Alumni are invited to a Black History of Ohio University Tour on Friday, Sept. 16, during the Black Alumni Reunion. The tour starts at 3:30 p.m. at the Alumni Gate at the corner of Court and Union streets on the College Green.

The Black experience in Athens began over 200 years ago. Ohio University history students will provide some windows into it from early settlers and Ohio University’s first Black students to ongoing efforts at recognition and anti-racism, with many stops in between.

This 30-to-45-minute tour will take participants around the college green, providing an overview of important ways that Black residents, students, educators, and organizations have confronted systemic challenges and contributed much to the campus and broader area.

The tour was developed by Ohio University history students and is co-sponsored by the Central Region Humanities Center and History Department .

For more information, contact Brian Schoen , associate professor, history chair, and the James Richard Hamilton/Baker and Hostetler Professor of the Charles J. Ping Institute for Teaching of the Humanities .

More Opportunities to Experience Local Black History

Visit the Claiming an Education: Early Black Humanists exhibit at Richland Avenue Park across from the OU Inn. The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Charles J. Ping Institute for the Teaching of the Humanities, the Athens County Public Libraries, and the Athens Department of Arts, Parks and Recreation, with funding from Ohio Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Take the self-guided mAppAthens, Black History of Athens Tour , developed by the Southeast Ohio History Center and OHIO Museum Complex.

Watch the keynote address from the recent Black Life in the Ohio Valley Conference , hosted by the Central Region Humanities Center.