More than five decades ago, one of the first Black History Month celebrations was held at Kent State University.
It was filled with special programs that focused on educating participants about African American culture. The February 1970 events led with the opening of a Black Culture Center and included lectures from Babatunde Olatunji, a Nigerian drummer and founder of the first Center of African Culture in the U.S., and Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize.
Kent State was among institutions such as Rhodes College and University of the Pacific that celebrated Black history for a full month, said Dr. Daryl Michael Scott, historian at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and a U.S. history professor at Morgan State University…