 "Photo: Chi Brown/Echo staff photographer")
Last week N.C. Central University opened its arms and welcomed visitor and guest speaker Khalil Muhammad, the incoming director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
The Schomburg is a part of the New York City Public Library and is responsible for over 10 million documents and artifacts of black culture.
Its namesake is Puerto Rican historian and activist Arthur Schomburg who collected African American artifacts.
Muhammad, a native of Chicago and a self-proclaimed Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder fan, is the great -grandson of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad and the son of Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Ozier Muhammad.
Muhammad was invited to campus as a guest speaker by a commission formed to enhance intellectual climate at NCCU.
"I am here to participate an effort to enhance the intellectual climate of the campus," said Muhammad."
Chancellor Nelms and the commission have worked to invite speakers and scholars to engage all levels of the University, from undergraduates, graduate students to administrators,"
While here, Muhammad spoke with professors and students about his book, "The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making of Modern Urban America."
"I think we should have guest speakers more often, not just on Founders day, convocation, lyceums, and graduation," said Briana Yarber criminal justice senior.
Although he is not an alumnus of a historically black college or university Muhammad said they are still very important.
"HBCU's serve a particular need for African Americans who want to have access to scholarship that privileges the black experience," he said.
The Schomburg can help many HBCUs like NCCU promote its own collections. Muhammad said he plans to digitize the primary documents of the Schomburg center to make them available on the Internet to those are not able to come to the center physically.
"My primary responsibilities are to tend to the scholarly infrastructure of the institution by making sure the collections that we have are accessible to as many as possible," he said.
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