City kicks off Black History Month

IU Law Professor Kevin Brown sees Black History Month as a way to balance the ledger of historical accomplishments toward black Americans.\n"It's really to remind America just how central to the society black people have been, are and will be," he said.\nWith that message, Brown will help kick off Bloomington's Black History Month celebrations at 6 p.m. tonight in City Hall at 401 North Morton St.\nThis event is the first of many around Bloomington and IU that commemorate Black History Month, which begins Wednesday. Programs range from a black history knowledge bowl to ceremonies and lectures to the fourth annual Africana Festival in Alumni Hall. The Union Board is also bringing actor James Earl Jones to the IU Auditorium to speak on Martin Luther King, Jr.\nEchoing Brown's sentiments, Beverly Calender-Anderson, an organizer of the City Hall event, said celebrating Black History Month is important because it helps to underscore the contribution black culture has made to the U.S.\n"Unfortunately our history books have not caught up with the accomplishments that so many African Americans have made to our community," Calender-Anderson said in an e-mail.\nThe celebration will feature refreshments catered by Affairs of the Sun and artifacts from the historical presence of the black community in the city. Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan will also be on hand to commemorate the beginning of Black History Month. Jacobs School of Music student Alexis Carter and Batchelor Middle School seventh grader Jimmy Mitchell will provide music for the event. \nThe kickoff is sponsored in part by the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. \nBoth event organizers and participants from IU agree that it is very important for IU to be involved in this event because the University has a large presence in the Bloomington \ncommunity.\nIU hasn't stopped at this one event for its involvement in Black History Month, either. IU kicks off its own field of events 7 p.m. Thursday in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.\nDespite February's focus on black history, event coordinators at IU and in Bloomington say the Black History Month's implications reach far beyond black culture.\nFor instance, Brown, whose research interests at the School of Law include race, American society and the law, said the American civil rights movement helped pave the way for the women's liberation movement and a reduction of discrimination against the disabled, and has given a base for the fight for gay marriage rights.\n"Our notion of respect for individual freedom and liberty was really a product of the civil rights movement," Brown said. \nIn the end, the need for Black History Month comes out of a need for Americans to know and understand each other said Oyibo Afoaku, director of the Neal-Marshall Center.\n"We all need to know about each other," she said. "It's not just about black people and the black experience"