By Taki S. Raton
MATC’s Black History Display features some of The Milwaukee Courier’s front pages including the Obama Collectors Edition front page and various ‘Young, Gifted and Black Series’ articles by Taki Raton. (MATC Photo)
Multiple display cases lining the second floor “M” building featuring African world achievements, scheduled showings of the acclaimed film “Hidden Colors” 1 and 2, and a “Hidden Colors” panel discussion highlight planned features for Black History Month at the downtown campus of Milwaukee Area Technical College, 700 West State Street.
Sponsored by the President’s Diversity Council, the MATC Black Student Union, and the Office of Student Life, Hidden 1 will be shown Tuesday, February 26 and Wednesday the 27th from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and “Hidden” 2 is scheduled for Tuesday, February 26 and Wednesday, February 27 from 12 to 2:30 p.m. Both viewings are in MATC’s Stormer Hall, room T207 and are free and open to the public.
Held in the “T” Auditorium, the scheduled panel discussion on the “Hidden Colors” series is dated for Thursday, February 28 from 12 to 2 p.m. preceded by an earlier encore viewing of “Hidden Colors” from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Listing notable scholars, historians and social commentators, the “Hidden Colors” series reveals the real and untold history of Africans and their descendants throughout time around the globe and the reasons why the contributions of Africans, aboriginal peoples, and African Americans have been falsified and left out of the pages of history.
Themed “Exemplar Invention and Mastery of the African World – Presence, Accomplishment, Contribution,” the seven case “M” building second floor exhibit visually reflects many of the themes spoken to in “Hidden”.
Documenting humankind beginnings in Africa to present day African American benchmarks, the purpose of the corridor display is to demonstrate the exceptional and unbroken legacy of African and African American contributions on the world stage of time and achievement.
Opening with an enlarged photograph of Edward Bouchet, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in the United States having earned a doctorate in physics from Yale University in 1876, the cases flow through humankind beginnings, the global migration out of Africa thereby populating world regions, the achievements of Classical African Nile Valley Civilizations (Egypt/Kemet), the Golden Age of the Moors in Europe, and the unclaimed accomplishments of African Americans from the enslavement era to present day.
The display presentation concludes with select mounted opening clippings from the Milwaukee Courier “Young, Gifted & Black” series.
The exhibit is conceived, created and designed by African Global Images, Inc. and is presented at the downtown campus under the sponsorship of the President’s Diversity Council and the MATC Black Student Union.
For additional inquires on the “Hidden Colors” viewing or on the Black History Month installation, please contact Marvette Cox at (414) 297-8027.