Raleigh Hightower
Lifestyle Editor
[email protected]

A periodic table is on display outside the Murray State History Department.

But it doesn’t display elements.

Rather, it displays history:  this periodic table recognizes several categories of influential African-Americans, outside of the famous civil rights era activists.

The project, on display outside the history department offices in Faculty Hall on the building’s sixth floor, commemorates Black History Month.

The table includes musicians, politicians, scientists, authors, artists, athletes, actors and actresses, entrepreneurs and activists. It also includes a column of “famous firsts,” such as Thurgood Marshall, first Black Supreme Court justice, and Robert Louis Johnson, the first person to found a cable network to focus on African Americans.

Junior public relations major and project creator, Scottlynn Ballard, says she was inspired by a Black history periodic table in the Lakeland Library in Lakeland, Florida.

“The variety of names on the table represents the variety of Black history itself,” Ballard said. “I hope when students see the names, they see themselves. Even if they aren’t a history major, I want them to see someone who resonates with them.”

On the sides of the periodic table are other individuals in the “spotlight.” One such individual is Hopkinsville, Kentucky, native Gloria Jean Watkins,
professionally known as bell hooks.

hooks is the author of “Ain’t I a Woman?,” a book examining the effects of racism and sexism on Black women throughout time. According to the description on debate.org, hooks examines how the patriarchy and slavery once placed Black women in the lowest social class in American society.

“Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power, not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist,” hooks said.

Another individual featured is entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker, or Sarah Breedlove. Walker is documented in the “Guiness Book of World Records” as the first self-made female millionaire.

Walker made her fortune by selling cosmetics and hair products for Black women. Before starting her business in 1906, Walker made less than $1 a day as a laundress.

According to the official website of the state of Indiana, at the 1917 Madam C. J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America convention Walker said, “This is the greatest country under the sun, but we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty, cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice.”

One of the goals of this project was to illustrate how Black history encompasses more figures than people might initially imagine. This is why the periodic table features people ranging from LeBron James to Morgan Freeman.

“It’s important to know that there’s more to history than just the major names we know,” Ballard said. “They were actual people with different careers and impacts in their industries. History at its best reflects those differences.”

To learn more about the project you can view the history department’s Instagram page, @murraystatehistory.

The history department will also be exploring Black History with a panel discussion titled “Segregation in Recreation.” The discussion, organized by the Office of Multicultural Initiatives will feature Associate Professor of History Brian Clardy.

The discussion will be hosted on Friday, Feb. 25, in the Curris Center Theater at 9:50 a.m. To register to attend, follow the link in the bio of the history department’s Instagram page.