UTM students, alum petition for class requirement in African American history, culture

MARTIN, Tenn. — University of Tennessee at Martin students and alumni are campaigning for a university class requirement in African American history and culture.

The UTM Black Student Association, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and the Black History Matters coalition all sponsored a forum Monday evening on the necessity of the class.

Those who joined the forum on Zoom discussed why they believe it’s not a wanted course, but a needed one.

They expressed education as the first step in giving society an understanding of black history and culture.

“When you allow people to be ignorant their whole lives you just create more problems in the world and you can easily solve these problems by educating people about our race issues especially in college because you’re signing up for an education,” said Devin Majors, a panelist.

“I feel like this education makes an impact. There’s classes I took in all kinds of different stuff that I didn’t know about and once I knew about it, I became passionate about it,” said Hailey Williford, another panelist. “I think once they were educated, a lot of racist people wouldn’t be racist anymore.”

The university’s Faculty Senate Executive committee votes Tuesday on a resolution.