Through a sense of belonging, activism and preservation, organizations at the University of Arizona continue to uplift and protect Black history, ensuring that its legacy is not only remembered but actively lived.
Black History Month, celebrated every February, is a time to honor the achievements, contributions and resilience of Black individuals. It is a call to recognize Black history as an integral part of American history. While this month is a time to reflect on the past, it is also an ongoing celebration of culture and joy.
“Black joy is almost like a texture […] it can be hard to hold onto hate when you have that community,” said Adiba Nelson, program coordinator of African American Student Affairs.
Nelson referenced that being Black comes along with a sense of comradery. “Black joy is everybody’s joy. We just live it out loud. People can be scared to be out loud, to live their life out loud,” Nelson said.
Black communities have historically found joy in the hardest of situations.
AASA is a community center at the UA. It serves as a safe space for Black students to live unapologetically and without explanation.
“For me, the center is pure joy and happiness, because I get to see students just being free, being themselves, to laugh and joke and have fun,” Nelson said. She refers to the cultural center as a home away from home, or a community within a community where Black students can go without stares, questions or people not understanding them.
AASA began on campus in 1991, a year and a half after students protested in front of the Administration building. Dr. Jamaica DelMar, director of AASA, said that these students “demanded more resources and attention dedicated to supporting diversity and the unique needs of Black students on campus.”
Students and Black faculty established AASA as “an area dedicated to developing leadership, promoting social justice and improving academic skills,” DelMar said. She states that while every month is Black History Month at AASA, they “put extra time and energy into programming that is promoted to wider audiences during the month of February.”
On Dec. 4, 2024, there was an unveiling of a new mural outside of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Student Center where AASA resides. When DelMar first came into her role in the summer of 2023, she “felt like the building was so drab […] and it just didn’t reflect the energy that was occurring on the inside.”
Local artist Nolan Patterson was commissioned to design the mural, taking ideas from students. “Overwhelmingly, a theme of Black Joy emerged, along with a sense of place [the Sonoran Desert],” DelMar said.
The mural depicts smiling Black faces surrounded by a Tucson landscape. It displays the phrase “to choose joy is to find freedom,” celebrating the sense of what Black community means today. This month, visitors can scan a QR code outside of the MLK Jr. building to view holograms of students talking about the mural.
Nelson, a UA undergraduate in the 1990s, recalled a divided campus and an initial unfamiliarity with cultural centers. She vividly remembered watching the O.J. Simpson sentencing at the Student Union, where white and Black students gathered around separate TVs. “The reactions were so starkly different, and that was really indicative of how the university campus felt at the time,” Nelson said.
Now, Nelson detailed, “It feels like the university understands the richness of these different cultures and what they bring to the morale and the vibe of the campus.”
“Celebrating the culture, celebrating what Black people bring to the community” is one thing that Anthony Singleton, graduate assistant at AASA, said is being overlooked. He calls for an end to divisions of communities and wants everyone to come together.
Singleton stated that, “It is important and difficult to balance keeping the messaging alive and the purpose of Black community alive while still tailoring it to other cultures so that they feel welcomed.”
“It’s about creating an environment where it’s always welcoming, where you feel like you can grow, where you feel like you’re accepted,” Singleton said.
Singleton, a graduate student in higher education at UA, previously attended the University of South Carolina-Upstate, a small commuter college with less campus presence. He credits professors and administrators for supporting his dreams by simply listening and making him feel safe. Now, he values creating that same welcoming environment, inviting students to relax and be heard in his office at the MLK Jr. Center.
Singleton referenced how we need to recognize what happened in the past, while still celebrating the history that Black communities are making today. “When you think about 30-40 years from now, are people still going to be referring to Black History as MLK and slavery?” He said that Black History is still evolving.
Singleton reflected on sentiments from other communities that during the month of February, Black people “feel like they’re the most powerful or that they can do different stuff than everyone else.”
Singleton shares that for him, “it is about celebrating our ancestors, celebrating people who have been here before us and then also creating new traditions and creating our own history and our new legacy for the next generations.”
Singleton detailed that, at times, educational settings can be a reminder that racism still exists. This brings on the idea that Black History Month, rather than being for Black individuals, is actually for other communities to stop and reflect.
“Growing up in my household, we were never really like, ‘hey, it’s Black History Month, we have to do this,’ or ‘hey, it’s Black History Month, let’s go there and do that,’” Singleton said. Rather, the month of February is a time for other communities to remember their duty of support.
Singleton emphasized the importance of building genuine relationships across communities. He described that “it’s hard to know if it’s performative or really supporting.” He detailed that allyship requires a consistent effort to cultivate a relationship past Black History Month.
