UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Director of Administrative and Operational Support Tracy Walker stood before the crowd and said a single word in the Ghanian Twi language: “Ago!” (“Listen!”)
On her prompting, the crowd responded “Amé!” (“We are listening!”)
With that promise, a difficult, important conversation began.
On Tuesday, PME hosted “Freedom’s Echoes: An Immersive Juneteenth Celebration.” In the daylong event, a series of interactive displays shared aspects of African-American history and culture on PME’s campus. The day culminated in a frank conversation about race and equity, and the parts both Black and non-Black Americans have to play.
“Once we listen, we can have the conversation. Once we have the conversation, then we can act,” said keynote speaker Dr. L. David Stewart.
The event, PME’s first Juneteenth celebration, was hosted by the PME Administrative and Operational Team, PME Committee on Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion and the National Society of Black Engineers at UChicago and sponsored by the Office of the Provost Diversity and Inclusion.
Interactive history
Throughout the day, PME students, faculty and staff enjoyed a series of interactive displays in the lobby of the Eckhardt Research Center.
Rather than just informational signs, the displays challenged participants to get involved. People practiced braiding rice in cornrows to reflect enslaved women sneaking food along their journeys, read replica newspapers announcing Brown v. the Board of Education, charted the triangular path of the Transatlantic Slave Trade using maps and string, making and handling traditional African beadwork and other ways to learn while experiencing.
“If you want to be seen, you have to see others,” said PME Events Administrator Ira Staples. “This is the perfect opportunity to really understand what Juneteenth means, why we do the things that we do, why we eat the things that we eat. There’s a historical reference to it.”
Juneteenth, a federal holiday held every June 19, celebrates the day word reached Texas that slavery had been abolished in the United States. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, and Congress passed the 13th Amendment on Jan. 31, 1865, but it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, that word reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.
“I hope it serves as a time of pride and affirmation of our heritage and identity,” Walker said. “Juneteenth represents a significant moment of liberation and freedom, and celebrating this day within the PME community can reinforce a sense of cultural pride and belonging.”
PME PhD candidate Katrina Sparks said she found the display on code-switching and what W.E.B. DuBois called “double-consciousness” particularly impactful.
“It's something that is really pervasive in a way that isn't as overt as other forms of oppression that we see,” she said.
Having the conversation
The day culminated in a conversation with Walker, Stewart and assembled PME students, staff and faculty. The talk about race and American history was deliberately designed to be a conversation, not a lecture.
“People get more from an interactive event than they do from just a lecture, in my experience,” said PME PhD student Susan Okrah, the president of the UChicago chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. “We have a limited bandwidth, and if we're forced to interact, it makes us have to listen.”
The purpose of the event, Walker said, was not to provide answers, but to push attendees to search for those answers themselves.
“Ask the questions. Have the conversations. That is what we want you to do,” she told the crowd.
PME PhD candidate Paola Gonzalez said the day’s events left attendees more informed and inspired about equity issues.
“It sparked the conversation,” Gonzalez said. “I’m not African American, but I think it's important to just know more and be able to share that information.”