SIUC celebrates Black History Month

The University is celebrating Black History Month throughout February with the theme of "Generation black: Constructing a future on the foundations of the past."

The annual observance brings speakers, discussions, performances, music and art to campus.

Among the events planned:

• Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, will speak at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 3, at the Carbondale Civic Center.
• A Brown Bag lecture on Monday, Feb. 7, will feature Steven Haynes, a member of the Carbondale City Council, manager of Kroger and former president of the Carbondale NAACP. The program gets under way at noon in the Student Center Ohio Room.
• Also on Monday, Feb. 7, Jerry Blakemore, the general counsel for SIU, will present "Seeing beyond what is: It was just my imagination," 7 p.m., Student Center Kaskaskia/Missouri Room.

A variety of faculty members will make presentations throughout the month, and several speakers from other universities also will be on campus, including: Robert Ferris Thompson, art historian at Yale University; Kevin Cokley, associate professor of educational, school and counseling psychology at the University of Missouri at Columbia; and Kristen Renn, assistant professor of educational administration at Michigan State University.

Black History Month exhibitions include: "Black History on Display," Morris Library, Hall of Presidents, through Feb. 28; "Black History," Student Center Display Case, through Feb. 15; and "Art by Najjar," Student Center Art Alley, by Najjar Abdul-Musawwir, through Feb. 18.