Annual Black History Month lecture given

On Tuesday, CSB+SJU invited Christopher P. Lehman, professor of Ethnic Studies at St. Cloud State University, to speak at the University’s annual keynote celebrating Black History Month.

The keynote took place in Upper Gorecki from 6 to 8:30 p.m., with a community social hour at 5:30 p.m.; the event was sponsored by Multicultural Student Services and the CSB+SJU History Department.

Lehman, the inaugural recipient of the Ruth Riester Award for Historical Contributions to the Humanities and winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Nonfiction in 2020, spoke about his latest book released in 2024: “It Took Courage: Eliza Winston’s Quest for Freedom.” The biography explored Eliza’s connection to Minnesota’s history and her trial’s connection to the state’s history of enslavement laws.

“It made Minnesota more accountable of their anti-slavery laws,” Lehman said.

Eliza’s story shows the reach slavery had on the Free States. She was first enslaved in Tennessee at age five, then sold to another family in Mississippi and in 1860, her enslaver took her on the family’s vacation to St. Anthony Falls in Minnesota. Though Minnesota was a Free State, Minnesotans saw the relationship between an enslaved person and their enslaver as a private affair. As such, many southern slave holders would spend summer vacations in the North, bringing enslaved people with them, and lake-side business owners benefited from the tourism.

This lack of accountability by Minnesotans on southern slaveholders trails back to the construction of Fort Snelling in the 1820s, when Minnesota was still a territory, and army officers at Snelling were exempt from the Missouri Compromise, allowing them to bring along their enslaved people from the South. Additionally, during Minnesota’s years as a territory until 1858, its governors were chosen by proslavery presidents.

Eliza, while in Minnesota, was connected to abolitionists in the area. Appealing to a Minnesotan judge through a writ of habeas corpus, she was granted her freedom. Outside the courthouse mobs had formed, but they were not southerners.

“The people who were doing the rioting were Minnesotans,” Lehman said.

Nevertheless, Eliza was a freed person, and a few months later she moved to Detroit, Michigan.

Lehman’s keynote addressed that Black History is American History, and more specifically Minnesota’s history moving into the present day. The students, faculty and staff who were there listened and responded to Lehman’s dialogue.

“I think it’s important for our campus to support this and show that we do support DEI,” CSB Senior Rachel Erben said.

The event also placed emphasis on community discussion and educational connection between universities around CSB+SJU.

“I like to see our campuses work together,” CSB student Cecilia McNair said. “I think we can do a lot together.”