Medical school sets Black History Month events

Black History Month will be celebrated with two public events and several student events in February at the School of Medicine.  Both public events will be held at the medical school's main building at 801 N. Rutledge St., Springfield. 

Harry Edwards will present "The Crisis of Black Sports Participation and Popular Culture:  Issues of Political Policy and Public Health" at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, in South Auditorium.  An activist, athlete and former professor at the University of California Berkeley, Edwards became a spokesperson for a revolution in sports.  He has been a pioneering scholar in the sociology of sports as an academic discipline and is a leading authority on developments at the interface of race, sport and society. Throughout his career, he has persisted in efforts to compel the sports establishment to confront and address issues pertaining to diversity and equal opportunity.

Edwards, a native of St. Louis and East St. Louis, called for a black athlete boycott of the U.S. 1968 Olympic team.  Years later, he was a consultant on diversity for sports organizations including the Major League Baseball Commission, Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers.  The programs he developed for handling player personnel issues were adopted by the National Football League in 1992.  He is the author of numerous articles and four books.

The talk is organized by SIU's chapter of the Student National Medical Association.  Audrey Tanksley, second-year medical student from Chicago, is this year's chair for Black History Month.  The Student National Medical Association is composed of medical and premedical students focused on the needs of minority students across the nation.

An Ethnic Heritage Day, celebrating African-American and African cultures, will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, in the second-floor lobby.  The program will feature Beverly Helm Renfro, daughter of the late Jim Helm Sr., an African-American who was the photographer for several Illinois governors.  Renfro will discuss major historical events in the Springfield black community as they were captured in photos.  Three medical students also will be speaking – Sofya Asfaw, Omonigho Ekhomu and Kanayo Okafor.  Ethnic exhibits and a cultural potluck will complete the program.