These past few days have been remarkably interesting to me. First off, I attended the first AAAHRP Inaugural conference. I was a little skeptical about it before going, but I must admit, that it was one very well structured, inspiring, and educational event. Its primary focus was black history, so it had a good amount of information on coal mining, misconceptions of black history, and my personal favorite, the Jim Crow era. The man who gave the presentation on the Jim Crow era used a good amount of material from the Jim Crow Museum located at Ferris State University. I never knew there was a museum for these types of things, and although it is always painful to look at such material, I’m glad that it is there to show what these images and artifacts are truly about.
Another interesting tidbit that I was unaware of was that King Country, which was originally named after former vice president William R. King by the Oregon Territory Legislature in 1852, was changed in 1986 to be named after Martin Luther King Jr. The saddest part about that is that I have lived near King County my entire life and never knew that the county was named after the great Martin Luther King. You would think since I went to high school in King County that this piece of information would have been taught during their annual Martin Luther King teachings (black history month). Unfortunately though, it wasn’t.
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