On campus, the Multicultural Leadership Center is a pillar for mentoring, student organizations, inclusive events across campus, and fellowship for students who walk through its doors. In addition to the many ways the MLC already serves its community, they are going above and beyond by looking back in history to Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.”

Written by Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Barracoon was selected as the Common Read text this year for its “richness of themes” and “the potential to engage students and spark passionate discussion.” The title choice of Barracoon immediately spurs discussion as the term means a place where enslaved people were held during trade. 

The first Common Read/Common World event of the year was held on September 7 at the Multicultural Leadership Center. Desmond Dunklin, a board member of the Common Read Committee, explained that the “Lunch and Learn” event was a great way to promote the story Barracoon to South’s students.

“Students from all demographics come on campus, [and] they get to share meals,” said Dunklin. “It’s a great opportunity for students to get involved and to really learn the story. It’s a really great book.”

Barracoon follows the life story of Cudjo Lewis, the last survivor of the slave trade. This holds a deep significance in our region’s history, since the remnants of the last slave ship, Clotilda, were found in the lower Mobile-Tensaw Delta in 2018. LoRen Modisa, a graduate student and College of Medicine staff member at South Alabama, was one of the readers in attendance.

“My initial reaction and experience with the read was sitting with the amount of pain that was in it,” said Modisa. “What that might have been like to process and then still be dealing with loss of children and change in your environment, it was a heaviness to it, a grief that was sitting with it that I just lamented and I felt for him during the book.”

Throughout the semester, more events across campus will take place surrounding the book. Visit the Common Read/Common World page to stay updated this fall.