HOUGHTON – The Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections will host a talk by Dr. Michelle Johnson, a community historian with the Michigan Historical Center in Lansing.

An African American history presentation will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Van Pelt and Opie Library’s East Reading Room on the Michigan Tech Campus, according to Lindsay Hiltunen, senior archivist. The presentation is part of the “Black Voices in the Copper Country” project.

The presentation, “Exhibits for a New Century: Researching the African American Experience in Michigan from the Copper Country to the Capital,” will explore the historical center’s “Exhibits for a New Century” project.

Johnson will also discuss the methods and meaning behind the Exhibits for a New Century exhibit, as well as a statewide research initiative to uncover and share African American narratives in Michigan history, such as the grant-funded project taking place at the Michigan Tech Archives.

The Michigan Tech Archives project “Black Voices in the Copper Country” is funded in part by the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Hiltunen said.

“It’s such a great project, because there hasn’t been a lot of investigation into the diversity of experiences up here,” Hiltunen said. “A lot of human (interest) stories that get told that relate to the immigrants that were coming to work in the mines, and so we’re just trying to enrich the narrative. With the Black Voices project, we’re researching (African American) people roughly from 1865 to the present day. We’re looking at how people lived and worked within the historic Copper Country, and we’re also looking at the student experience at Michigan Tech.”

The project began at Johnson’s urging, according to Hiltunen.

“She was the one that sort of lit a fire under our feet to consider this project, because they’re working on revamping their exhibits for a new century, which documents the African American experience throughout the state of Michigan,” she said.

Martin Hobmeier is the project researcher for the Black Voices project, according to Hiltunen.

“What we’re doing is looking through our holdings to see what we have that relates to African Americans in the Copper Country,” she said. “We’ve been able to develop a very robust index of student profiles from African American students at Michigan Tech – what honor societies, what sports, what Greek life affiliations – different things that they have.”

The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information on the presentation, or the Michigan Tech Archives, contact Linday Hiltunen at (906) 487-2505, or copper@mtu.edu.