Black History Month Special: Oberlin’s Celebrated, But Difficult History: After nearly a decade of reviewing hundreds of sources, including slips of paper tallying Oberlin College’s historic vote to admit students 'irrespective of color' photographs of young Black students like Johnnetta (Betsch) Cole and luminaries like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr striding across campus to deliver the 1965 commencement address, Dr.Roland M. Baumann delivers a story worth telling in Constructing Black Education at Oberlin College: A Documentary History.In his new book, the Oberlin emeritus archivist and professor of history painstakingly unravels clues of how the college faced the challenges of establishing a racially and culturally diverse institution from 1835 up to 2007.