Nelson echoed this sentiment by saying, “for us, Black history is every month. But yes, in this country, we celebrate Black History Month in February, and so it’s an opportunity for us to be 100% joyous, even though we already are, but maybe now we’ll share it. It is an opportunity for us to have our joy on full display.”
Nelson stressed the importance of self-reflection in being an effective ally, explaining that we all “get to curate the information that we’re ingesting.” She encouraged allies to ask themselves “Do you want to learn more about the issues happening in the Black community? What leaders are you following? What activists are you following? What books are you reading?”
Nelson urged allies to embrace being uncomfortable in different settings so that we can all grow.
AASA will be holding their annual block party to wrap up Black History Month on Feb. 28 from 5-7 p.m. in the MLK Jr. Center’s parking lot. There will be a DJ, food, a photobooth and resource tables. It will share the essence of Black joy, and all communities are welcome. A list of events held by AASA in the month of February and year-round can be found on their Instagram and their website on the UA page.
While AASA holds their primary purpose of celebrating Black joy and student empowerment today, other organizations on campus and in Tucson have a more history-centric perspective.
The Paul Laurence Dunbar School, established in 1918 during times of segregation, served nearly every Black student in Tucson. The school had inadequate resources, with no library or cafeteria. Langston Hughes, famous American poet and activist, demanded for a cooling system within the facility after learning that students were fainting from heat exhaustion.
Despite these struggles, students continued to receive an education thanks to motivated teachers and parents. In 1951, the Dunbar School was integrated and renamed John Spring Junior High School. It later closed in 1978. The Dunbar Coalition, made up of Dunbar School alumni, purchased the school from the Tucson Unified School District in 1995. They renovated it into a living museum and cultural center for the Black community.
Now, the campus is open to the public and available to rent on an hourly basis. They also offer private leasing spaces for local Black businesses and entrepreneurs. Freda Marshall, executive director of the Dunbar Pavillion, noted that the space is “not exclusive, but prioritizes the assistance of the community that has been systematically marginalized.”
What is now known as the Dunbar Pavilion helps to support the growth and startup of Black-owned businesses. Dunbar also has initiatives for community growth, such as technological workshops to increase digital literacy for low-income groups. A lot of this is done through partnerships with the UA College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Marshall described that honoring and remembering the past is “not just important, it’s critical.” “We are standing on the shoulders of those who thought the Dunbar worthy enough to reclaim it,” Marshall said.
Marshall emphasized that Black history in Tucson is not to be censored or erased, and it must be taught to its fullest potential. While she recognized the living history of the Dunbar, she also recognized the importance of it being “a viable place for the community today.”
In February 2021, Beverely Elliott’s grandson, Jody, was assigned a report on Black History Month. He went to her and asked why there wasn’t a museum to learn about African Americans who lived in Southern Arizona. She agreed with this sentiment, and started work as the Executive Director of the African American Museum of Southern Arizona in April 2021.
AAMSZ often tries to bring in colored pictures from the Civil Rights Movement in order to display how recently these events actually occurred — it wasn’t hundreds of years ago.
The museum works on different initiatives like offering free swim lessons to children. Historically, children of color were not allowed to swim due to racial prejudice. According to the CDC, for every one white child that drowns, five Black children drown.
AAMSAZ also worked on a grant with UA and Dr. Jason R. Jurjevich to map out racist covenants in Southern Arizona, showing historical roots of housing inequity and systematically segregated communities. Additionally, Elliott works to create different fireside chats, with Black figures. For instance, Ruby Bridges, the first African American child to desegregate an elementary school in Louisiana, came to Tucson in 2022 to reflect back on that moment in time.
Janaé Jackson, a student intern at the museum, said that “if you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it, so be happy for where we’re at now, but know that we still have a long way to go, because where we came from wasn’t too long ago.”
AAMSAZ is located on the UA campus, inside of the Student Union Memorial Center. Other historically black organizations continue to work towards celebrating Black history.
Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first Black Greek-letter sorority, was founded in 1908 at Howard University by Ethel Hedgemon Lyle. She wished to form a unified group of like-minded Black women who could build up mutual support and sisterhood. Since then, it has been incorporated into many predominantly white institutions throughout the United States. On May 7, 1975, the Iota Tau chapter of AKA was founded at UA.
“Education is very important on what actually happened for us to have rights in the states, for us to be here today and really ride the foundation of our sorority,” Savanna Saunders, the current president of the Iota Tau chapter of AKA, said. The chapter remains relatively small, with only 18 active members, but has grown throughout the years. Saunders explained that “especially being on a PWI, we just try to make sure that we bring a community to be heard on campus.”
In order to be an ally, you must show up. It all comes down to communication. If you simply listen, learn and understand the stories of others, you can make the change. It is dire to reflect on the past while working towards the evolving legacy.
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