The Scotlandville community has a rich history, hidden behind the pothole-ridden roads and run down business. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, blacks owned their own businesses, families were close knit, and the community as a whole looked after each other. The streets were clean, homes were maintained, and blacks appreciated and valued education. Today, Scotlandville is flooded with drugs, homes are being taken by the city, and the importance of education is taken for granted by our generation, but a developing student organization, named K.O.S. (Knowledge of Self) has made a positive and productive step towards bringing the importance of education back and self pride back within the Scotlandville area.
Scenic Highway is known for being an industry highway lined up with tire shops, mechanic shops, beauty salons and barbershops, but the community is missing a certain element that makes a community and that is beauty. K.O.S. took the initiative to paint a mural on the corner of Scenic Highway and Osprey Street. An Olmec head, along with an illustration of a Sankofa bird, is vividly shown next to a beauty salon building with a bold statement above the painting, which reads, “We Came B4 Columbus”. Travelers, headed towards Baker, can easily see the mural.
The painting turn heads because people are unaware of the meaning and message hidden behind the mural, which was a clever plan devised by the members of K.O.S. to motivate people to conduct further research on the two images.
“The Olmecs were an ancient civilization that traveled from Africa to the western hemisphere over a thousand years before Jesus and we just wanted to enlighten the Scotlandville community about that part of history many of us may never have heard of”, said Perry Brooks, a SU alumni and member of K.O.S.
The concept of the mural, which is also painted above the Sankofa bird, is to look to our past to find our future.
“Hopefully this will raise the awareness of the community and our history in general and the fact that we were here before Columbus is often hidden from us, so the whole concept is for our community to look into their past to find their future,” expressed Ses- I Ra, SU alumni and sketcher of the design.
This startling part of history, which is hidden from many school history textbooks, is finally coming to fruition with the contributions made by many scholars, such as Ivan Van Sertima, yet this significant information still has not been incorporated into the public school curriculums.
“The phrase is true, we did come before Columbus”, stated Wesley Thornton, a sophomore psychology native of New Orleans. “Our people need to understand the stones of the Olemc heads are our history.” continued Thornton.
The murals’ goal is to also attract mainly the youth of the Scottlandville community.
“Images speak to you”, said Karenka Williams, native of Baton Rouge and member of K.O.S. “When people see this image they (the youth) will realize this is something from our past and hopefully it will tap into their curiosity and conduct research,” continued Williams.
Children are always researching over the Internet but the mural is supposed to motivate and encourage children to utilize their available resources, such as YouTube and Google, to analyze their own history.
“The mural is primarily for the children of the community,” said Amber Owens, SU Law School major and native of Pittsburgh. ” I think children, instead of adults, will pass the corner and wonder what the image is and hopefully internalize the information they find.” Owens concluded.
Even though the main purpose is to attract the youth of the community, K.O.S hopes that everyone, young and old, will conduct research about their past.
“The whole purpose of creating the mural is to strike consciousness throughout the entire community and hopefully it will touch them in some kind of way”, said Travis Harris, a sophomore history major and native of New Orleans.
K.O.S. will continue to beautify several urban communities around Baton Rouge in the near future.
“The mural is emblematic of the foundation of our group.” said Luke McKnight, sophomore history major and native of Baton Rouge. “We are a student organization, but anyone who wants to join is welcome because we want to spark consciousness growth to everyone throughout our urban communities.”
