CHAMPAIGN — When Barbara Suggs-Mason was appointed superintendent of Matteson’s elementary school district, she set out to give the Black and Hispanic student body the same high quality education she had seen as a teacher and administrator in Evanston and Oak Park.
Suggs-Mason made sure her students could succeed in activities like chess, music and underwater robotics. She knew her approach was working when she ran into a colleague from the northwest suburbs, who knew her district because they had beat his son’s underwater robotics team at a Shedd Aquarium competition.
“That’s what I want to hear – that our kids can compete with everybody and they can display their excellence,” Suggs-Mason said.
After her superintendentship, she retired back to her hometown of Champaign-Urbana, where she co-founded the Champaign County African American Heritage Trail.
Suggs-Mason is one of 30 local African American leaders featured in an exhibit at the University YMCA in Champaign, “The Black Gaze.”
The photographer is Dwayne Banks Jr. He graduated in December from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a master’s of science in journalism.
At an opening event on Thursday, Banks said the last time a photographer brought together so many local Black leaders was over 40 years ago, and the photographer was white. He said that he wanted to tell Black stories from a Black perspective.
“During the interview process, we were able to bond-me and the individuals that participated in this,” Banks said. “We’re black. What does that mean? It’s historical, cultural, societal, economical even.”
He said he looks up to some white photographers, but he also sees them overrepresenting tragic Black stories.
“Stop portraying the negative and start recognizing, there’s Black joy,” Banks said. “There’s Black excellence.”
The exhibit also featured a local mayor, fire chief, police chief, musicians, professors and Champaign County NAACP President Minnie Pearson. Pearson said it was a thrill to be involved in the exhibit and to see the character of individuals and the community reflected so well in the photographs.
“That is the essence of our community to go away, learn, come back and help others to prosper.”