To mark Black History Month, US Consul General Gregory Slayton presented the Bermuda College with a 17 panel poster set called Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The display features historical and contemporary photos of campus history and life in traditional black colleges throughout the United States.

There are photographs and text about famous graduates from educator Booker T. Washington (Hampton) and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Morehouse) to former US surgeon general Dr. David Satcher (Morehouse) and talk show host Oprah Winfrey (Tennessee State) ? some 30 in all.

The display explains how these historically black colleges evolved and provides insights into their role in the civil rights movement and other aspects of American social and cultural life.

Topics addressed include roots, roads to equality, the economic path, the leadership path, a cultural force, cradle of the civil rights movement and contemporary choices.

The second series commemorates the life of Rosa Parks (a graduate of Alabama State). Mr. Slayton presented copies of the two-panel poster to CedarBridge Academy and Berkeley Institute, and to the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality.

Panel one features a quote from Mrs. Parks and explains the events that led to her arrest in December of 1955, which sparked the year-long Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott.

Facing the text panel is a portrait panel of Rosa Parks on a Montgomery bus after the US Supreme Court ruled that laws requiring segregation on public transportation were illegal.

Consul General Slayton said: "I believe in the importance of recognising history as a guide to the future. Mrs. Parks and other leaders of the civil rights movement have created an enduring legacy and it is proper that we recognise their achievements while moving forward to ensure equal justice under the law and happiness for all people."