By Julie Sowell

Dr. Mary Young, director of Berea's Black Cultural Studies program, is pleased that interest in her Black Studies courses has been high, attracting about equal number of African American and white students. There was a waiting list for her short-term course "Modern Medea", about slave woman Margarret Garrett, the real life character on which novelist Toni Morrison's Beloved is based.

Since she became director of Berea’s Black Studies program, Dr. Mary Young has been working in conjunction with the Black Studies Advisory Committee to strengthen Black Studies and to develop campus-wide programs that promote cross-cultural awareness and understanding.

Overall, Young says, her goals for Black Studies at Berea are simple.

"First, I want students to learn something new," she says. "I also want to make them aware of different kinds of racial and cultural stereotypes—many of which they probably use unconsciously—and then get rid of them."

Courses in Black Studies were first offered at Berea, as they were at many U.S. colleges and universities across the nation, during the 1960’s. In November of 1967, 18 African American students presented the administrators of Berea College with a petition which stated "We, the Black Students of Berea College, are in support of the initiation of a Negro History course in the academic curriculum on this campus."

The following fall, Negro History was taught by history professor Dr. Richard Drake. It was the first course at Berea focused on the unique experiences and perspectives of people of African descent.

Since that time, a variety of Black Studies courses have been offered which satisfy the Black or World Culture requirement that every Berea student must complete to graduate, and a minor in Black Studies has been an option for several years. Currently, courses offered in several academic departments count toward the minor, including art, history, music, sociology, English and general studies, along with those designated as Black Studies courses.

Dr. Richard Drake taught at Berea from 1956-1992, and taught the first Black History course at the College. His new book, A History of Appalachia, is being published by the University of Kentucky Press.

With Young’s appointment in fall 1999 as the first full-time director, Black Studies reached another milestone. "Berea integrated in the 19th century, so it seems to me that Black Studies should always be a part of Berea because of its unique history," says Young.

An associate professor of Black Studies and literature, as well as the program’s director, Young brings a wealth of multi-cultural, international and language experience to the program, with expertise in literature and history of African American and Asian American women, African American and Asian American literature and detective fiction. Before coming to Berea, she was a tenured associate professor of Black Studies and English at The College of Wooster in Indiana.

She earned her masters degree in Bi-cultural/Bi-lingual Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and an M.A. in Spanish and a Ph.D. in American Studies from St. Louis University.

Beyond teaching courses and improving resources in Black Studies, Young said her more far-reaching aims are to help faculty incorporate black themes and resources into their courses and for those already doing so, to discover new materials.

"I’d like to move away from the old standards and expand what we are teaching," Young said. Some authors Young would like to see more widely taught are Ann Petry, Octavia Butler and Jean Toomer.

During Black History Month Young has arranged a showing of four films by black director Oscar Michaux. "Some students may think the first black film director was Spike Lee, but blacks have been making films since the 1920s" says Young. "This is a simple way of making black history accessible."

Young also advises students minoring in Black Studies and students like December ’00 graduate Jacqueline Muhammad Barham, who designed her independent Black Studies major. A chance encounter with a customer at Boone Tavern, where she worked as a waitress during her freshman year in Berea’s work program, sparked Muhammad Barham’s interest in history and led her into Black Studies.

"A woman who knew a lot about the College asked me to explain the Day Law to her daughter, and I didn’t know anything about it," she says. "As she told us both about it, I felt bad about not knowing that part of Berea’s history. If I could thank her today, I would, because that’s when I began to take an interest in history."

Jacqueline Muhammad Barham, '01, designed her own independent Black Studies major through the Black Studies program.

After graduating from the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham in 1991, Muhammad Barham enrolled at Berea. She ran into academic difficulties initially but was determined to do whatever it took to succeed. She worked for three years in the College’s campus activities office, taking up to three College courses a term to earn credits and raise her GPA.

"I kept taking courses," she says. "I didn’t want to preach to my children to get their education and not have my own."

Now 28 years old, married, and the mother of two young children, Muhammad Barham is especially interested in teaching Black History and the value of multi-culturalism to both students and teachers.

"I’d like to teach children and teachers how to respect and protect cultures—theirs and others," she says. "I’m very proud to say I’m a Berea College graduate. John G. Fee wasn’t just trying to help black people—he really saw everybody as just a human being. I want to have that same focus. I really want to say I don’t see color."