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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Students compete in black history knowledge contest

First place winner receives $175 bookstore gift certificate, trophy

Sophomore Shirley Payne beat out five other undergraduate contestants Wednesday night at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center to become the 2004 Black Knowledge Bowl Champion.\nThe bowl tested competitors' knowledge of black history from ancient times to the recent past and covered such topics as entertainment, science, medicine, sports and politics.\n"Black Knowledge Bowl is a time we challenge our students' knowledge of who we are," said Oyibo Afoaku, director of the culture center. \nOn her road to victory, Payne correctly identified Tuskegee, Ala., as the site of the infamous syphilis experiments conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service on black men from the 1930s to the 1970s. Payne correctly answered questions on "Shaft" composer Issac Hayes and inventors Granville Woods and Frederick M. Jones.\nShe received a $175 gift card to the IU bookstore and a trophy for her first place showing. \n"It's great," she said. "I didn't think I had a chance of winning, coming in here. I can really use the bookstore certificate." \nSecond place winner junior Rahsaan D. Bartet received a $150 gift card and a trophy, and third place finisher Cameron Beatty took home a $125 gift card and a trophy. \nBartet said the program did a good job of showing the many contributions black people have made to society. \nThe bowl consisted of three games each lasting a half hour. Three undergraduates and one graduate student competed in each of the first two rounds. The top two undergraduates from each of the first two games were then brought back for the final match up. \nThe graduate students never met in the same round, Instead their scores were compared against each other. Dionne McKaskle was declared the winner and received a $100 IU bookstore gift card and a trophy. \n"Being African American, you should definitely know your history because then you can see, yes, we do have inventors, yes, we do have teachers and professors," Payne said.

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