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Written by Lawrence A Robinson

By Ersula Knox Odom
It is painful for African Americans when we realize we have been left out or written out of books and museums that tell the stories of the very communities we live and helped to build. We notice when we are not there. However, while we are waiting to be included, there is something anyone can do. We can collect tomorrow’s history today because it arrives every week in our local African American newspapers and/or magazines.
Try this – every time these publications report “a first”, clip and save it. A few years from now, your clipping becomes historic. Before you know it, you have documented a decade of black history. Frankly, I was surprised I found a couple of firsts in just a few minutes within the clippings I was processing. I learned from the Florida Sentinel Bulletinthat in June 2016, USF just graduated their first black salutatorian and first black woman to receive a Ph.D. in Applied Physics, Cristen Thomas and Jasmine A. Oliver, M.S., respectively.These articles are now a part of my “Local Firsts” collection.