Black African Heritage

Roger Wilkins, a Robinson Professor from 1986 to 2007, and for whom Wilkins Plaza on Mason’s Fairfax Campus is named, died in 2017 at age 85, but his legacy at the university remains strong.

As part of an effort to research and record local history, Mason graduate and undergraduate students, along with faculty, have begun documenting Black students who attended Mason and the Black communities that once existed in Fairfax County.

A false story has been told in this country about people of color, said Gail Christopher, executive director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity and a Mason senior scholar and it’s time to tell the truth about the ‘bad idea’ of the hierarchy of human value.