Students Dress For History

For Chanequa N. Campbell ’09, wearing a black t-shirt yesterday was not just an early-morning accident. It was a statement recognizing black history.

Campbell fashioned Harvard’s “Black Tees for Black History” campaign by asking students to don black tees yesterday to raise awareness of the oft-glossed over Black History Month.

“This entire month of black history has gone by and there has been no community-wide recognition of these events,” she said. “So I put it upon myself to advocate that we all wear black T-shirts to communicate, as a community, Black History Month.”

In an effort to expand black history beyond the black community itself, Campbell contacted her friends at other schools—such as Williams College, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and MIT—to coordinate the event.

“Black history doesn’t just affect black people,” she said. “In a community like Harvard, everyone likes to think people are open-minded. But it’s about what to say and how to say it.”

Campbell said that she asked about 300 friends and classmates through e-mail invites and Facebook.com groups to take part in the end-of-the-month celebration.

“[Black people] have made significant, influential contributions to American culture and society and global well-being—and there’s no recognition. And that bothers me,” she said. “With [Black Students Association], we’ve had the Renaissance Ball, we’ve had forums, discussions, black political leaders coming in, but it’s all within the black community. There’s been no real community-wide outreach.”

Of the 300 who Campbell contacted individually, about 100 responded and pledged to support the endeavor.

“It’s only a day—it isn’t a lifetime or a major commitment,” she said.

Mackenzie B. Smith ’09, who participated in the event, said she was most impressed that people understood the significance of wearing the t-shirts.

“I think that for the way the event was organized, I was surprised at how many black t-shirts I actually saw,” she said.

But Jared B. Lucas ’09 said he was unhappy with the black-shirt turnout.

“It’s distressing to know that people got the e-mail but didn’t recognize it,” he said.

He added that the overall acknowledgement of Black History Month on campus has been anemic.

“You need to know how you got here,” Lucas added. “It wasn’t just you getting to Harvard. It was other people before you who fought for a higher level of education. It’s distressing to know that it’s just pretty much seen as a fake month.”

Although participants said the College’s first “Black Tees for Black History” was not an overwhelming success, many said it would be better next time.

“I would hope that it should be something done again in the future, and I think there should be a greater awareness about it,” Smith said.

And according to Campbell, this won’t be the last “Black Tees for Black History.”

“I’d love to walk around in four years and see people with black tees on at the end of Black History Month,” Campbell said. “I think that would be a tremendous statement about the maturity and knowledge and tolerance of this community.”