In a room full of mentors and teachers, Lawrence Julius Hanks looked back at his community as he was honored.
The annual Black History Month Gala honored several community members Saturday night at the Hilton Garden Inn.
Hanks, a third-year doctoral student and associate instructor in IU’s School of Public Health, helped found REACH, a student group that marries cultural diversity and health studies in addition to assistant-coaching track and field at Bloomington High School North. Hanks received the 2016 adult Outstanding Black Male Leader of Tomorrow award AH
“When it comes to awards, they mean a lot to me because it means my community believes in me,” Hanks said. “I take that belief and put it back into my students.”
Hanks was raised in Bloomington and said the city has supported him throughout his high school and graduate years.
His sister, brother and niece surprised him with a visit from Atlanta for the ceremony. Many of his mentors, professors and church leaders also attended the Gala.
Saturday night was about his community.
Hanks said he looks at how many people have invested time into him and his work, and realizes his victories are also a product of their efforts.
“The success is bigger than you,” Hanks said.
Rafi Hasan, Bloomington’s Safe and Civil City director, praised Hanks’ accomplishments, as well as his attitude.
“He just gets it. He’s a young person who understands he’s caught in the past and present,” Hasan said.
Hasan compared Hanks to a crop that ripens, then seeds for the next season.
“There’s an ethos with this generation that is self-celebratory,” he said. “There’s a sense that you made it on your own, you did it. He understands that other people have opened doors for him, invested in him. In doing that, he’s started doing the same thing right away.”
Hasan said February’s Black History Month events should encourage people to consider their own history.
“It is vital that we make a concerted effort to tell the stories of our grandmothers, who worked as domestics, our elders who told us their stories,” Hasan said. “You don’t always understand what you’re getting when you’re younger, but you remember them telling them. Remembering who they were — it’s an obligation.”
The current political climate can be demoralizing and vitriolic, but people can also look back to their ancestors for ways to move forward, Hasan said.
“In all of that, there’s an element of love that has pushed those generations,” Hasan said. “I have to now make sure I’m doing the same.”
Hasan’s grandmother died, but he said her history lives on through him and the anecdotes he took from her.
“It’s a beautiful struggle,” Hasan said. “We have to tell it and remember it and wrestle with it and be okay with being uncomfortable with some of the things we hear.”
Dexter Charles Griffin received the high school Outstanding Black Male Leader of Tomorrow award for his involvement at First United Methodist Church and philanthropy.
The Gala’s silent auction included books by John and Audrey McCluskey, dinners with city officials, gift baskets and art.
The McCluskeys received the Living Legends award for working in African American and African Diaspora Studies, working pre-retirement at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, serving on Bloomington commissions and organizing events for the city.
John McCluskey said the two always remembered the importance of working outside of campus, even as new professors in 1977.
“We’ve seen many people come and go, but we have loyal, wonderful friends here,” McCluskey said.
McCluskey is currently a member of the Commission on the Status of Black Males, which focuses on education, criminal justice, employment, and health and wellness.
Dollie Manns said she met the McCluskeys when they came to Bloomington, and she described them as “wonderful people, beyond reproach.”
“They’ve always been a pillar in the community,” she said. “It’s very hard to find someone whose character is respected all the time.”
McCluskey said he still works with graduate students at IU but relishes teaching anyone “who is hungry” and “willing to learn more, to see more.”
“We’re still teaching in different venues, different ways, but we are still teaching,” McCluskey said. “The awareness, the alertness that comes from an awareness of history is hugely important.”
