The University of Alabama

Crossroads Community Center

African American Heritage Month 2008
Creating History Every Day

Crossroads Community Center is pleased to present African American Heritage Month 2008, Creating History Every Day, at the University of Alabama. This, the 82nd celebration of African American Heritage Month is a great opportunity for the entire UA community to appreciate the contributions of African Americans while also celebrating a theme of unity. During this special month, we reflect on the many ways African Americans have shaped our nation's history, and we honor outstanding achievements by our fellow citizens.

African American Heritage Month is celebrated each February to affirm, recognize, and appreciate the rich heritage, struggles, achievements, progress, and diversity of African American peoples. An African American scholar, Carter G. Woodson, created and promoted Negro History Week in February of 1926. He chose the week in February to correspond to the respective birthdays of Frederick Douglass, an ex-slave and slavery Abolitionist, and Abraham Lincoln, the signer of the document granting slaves freedom, the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1976, the year of our nation’s Bicentennial, the week-long celebration expanded to one month. Today, our annual observance provides an opportunity to highlight features of the rich African American experience. This year’s theme is Creating History Every Day. The theme allows us to not only recognize and address the range and diversity of contributions African Americans have made to American society, but also to realize that UA campus community is making the history of tomorrow, today.

The true facts of the contributions of African Americans to the discovery, pioneering, development and continuance of America have not properly and adequately been presented in textbooks, media and other communications. Indeed, African Americans have often been left out of the written record about America. Recent change points to the need for fuller report about African American culture and an empathetic understanding of the African American community. African American Heritage Month 2008 brings together the Arts, Music, History, Literature, the Humanities and the Social Sciences in the celebration of the complex treasure that is culture.

Many UA organizations have planned exciting programs to celebrate the good energies that African Americans contribute to the Capstone and the nation. African American Heritage Month brings an opportunity to pause from our busy schedules and appreciate the richness of the exchange of ideas that distinguishes us as an exciting university campus. Through our conversations at these events, we affirm our commitment to strong positive relationships among the cultural communities that grace our campus. These creative events offer students, faculty, staff, and friends of all cultures a chance to weave a fabric of deep community at the University of Alabama.

Among the events offered in celebration of African American Heritage Month are:

Every Friday Morning
Children’s activities, including storytelling, motivational speakers, classroom activities, and more!
Brewer Porch Children’s Center
Sponsored by Brewer Porch Children’s Center

Friday, February 1, 2008–Friday, February 29, 2008
African American Women Who Dared Campaign
Campus Wide Activities
Sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center and Women Involved in Learning & Leading

Films: February 8, 2008- February 24, 2008
African American Film Festival (Discussion to follow each movie)
Ferguson Theater, 7:00 p.m.

  • Gone With the Wind (Feb 8th)
  • Bamboozled (Feb 9th)
  • In the Heat of the Night (Feb 15th)
  • Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Feb 16th)
  • Chisholm ’72 (Feb 23rd)
  • When the Levees Broke (Feb 24th)
Sponsored by University Programs

Monday, February 4, 2008
Hip-Hop Summit featuring Music on the Plaza, Hip-Hop Summit: Trivia on 90.7FM
Plus more… Ferguson Plaza, 12:00 p.m.
Sponsored by Creative Campus, 90.7, and Ferguson Student Union

Monday, February 4, 2008
National African American Read-In
Crossroads Lounge, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center, African American Studies Program, College of Arts and Sciences, McNair Scholars Program, McNair Scholars Student Association, and African American Graduate Student Association

Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Hip-Hop Summit: Listening Party
Ferguson Center, East Dining Room, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Hip-Hop Summit: Step Tease “SHOWCASE,” featuring both sororities and fraternities
Ferguson Theatre, 12:00-1:00 p.m.

