{"id":11512,"date":"2023-02-13T08:24:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T13:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=11512"},"modified":"2023-02-10T11:02:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T16:02:49","slug":"the-home-we-had-been-looking-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2023\/02\/13\/the-home-we-had-been-looking-for\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Home We Had Been Looking For\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For more than 40 years, the Harlem Renaissance Center (HRC) has been a vital source of inclusivity, learning, and growth on campus. Founded in November 1989 by Erick Bowen \u201984 and Kenneth Frazier \u201985, the HRC was born from the desire for a space where students of color, specifically Black students, could feel at home on Colgate\u2019s predominately white campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour dining table and where you lay your head are very intimate spaces,\u201d Bowen says. \u201cOur hope was to create a space for ourselves and for people like us at Colgate, where we could feel safe, grow our confidence, and be unapologetically Black in the way that we interacted with one another. The HRC became the home we had been looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, just 20 Black and 15 white students expressed interest in living in the HRC, but interest in the center grew. Today, nearly 50 students live in the residence hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its first few years on campus, the center sparked debate regarding its purpose. While the HRC\u2019s intended goals were to increase awareness of Black culture and interactions between the Black community and the rest of campus, HRC and Maroon-News<\/em> records from the time state that some members of the Colgate community feared the center would become a separatist organization. However, those fears soon proved to be unfounded, as rather than serving to segregate Black students from their white peers, the HRC became the only residence hall on Colgate\u2019s campus to have a roughly even ratio of Black and white students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the decades that followed, the HRC has not only been instrumental to the experiences of countless students but also the culture of Colgate as a whole. \u201cFrom its inception, the Harlem Renaissance Center has played a key role in promoting self-discovery, learning, and leadership in its residents and creating a rich, intellectual, and social atmosphere where students can find comfort,\u201d says Rahneke Worrell \u201925. \u201cFor me and other HRC residents, the center continues to be instrumental to both our Colgate experience and personal development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the HRC now primarily functions as a living-learning community, the space had various purposes throughout the years, serving as a meeting place for clubs like the Black Student Union, housing for an African diaspora\u2013focused Sophomore Residential Seminar, and even transforming into a museum of African American history at one point. Currently, members also plan activities for other groups on campus and facilitate discussions with other dormitories on the topics of race, politics, and social activism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n