Spring Break
Born on December 25th in 1959, Michael P. Anderson, was a Lieutenant Colonel with the United States Air Force (USAF) and NASA Astronaut that sadly died in the Columbia tragedy. Anderson began his career as the Chief of Communication Maintenance at Randolph AFB, Texas after graduating from the University of Washington in 1981.
As I write this article in celebration of Black History Month, it is difficult to share my thoughts about something that is at once personal, controversial, and political. In my fourth semester at HBS, I know that any one of these three topics makes for questionable conversation.
In a Harbus article printed September 19, 1968, Leroy Willis, one of the "Founding Five" African American students who established AASU, enumerated several reasons that such an organization was needed. Recruiting and retaining black students and increasing the relevance of the curriculum to help address societal problems were top priorities, but he states that "the basic reason that AASU came into being was the real need for black students to have a forum for exploring and discussing issues that are of special concern to us because of our unique position.
Black History Month is regarded as a time of reflection. A time to appreciate the contributions of African-Americans who believed in individual sacrifice for the benefit of the community. African-Americans who understood that sometimes you must forfeit personal gain for broad advancement.
People of African descent have a long history in America, arriving on her shores even before the Mayflower. Though over the next 250 years most African Americans were enslaved, a sizeable number were free and were able to achieve the American dream of entrepreneurial success.
This article is the second of four pieces detailing the history of African-Americans at HBS for Black History Month, and is co-sponsored by the African American Student Union (AASU) and the Baker Library Historical Collection. The years following World War II marked a dramatic transition in the US, especially in terms of race relations.
