By Stacy Perlman

Fifty-two Northeastern students explored two tragic eras in history, which resulted in an emotional weekend of tears and anger and an eager attempt to understand the brutalities of humankind.

On Feb. 20, students left for a Council for University Programs (CUP) and Resident Student Association (RSA) sponsored trip to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. to visit the Great Blacks in Wax Museum and the Holocaust Museum.

The first stop was the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore. Many students were disturbed by the shocking scenes that were displayed in the museum’s replica of a slave ship and of a graphic lynching exhibit. As students entered the dim compartments of the slave ship, voices in the background whispered through speakers the word, “remember,” which is the museum’s main emphasis throughout the tour.

The lynching exhibit received the most drastic reaction from students. Students were shocked to see frightening displays of figures that were burned and had their appendages amputated and their organs removed.

Scenes from both exhibits evoked tears from many students. Some broke down in emotional sobs while others stared at the displays in speechless awe and anger.

However, the museum tour ended on a lighter note that celebrated the accomplishments of black people with displays of inventors, musicians and civil rights leaders, like W.E.B. DuBois, George Washington Carver and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. This allowed students to walk out of the museum with the perception that although black people have endured many struggles, they were able to overcome those struggles and make many accomplishments.

“[The museum] was honest. It didn’t hold back the truths people choose not to talk about,” said James Souffrant, a sophomore electrical engineering major.

The trip was made possible by RSA and CUP. They provided meals, hotel arrangements and admissions into the museums for the students.

“Students pay a significant amount in tuition. They shouldn’t have to pay for the programs,” said Mark Harvey, program coordinator for the Office of Special Support Services and one of the organizers of the trip.

T. Jasen Cooper II, assistant resident director for West Village B and C, came up with the idea to take this trip after the university scored below the national average on its Quality of Life survey, which looks at programs for students. The score was especially low during the month of February. This bothered Cooper and he pondered over ideas that would provide students with a way to get off campus and learn something. His solution was to take an educational trip to visit the two historical museums.

On Saturday, students gathered on the bus and headed toward Washington, D.C. to visit the Holocaust Museum, which had the same emphasis of “rememberance” as in the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. As they entered, every student was handed an “identification card” that contained a small individual biography of a victim of the Holocaust.

The museum offered a tour that allowed visitors to place themselves in the life of a child named Daniel, who experienced and survived the Holocaust. People were able to walk through the child’s house, through the streets after Hitler came to power, through the ghetto that the child was placed in and then, finally, through a concentration camp, all while reading excerpts from the boy’s diary that were posted throughout the tour.

In his diary Daniel wrote about how he was unable to go swimming because of Hitler and had to eat turnips every night. He also wrote that on occasion they were able to eat stale bread when they lived in the ghetto.

As people walked out of the tour, there was a spot in which people could send Daniel mail by placing index cards with messages into a mailbox. Many of the small messages, mostly made by children, were posted on a bulletin board. One read, “No more yellow stars.” Another read, “FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM!!! Remember.”

The museum also contained a life-size timeline of events in the Holocaust, from life before Hitler came to power, to life after Hitler’s reign. It showed the criteria that were considered necessary to be part of the “perfect race” as well as pictures of those suffering in the death camps and videos with compilations of Hitler’s speeches and the Nazi army.

A “reflection room” allowed visitors to quietly sort out their thoughts, pray or pay homage to the millions who died in the Holocaust.Directly across from the entrance to the room, a flame burned that was surrounded by dirt collected from concentration camps across Europe. The names of the concentration camps were written in gold letters across the walls of the reflection room as a bold reminder of the lives that were lost in these camps.

The display of shoes and the piles of hair of Jewish people as well as the children’s exhibit that contained the story of Daniel, were strong images that Janine Miller, a freshman communication studies major, said stuck out in her mind.

When the students returned to Baltimore for dinner at the hotel, emotions were let loose as a dialogue concerning the day’s events was conducted. The students were asked to name four adverbs that described what they felt. This one question led to a two and a half hour discussion of race, religion, hate and oppression that stripped students down to pure and raw emotions.

“I can’t go forward until I know what happened before me,” said Khadija Burns, a freshman undecided major, as tears trickled down her cheeks.

Students discussed that they were angry because they had not been prepared well enough in high school for the gruesome scenes in the Great Blacks in Wax Museum.

“[The Great Blacks in Wax Museum] taught me what really happened. High school sugar-coated everything,” said Stephen Collings, a sophomore civil engineering major.

Others discussed the issue of black people committing crimes against other black people.

“Every black person should see this,” said Fatima Watt, a middler psychology major. “We’re killing each other, we should be fighting for each other.

“Other students broke down in tears as they spoke. “Anger” and “frustration” were two of the main words thrown into the discussion, as many students could not understand how human beings could treat other human beings in such a brutal way.

Some tried to focus on the more optimistic feelings they felt.

“It took strong people to go through it and get out of it,” said Clifton Glizel, a freshman undecided major in reference to oppression. “We’ve come so far as a society and nation,” he said.

For those who felt angry that teachers in high school had not taught all of the facts of black history, some students offered encouraging words.

“It starts at home and within.” said Rosena Cornet, a middler criminal justice major. “We need to take the initiative to learn our own history,”

Students were left with the question of where to go. Many responded that students needed to take what they have learned from this experience and provide that information to the next generation of children.

Some felt that the best direction to take is for people to control their anger.

“If we can’t control our anger, we’re heading right back to where we started,” said Kristen Moore, a freshman electrical engineering major.

Students sat wiping their tears and hugging each other and by the end of the dialogue, and even Mark Harvey was in tears. One student became so overwhelmed with emotions that even after the discussion had ended she left the room with friends comforting her as tears continued to stream down her face.

The students took their experiences back to Northeastern as they drove back on Sunday, many with the inspiration to make a better effort to understand different cultures and backgrounds. A contact list was sent around during the dialogue for students who want to join together and start making a changes.