Several years ago Austin Peay State University in Clarksville Tennessee had become a hot bed for racial tension and issues. And like the rest of America some of these issues have yet to be resolved or dealt with.
Let’s go back if you will to 1957 and imagine being a black student on the campus of Austin Peay State University. Dr. Martin Luther King jr. had just completed the coursework for his doctorate 4 years ago and the civil rights movement was not yet in full swing. APSU like many other educational institutions in the south was still an all white college.
Wilbur N. Daniel changed all that when in 1957 he became the first black student to graduate from Austin Peay State University. Already a accomplish minister and distinguish graduate Wilbur Daniels when on to get his Doctor of Divinity and later to pastor several churches including Saint John’s Baptist Church here in Clarksville, TN.
His other civic affiliations include, President of the Chicago branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, vice president and president of the Police board of the city of Chicago, treasurer of the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, head of the Adult Department of the National Baptist Sunday School, BTU Congress, member of the Executive Board of the NAACP, board member of the Joint Negro Appeal, member of the board of the National Baptist Publishing, member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Dwelling Association, member of the Council of Religious Leaders of the Chicago Urban League, North Woodriver Baptist Distract Association and member of the Board of Directors of Citizens Bank Nashville, chairman of the Board of Highland community Bank Tennessee and several other organizations.
But by far one distinct honor stands above the rest for Dr. Wilbur N. Daniel’s as told to us by his sons and family members who were on hand at the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center held recently was the honor of having the APSU African American Cultural Center named after him in a ceremony which took place at the University in December 1992.
“It’s hard to convince a man that Jesus loves him if he sleeps in the streets and his belly is empty. You have to first address the man’s environmental concerns, he reminds us, and then present Jesus as the One who can save his soul.” -Dr. Wilbur Nathan Daniel
With the Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center in full swing and the increasing number of minority enroll raising at APSU the center needed a director. APSU Political Science Professor at the time Doctor A.J. Stovall was chosen as its first director.
With the author of “Roots,” Alex Haley, speaking as part of opening ceremonies in 1991 Dr. A.J. Stovall help to usher in a new level of political and social conciseness of the African American struggle and contributions to the culture and heritage of these United Sates of America.
Up until now the white population of APSU had gotten their image of black people in America from the media which often times portray blacks as thugs or someone that was coming to rob you or your home.
With the doors of APSU Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center open everyone that entered its doors whether black, white etc, now had a chance to learn that African Americans are indeed descendants of slaves who were taken by force to the Americas and after 400 years of force labor without pay have today become major contributors to the grown of this nation.
In 1991 as well as today the APSU Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center severs as a model for cultural centers and campuses across the U.S. and the rest of the nation. Its 1989 Student Manifesto and purpose sent to the University President at that time is as relent today as it was then and that is to:
- Provide that Historical origin was rooted in race
- Race is what created the Black Culture Center
Since Tim Hall section in 2007 as APSU President, a better relationship and more diverse understanding of the various cultures at APSU has become the norm for faculity and students. As of late the horizon looks bright for APSU and Minority relations.
HISTORICAL Origin and Role of Black Culture Centers and/or The Black House
- An oasis or a refuge for Black Students
- Means to deal with an alien culture
- Seek an understanding of Black Culture and history and life
- Discuss current issues
- Plan means of surviving academically and socially in the hostile environment
- Meet and relax
APSU 1989 Students’ Manifesto
- Atmosphere for exchange of knowledge of African American Culture
- Serve as a resource learning center for campus community
- Improve African student’s self-esteem and educate campus community from an Afrocentric view
- Protect and promote African American’s culture at APSU
- Provide for special cultural, artistic, issue oriented speakers, and programs
- Provide programs for educational development and cultural enrichment
- Enlighten students and Clarksville area community of political issues in relation to ethnic concerns
- Improve the projected image of the university nation-wide
Several months after the grand opening of the center APSU students held a sit-in protest on the campus grounds demanding more funding for the center and after several days of protest and national media coverage an agreement was reached between the university and the students.
But the students nor the movement for change at APSU did not stop there in the early to mid 1980s under the direction of Dr. James Mock, Professor of Political Science and African Centered courses served as the conscience raising agent. Students started a push for African American Programming, appeal for Black History/Studies courses, started African Love Festival at Baptist Student Union, asked for a Vice President of Minority Affairs.
With 90% of the courses concentrating on white history the students also asked for the following academic activities and functions where students could even receive college credits for:
a. African American Study Minor
Introduction to African American Studies
Black Political Thought and Movement
African American History (Africa to 1990s)
African American Experience via Film
b. Study Aboard in African Program
c. African American Student Leadership Conference
e. Study Center and Study Groups
f. Senior Awards Dinner Ceremony
. Purveyor of African Classical music
g. Repository of Black Art and provide a permanent space for the display of students’ Art
h. Resource for university to learn and observe African American Culture
All of the students demands where granted by the university and then president Oscar Page.
Dr. A.J. Stovall serving as director of the center continued to guild the students and continually reminded them of their community responsibilities and the path from which they cometh from and why African American Cultural Centers are valuable even in today’s society.
Dr. A.J. Stovall currently serves as the Chair of the Division of Social Science & Professor at Rust College, Holly Springs, Mississippi and the founder/director & Coordinator of The National African American Student Leadership Conference.
Through his worldwide travels and internationally know presentations and published books he never forgets to remind audiences worldwide that African American Cultural Centers/Black Culture Centers are not toxic as reported by so call experts.
In his closing remarks at the APSU 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center before a stellar crowd at the Clement Auditorium on the campus of APSU Dr. Stovall stressed that America has no problem celebrating or displaying, Hispanic Americans, Italian Americans, German Americans, or Irish Americans, history etc. But continues to have a problem when blacks proclaim they need to celebrate and recognizes African American History or call themselves African Americans.
American Universities and their history books and curricula are have begun to acknowledge their collection of original documents and records that reveal that for 400 years slave ships sailed to the Americas from Africa and where not just taking slaves from Africa but kidnapping African people, man, women and children then selling them to slavery!
Once this is finally acknowledged then maybe we all will finally be able to move forward and American society won’t be as uncomfortable with discussing its ugly past or recognizing more less saying the words. African American history!
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