Black History Family Feud educates about famous African Americans in history
The first African American to earn a doctorate degree at Harvard Univresity — W.E.B DuBois — and the African American poet, novelist and play write — Langston Hughes — were some of the answers in the Black History Family Feud game show event on Tuesday night.
The Organization for Black Unity teamed up with the National Society for Black Engineers to host Black History Family Feud on Feb. 23 in the Charles V. Park Library auditorium. Approximately 60 students participated by being in the audience or as part of a team. The event was streamed live on Periscope.
Like Family Feud hosted on national television, this event’s rules were very similar. Two “families” competed head to head, answering questions about famous African Americans in history.
Detroit sophomore Austin Reeves served as the host of the game-show event.
“Although it is called Organization for Black Unity, we want to have unity for the entire CMU community and bring everybody together,” said Reeves.
The event was meant to educate students about black history left out of school curriculum, he said.
Belleville freshman Jada McGinnis attended many Black History Month events throughout February and thought this one was very informative. She is a part of both NSBE and OBU and also competed in Black History Family Feud.
“I learned a lot that I didn’t know, especially being up there on stage," McGinnis said. "I would love to do something like this again."
Flint junior Kevin Wilson co-hosted with Reeves and has also been a part of OBU for some time.
“I have always like to show support to Torvison, the President of NSBE, by participating in the events,” Wilson said. He also hosted Black History Jeopardy last year for OBU and NSBE.
Some answers were not famous or popular. For example, the category “Name five famous African American Slaves” promptly presented answers such as: Fredrick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Solomon Northup, yet none of these names were on the board. The correct answers, though, consisted of: Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Anna Cooper, William Harvey Carney and Booker T. Washington.
