Sherwood said.

But until teachers are taught about black history, such knowledge won't be imparted to students, she said. "The teachers have to be re-educated," said Sherwood.

A small group of demonstrators, most of them minority students at the university, paraded outside the University Center. Campus police estimated there were five or six students protesting at any one time.

Kendra Neely, a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, was one of the protesters. She said the demonstration involved about 20 people in all. It began at 6:15 a.m. and lasted for just over an hour, she said.

"We were trying to let people remember what King stood for," explained Neely.

She said she and other minority students are concerned that there are too few blacks in positions of power at the university.

Minority students, she said, often feel that university officials and staff only pay attention to ethnic concerns at events such as the Martin Luther King celebration and during Black History Month in February.

For the second consecutive year, classes were canceled as the university celebrated King's birthday. But Neely said she believes university offices also should have been closed.

"Do they really care? Are they really celebrating or is it just something to make us keep quiet?" she asked.

Neely said minority students feel they are treated poorly by the Cape Girardeau community as a whole.

Derek Hudson, president of Student Government and a black student at Southeast, said minority students are concerned that there are so few black educators, staff and administrators at Southeast. Such employees are needed to provide students with good role models, he said.

Hudson, who did not participate in the demonstration, expressed concern about how minority students are treated by campus police.

He said campus police often "overreact" to situations involving black students.

But Doug Richards, public safety director, said Monday afternoon that he was not aware of any such problems.

"We have worked closely with several of the black groups on campus, said Richards. "I am not aware of any problems," he said.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said university officials have been seeking to improve recruitment and retention of minority staff and students. "We're certainly aware that there is a lot to be done," he said.

Wallhausen said a statewide task force has set a goal of increasing minority representation in higher-education institutions statewide.

The university administration, he said, has not recommended closing campus offices in honor of King's birthday. He said the administration feels that simply closing down would lessen the significance of the holiday.

Instead, Wallhausen said, the university has tried to emphasize the importance of the holiday with a series of events honoring King and his efforts to promote civil rights.