Dozens of students, faculty and staff walked the Lafayette College campus on Sunday in a Martin Luther King Jr. event that highlighted Black history and culture at the college.
Organized by the Association of Black Collegians and the college archives, it was the second year for the event and part of a larger month-long Black History Month celebration.
“I want to go around campus and really talk about the Black history that lies within our campus,” said Association of Black Collegians historian Paris Francis ‘26 before beginning the tour. “I feel like that really isn’t advertised enough.”
Francis, who co-founded the event last year, led the group to stops focused on historical figures and events that helped shape Black culture and community at Lafayette.
Among these was the Black Manifesto, a document presented in 1969 outlining five demands to enhance the quality of life and learning on campus. This document led to the establishment of the Portlock Black Cultural Center, formerly the Malcolm X Liberation Center, which for 55 years has been a base for Black cultural events on campus.
The building was most recently relocated to its current McCartney Street home in 2022.
“I feel like it’s really important that we continue having events like these to represent these communities,” said attendee Lilah Hassan ‘29.
Francis said she hoped to see similar events held throughout the year, “not just during Black History Month.”
“To me, Black History Month is a time to commemorate all of our ancestors, everyone that came before us,” said Skyler Chouloute ‘28, the president of the Association of Black Collegians.
“You can just kind of soak up every bit of Black history right here,” she said of the event.
Adja Campbell ‘29 said that the event allowed her to “speak about my ancestry.” She highlighted that her grandparents and earlier generations in Jamaica dealt with the aftermath of slavery.
The tour concluded with a presentation and viewing of books, poems, plays and art from the college and association archives.
“I want our students to know that there is power in these words and there’s power in these books, and that we are here as a library to support that,” said college archivist Ana Ramirez Luhrs, who selected the pieces for viewing.