Gavilan College commemorates Black History Month
by on Feb 11, 2019
Dr. Cheers description of the SJSU exhibit.
Photojournalism students of SJSU Professor Michael Cheers accompanied him to the American South amid a week long history tour, walking in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s former neighborhoods. They photographed people and locations to honor the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination. The students’ work was exhibited in 2018 at the Martin Luther King library shared by the City of San Jose and San Jose State University.
Jacquelyn Richburg, Coordinator of the Career Transfer Center, was instrumental in bringing the exhibition to Gavilan College.
“I visited the exhibit at SJSU after the opening,” said Richburg. “It was quite moving and brought back a lot of memories.” She reached out to Cheers to request a loan of the materials for Gavilan to use in commemoration of Black History Month this year.
The exhibit is an opportunity for Gavilan students to see the places Dr. King walked.
In the Library Study Room 9:30 AM on February 27, Dr. Cheers will speak about the students' journey to civil rights landmarks in the South. Additional Black History Month activities are planned on the Gilroy campus through the month of February.
One SJSU photojournalism student combined historic and recent images into a civil rights collage.