Commentary: Seeing History - Students Against Mass Incarceration at Howard: As a historian, it is brings me joy to see through the window of the past and report to our world what I observe.
Yet, if looking back at history brings me joy, then seeing people make history in the present leaves me spell-bound. I not only take pride in developing my intellectual and methodological ability to view and reveal the past, and use the lessons of the past to examine the present and shape the future. I take pride in developing my intellectual and methodological ability to see through the atmosphere of the present to identify when someone is making history, when something is historic, or even could become historic.
As a historian of Black student activism, I am seeing history, witnessing something historic taking place at Howard University. In February 2011, a group of students organized Students Against Mass Incarceration, which they call SAMI for short with the “I” pronounced “E” and “SAM” pronounced like the prominent name.
