Loyola Hosts Black History Month Reception with Speaker Marc Lamont Hill

Loyola hosted a Black History Month Reception Feb. 13 in the Damen Multipurpose Room, featuring keynote speaker Marc Lamont Hill — a Black journalist, activist and scholar — to speak on the importance of Black History Month and the Black experience in America. 

The event was hosted by the Division of Student Development in collaboration with the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It began with a poetry reading by third-year Taylor Shields on what it means to be Black and a speech given by fourth-year Emily Harvey on finding community. 

Lamont Hill said people often celebrate Black History Month by recognizing the accomplishments of well-known Black activists like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

Although this aspect is important, Lamont Hill said it’s also vital people recognize the contributions of those who have been forgotten.

“It’s not enough to just add Black names and faces to a white conversation,” Lamont Hill said. “Black History Month is an opportunity — one to pull out from the rubble of history names and faces that got excluded and omitted. There are so many Black folks, so many Black voices, so many Black bodies that have been part of the struggle to a freedom that have never gotten acknowledged.”

Lamont Hill said he believes in the power of “radical imagination” — thinking creatively without limitations — as a way of creating a new world. He said it isn’t enough to try and fix the current system, but rather, people should uproot society entirely and start from scratch to build the world they want to see. 

For Lamont Hill, no imagined world is too far out of reach. During his speech, he described a world where prisons are abolished and the patriarchy dismantled. 

“We were enslaved for hundreds of years,” Lamont Hill said. “There was no reason to believe that this world could be any different than it was, and yet, our great-great-great-grandmamas and grandmamas and great-grandmamas imagined the world as otherwise. They believed in a world they may not see, but that their children or their children’s children would live to see. That’s radical imagination.” 

Chief Diversity Officer Dominique Jordan Turner emphasized to students at the end of the event the university remains committed to creating an inclusive and welcoming space for all, because those ideals lie at the core of the Jesuit values the school holds. 

Lamont Hill also said he believes religious teachings support radical change.

Lamont Hill said one of the most important parts of the Black community is their willingness — both now and historically — to include everyone in the journey toward liberation. 

“We offered America a vision of radical freedom and democracy and love that it had never seen before,” Lamont Hill said. “Lift every voice — not rich voices, not middle class voices, not cisgendered voices, not straight voices, not Christian voices, not East Coast voices — every voice. That’s the historical lesson.”

Shields, a criminal justice and criminology major and founder of The Noire Collective — an organization started in January to help empower and organize the Black community — said it’s important for people to have access to information about inequality regardless of their proximity to education. 

“Too often people go to college and get an interest in higher education to learn about the inequalities that they are facing and then they get stuck in academic jargon,” Shields said. “There’s this ego that comes with being intelligent. I feel like people get so smart, so educated, they collect so much knowledge that they become so far removed from the very community they started for.”

Shields said she hopes to act as a bridge between community and academia to ensure groups facing inequality are aware of what’s happening and what they can do to make change using the resources they have available. 

Lamont Hill encouraged students in attendance to join organizations which align with their values and are engaged in work they care about. 

“Find an organization that fits your values, that fits your vision of the world and join them for the purpose of leaving the world better than you found it,” Lamont Hill said.

Harvey, a biology major on the premed track and the president of Black Cultural Center, said Lamont Hill’s speech opened her eyes to new perspectives and reminded her of the importance of exploring and learning about different aspects of Black history.

Lamont Hill said this collaborative work towards liberation is how historical change is made.

“The myth of history is that it is advanced through singular figures,” Lamont Hill said. “It is a hero who comes and saves the dead. The truth is for every singular figure there are hundreds of thousands of people whose names never get written down, whose photos never get taken, who never get the trophies or the honors or the microphones but they are the ones who do the work of liberation.”

Shields similarly said every motion toward equality is important, no matter how small. 

“Remember, you radicalize one person, you save one person, you save the world,” Shields said.

Shields said she’s critical of the university’s attempts to create an inclusive space for Black students on campus, and often feels although they’re grouped in with other minority groups at Loyola, they’re not treated the same.

Although she said the university is making an effort, she said they fall short of what students are asking them for. 

“Black people don’t feel represented here,” Shields said. “We feel like there’s minorities and then there’s Black people.”

The Black Cultural Center, which is a student-run organization founded in 1977 to strengthen the Black community at Loyola, has been moved to various locations throughout their history and currently has no designated space, according to Harvey.

“I felt like I didn’t have a safe space anymore,” Harvey said. “I said in my speech multiple times — BCC has been a home away from home. You could be an out of state student, your parents could live in the suburbs, sometimes you can’t always go home. To have that space, it was literally a home away from home. I felt like I had cousins there, brothers, sisters, it was a family. And we got our childhood home taken away. It was like we got foreclosed on, it was crazy.”

Shields said this is one of the ways administration has contributed to Black students not feeling included at the university. 

“It feels like the Great Migration, if I had to use an analogy,” Shields said. “Constantly moving to a new place to feel comfortable, to feel accepted. We just feel underrepresented here, we feel underappreciated. While the university is making progress, they could do more, and I feel like they should.”

Astrid Beltran, assistant vice president for diversity and student engagement in the Division of Student Development reaffirmed the university’s commitment to inclusivity of Black students in an email statement to The Phoenix. 

Beltran said the university is always looking for new ways to connect and support Black students. 

“Loyola remains dedicated in supporting Black students through strategic initiatives and expanded programming,” a Loyola spokesperson wrote. “We’ve developed robust support systems and engagement opportunities across campus, working closely with student organizations to ensure resources are accessible through established processes within SGLC and Center for Student Engagement.”

Shields said she wishes the university would reach out to students more to hear their concerns around inclusivity on campus. She said she often hears from students who end up transferring because of the administration. 

Beltran said students should feel welcome to reach out to their office directly with concerns so they can be addressed individually.

Harvey said although there’s room for improvement, she thinks campus events are important to the representation of the Black community. 

“There are so many Black people on this campus, and when you throw events like this and everyone comes together you get to see other people that look like you,” Harvey said. “Sometimes, that’s all you need to continue.”

Harvey said she thinks its important to note although the university’s efforts aren’t perfect, it is clear they are trying, which is the best place to start.

Lamont Hill said willingness to learn is the most important aspect of growth.

“Being willing to listen and hear and engage ideas that can make some folk uncomfortable is part of the journey toward growth and its part of the journey toward human liberation,” Lamont Hill said. “We wrestle with ideas and we struggle together, and we think together, and we organize together, and we build together and at some point, we can imagine worlds that are not yet.”

Shields said one of the most powerful things a person can do in fighting inequality is to be unapologetically themselves. 

“Everyday that you learn, everyday that you move forward and do something is a revolutionary act,” Shields said. “Everyday that you get up and you choose to be proud of your identity and to learn another thing.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled keynote speaker Marc Lamont Hill’s name. The article was updated February, 20, 2025 to reflect the correct spelling.