Black History Month is long past, but according to the Center for Africana Studies at Penn, there is still ample time -- and need -- for discussion.
Yesterday afternoon, the center invited speakers Mia Bay, Mary Frances Berry and Michael Gomez to present their views in a panel on black history in Harrison Auditorium.
The organizer of the event was Director Tukufu Zuberi, a sociology professor who introduced the moderator History Professor Barbara Savage. She in turn highlighted the importance that black history holds in the center-sponsored series "Back to the Future of Civilization" -- a celebration of the 30 years of black studies at Penn.
"We have finally come home... by going back to the roots of African American history," Savage said, while presenting the panelists and their contributions to the field.
The first panelist was Bay, director of the Black Atlantic Project and professor of history at Rutgers University. She stated the importance of this subject in the black universities' departments, stressing its importance in the fight against racial attacks.
"African American history has never been apolitical," Bay said. It "challenges all the ways in which history has been written."
Bay also declared that black history "is just one element" of the black past and added that it must extend beyond Africa to connect with other cultures as well.
This thought was picked up by Mary Frances Berry, a Geraldine R. Segal professor of American social thought and a history professor at Penn, who is well-known for having been fired from her position of commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan for having criticized his civil rights policies.
Berry stated that black historians should be the first to support other ethnic groups in their struggle for social power and recognition.
"The power to control definition [of self] comes from outside the African American community," Berry said. "We need a more interpretive framework and more explanatory power."
To do so, the panelists pointed to the educational values that black history can offer.
This issue was stressed by Michael Gomez, director of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora and professor of history and Middle Eastern studies at New York University.
"Originality is the hallmark of genius, and necessity is the mother of originality," Gomez said. "The best of our tradition... has been characterized by originality."
He, too, underlined the importance of an alliance between different ethnic groups, especially with African Latinos, to create a basis for power -- once the "antagonisms" within and between the groups have been resolved.
The panel ended with a discussion of the difficulties that black historians face when writing about their past.
"The challenge of historians is not what can be said, but what will be heard," Bay said in response to a question posed by a member of the audience -- a small but engaged group of about 30 students, faculty and community members.
"It was really interesting," College sophomore Jennifer Lane said. "Most people view African American history as being a study of 'victicrats.' There is still much more work to be done."
