Vassar celebrates Black History through a variety of events and activities, while also highlighting the accomplishments of its students, faculty, and alums.
Professor Mia Mask’s critically acclaimed book, Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western, examined the evolution of Black westerns from the 1950s to the present. Now the film professor brings a 15-film series focused on the genre to the British Film Institute.
As part of Vassar’s Inclusive History Initiative, students in a Vassar Intensive presented research relating to the Rev. Howard Thurman, a religious and civil rights leader who gave more than a dozen sermons at the College between 1928 and 1957.
Food can say a lot-not just about our tastes, but about our families, our ancestors, our histories. Vassar students will learn more about the importance of the link between food and history during a Black History Month two-day program at Gordon Commons that centers around the Netflix series High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America.
Workshops on “Undoing Racism” spawned the formation of AREJ (Anti-Racism, Equity and Justice), an organization that spurs dialog on race on the campus and in the surrounding community.
In conjunction with a Poughkeepsie nonprofit, Vassar faculty, administrators, and students are helping to shed light on the contributions of enslaved Africans and their descendants to the growth and prosperity of the Hudson Valley.
The story of race at Vassar is long and abundant. For decades, black men and women have played increasingly important roles at Vassar, and as we celebrate Black History Month, we are highlighting the achievements of some of those students, faculty and alums.