Thursday, February 7, 2008
Hip-Hop Summit: Featuring performances from Central High School, marching band, gospel choir, dancers, skaters, and more.
Ferguson Ballroom, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Community Conversation: Africa--Images and Reality. Personal Stories and Eyewitness Accounts
Crossroads Lounge, Crossroads Community Center, 4:00 p.m.
Sponsored by Crossroads Community Center, International Honors Program, and Capstone International Programs

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Lecture by Dr. Micki McElya on her book, Confronting the Mammy Problem in the Montgomery Bus Boycott,
Ferguson Center Forum. Reception to follow, 6:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center, Women Involved in Learning and Leading, Department of American Studies, and University of Alabama Counseling Center

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Founders Day Program
Riverside Living Room, 6:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the NAACP

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Brown Bag Lunch Lecture by the Director of African American Studies Dr. DoVeanna Fulton
“Speaking to Write/Right: African American Women’s Voices of Freedom”
Manly Hall 308, 12:30 p.m.
Sponsored by The Women’s Resource Center and The Department of Women Studies

Thursday, February 14, 2008
Stories that Heal, Stitches that Bind: The Syphilis Study and the Tuskegee Bioethics Community Quilt Project
Speaker: Muhjah Shakir
205 Gorgas Library, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Sponsored by the Department of History

Thursday, February 14, 2008
Documentary Screening: “What Black Men Think”
Ferguson Theater, 7:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the African American Graduate Student Association

Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Julie C. Liable Memorial Lecture Series on Anti-Racist Scholarship, Education and Social Activism featuring Jim Scheurich from Texas A&M University: Race and Education, Racism and Spirituality, Graves Hall Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the College of Education

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Roundtable Discussion: Where Do We Go from Here? Featuring Jim Scheurich, Pat Bauch, Jerry Rosiek, Rhoda Johnson, DoVeanna Fulton, and Jim Hall
Carmichael Hall Rotunda, 10:00 a.m. - noon
Sponsored by the College of Education

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
We Got to Do Better: Panel of Guest Speakers
Room 301 Ferguson, 6:30 p.m.
Sponsored by the National Council of Negro Women

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Potluck Luncheon Celebrating African American Heritage Month
Student Lounge, Little Hall, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Sponsored by the School of Social Work

Thursday, February 21, 2008
Media Panel Discussion, TBA, 7:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the Capstone Association of Black Journalists

Thursday, February 21, 2008
Tribute to Trailblazers
TBA, 7:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the NAACP

Friday, February 22, 2008
Guest Speakers Phyllis Alston and H. James Chapmon, Honoring Our Own: Social Workers Involved in the Civil Rights Movement
Room 223 Little Hall, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. (Reception following in the Student Lounge) Sponsored by the School of Social Work

Monday, February 25, 2008
Allen Durough discussion, Alabama’s Pioneer Black Architect: Wallace Rayfield
Room 205, Gorgas Library, 1:30 p.m.
Sponsored by the UA Libraries, Summersell Center for Study of the South, and the University of Alabama Press

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Lecture and book signing with Wilson Fallin Jr., author of Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptist in Alabama
205 Gorgas Library, 4:00 p.m.
Sponsored by UA Libraries

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Quiz Bowl
252 Hardaway Hall, 6:30 p.m.
Sponsored by the National Society of Black Engineers

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
UA Leader Series: “Leading Across Cultures”
205 Gorgas Library, 7:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the Office of Campus Activities

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Dialogue and Conversation with Eli Lilly CFO Derica Rice
Natural History Museum, 7:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the Career Center

Thursday, February 28, 2008
The Everywoman Book Club will discuss a book relating to African American History or Culture. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Globe Restaurant, 12:00 p.m.
Sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center

Monday, March 3, 2008
Alliance for Women of Color Open House
5:30 pm-7:30pm, Room 205 Gorgas Library
Sponsored by The Alliance for Women of Color, Crossroads Community Center, Women's Resource Center, Coalition for Diversity and Inclusiveness, Black Faculty and Staff Association and Intercultural Student Council.

April 2008
The Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series: “I Wanted To Write,” with Sapphire.
Ferguson Center Theater
Sponsored by the Black Faculty and Staff Association

Crossroads Community Center is an initiative of the UA Office of Community Affairs under the direction of Dr. Samory Pruitt. We provide campus leadership in the areas of cultural programming and intercultural education by facilitating relationship-building across cultures through innovative programs and initiatives. We facilitate multicultural dialogue and prepare students to participate in a global society. We lead the conversations that build community on campus.

Contact: Dr. Beverly Hawk, Director @ 205-348-6930 or beverly.hawk@ua.edu
Brice Miller, Assistant Director @ 205-348-8514 or brice.miller@ua.edu