After 15 years of working with the African American Heritage Celebration Committee as the representative of Booth Library, Johnson Kuma has presented his last exhibits for Booth Library’s recognition of Black History Month.

Each year, the campus library has chosen a different theme according to events and ideas relevant to the current society, which Kuma makes into an exhibit.

“I solicit ideas from the members of the committee to see where we stand currently in society,” Kuma said.

Over the years Kuma, who is retiring at the end of the semester, has put together exhibits ranging in topics from the civil rights March on Washington, Brown v. the Board of Education and exhibits on desegregation.

“We cannot forget the sacrifices of all of these people,” Kuma said. “For me, I look at these developments and then select themes that define what is going on in society.”

This year’s theme exhibits the current presidential administration after President Obama took office in 2008.

“It’s a very historical moment for this country to elect a black person to be the president of the United States of America,” Kuma said. “I never dreamed it would happen in my lifetime or that of my children.”

A display called ‘The Dream Team’ can be seen in the north corridor of Booth Library.

“‘The Dream Team’ came about because of all those African Americans who, before Obama, were presidential candidates,” Kuma said. “I looked at the history and looked at a piece of each of those presidential candidates and that led to Obama becoming the first African American president.”

Opposite ‘The Dream Team’ display is an exhibit of Fredrick Douglass.

“(Douglass) was one of the greatest orators of all time,” Kuma said.

In the display are many highlights of Douglass’ life.

“He lived mostly during slavery, he suffered and fought to answer abolition and worked with John Brown,” Kuma said.

Reflecting the theme of the north corridor, the south corridor holds an exhibit of Kwame Nkrumah, the first black president of Ghana.

Nkrumah came to the United States in the 1940s and went to Lincoln University in Oxford, Pa.

He received his bachelor’s degree and his master’s degree and was working on his Ph.D. before he returned to Ghana to participate in the country’s independence movement.

“However, while Nkrumah was in the United States he saw racism at its worst; those were the days of segregation,” Kuma said.

Ghana became independent from colonial rule in 1957 and became the first sub-Saharan African country to receive its independence.

“This was just before the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., so there was some kind of link between Africa’s struggles for independence and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, one catapulted the other,” Kuma said.

Kuma said it is important for this information to be in the library for students to recognize.

“All of this is a part of academic work, we need to learn about history and issues that are going on and the changes going on in society to continue with forward progress,” Kuma said. “It is all part of the learning process.”

While Kuma appreciates the progress made within the minority populations of the United States and around the world, he is aware there are still issues that must be dealt with.

“We can celebrate that kind of forward progress, but still, we cannot forget that there are some negative feelings still around; hatred is still going on, the (Klu Klux Klan) is still alive and if you log onto a blog, hate speech is still rampant,” Kuma said. “We have to keep working.”

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942 or at kzyskowski@eiu.edu.