Black History Month Opening Ceremony - February 1, 2009
Good afternoon! Welcome to Black History Month--Dreaming in Color. Great Dream!
President Barack Obama begins his third week in office today. If there is a better run-up to this year's celebration of Black History Month, I cannot think of one!
The election of the nation's first black president is a watershed moment for this country. But, it is also a defining triumph for the civil rights movement that dates to before our 44th president was born.
President Obama reminds us that the history we celebrate in Black History Month is living history -- a long and powerful story, but one still unfolding.
Part of the story happened, and is happening, right here, in Gainesville.
The University of Florida was never a battleground campus in the civil rights struggle, like the University of Alabama or the University of Mississippi. But, there is no question that UF owes its integration to a handful of brave black students who took it upon themselves to break this university's whites-only tradition.
Pioneers like George H. Starke Jr., UF's first black student admitted to the law school in 1958, and Stephan P. Mickle, the first black student to earn a UF undergraduate degree in 1965.
Although there was little violence at UF, these and a handful of other early black students were ostracized in a way that makes us shudder today. No one would sit near them at lunch; few students would speak to them at class; racial epithets were muttered.
But, nearly alone, these students stuck it out. Courage and leadership have an uncanny way of opening minds.
Mr. Starke, Mr. Mickle and their contemporaries built a road in a wilderness. Other black students have been able to follow that road.
A half century after UF's integration, a black president in the White House, the start of Black History Month. It is worth asking, where are we in the story now?
In my eyes, there are two answers.
One, the struggle continues.
UF is a warm and welcoming campus, with students of all races from all over the world, but it is not diverse enough -- not yet. We want to make it easier -- we want to make it more attractive -- for more African-American students, staff and faculty to be Gators. It is a big issue for us.
Earlier this month, we established the President's Council on Diversity to try to build on the limited success we have had in the past decade.
It is also possible that we are lucky enough to live in a time of a major plot twist in this evolving story of race relations. This twist is already starting to unfold.
I am told that students in one local elementary school watched the inauguration attentively but paid scant attention and had little to say about Barack Obama's race.
Maybe it was their youth and inexperience. But, I would like to think maybe it was because, in the world these kids live in, the swearing in of a black president is not a big deal....Interesting twist!!
It is a big deal, a really big deal. But, at the start of Black History Month 2009, maybe we can take inspiration from our youngest citizens -- and strive to see the world in color rather than black and white.
Thank you.
Bernie Machen