Late on a Friday afternoon, when most of the office staff at the Turner Center was getting ready to head home, Carlton Howard sat in the first-aid room on the bottom floor of Turner, coloring 8-by-10 sheets of paper.
Howard, a senior education major and facility manager for Campus Recreation, finished coloring later that night and then pasted the small sheets onto construction paper. Put together, the sheets transformed into a mural in honor of Black History Month. It hangs prominently in the Turner Center lobby.
The mural features 16 key people in black history, from formerly enslaved people like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth to civil rights movement leaders like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks to contemporary figures like Barack Obama and Serena Williams.
Howard said that, for him, King is the most inspiring person in the mural.
“I love (King’s) philosophy and what he did for us, which were non-violent protests,” Howard said. “I really aspire to be him and to lead in his way.”
Although the mural now hangs on campus, Howard originally got the idea while working as an assistant teacher in the South Panola School District in his hometown, Batesville. There, Howard worked in middle school classrooms and helped coach girls’ basketball.
Last year, Howard let his class choose a project for Black History Month. His students chose to create a mural, so Howard printed off the sheets, supervised his students and helped them put together the completed mural.
So when the Turner Center was looking for a way to celebrate Black History Month, Howard suggested a mural.
“I said (to my managers), ‘Well, it’s something that I did last year with my kids.’ Then I showed it to them and walked them through what was going to take place,” Howard said. “Once we got it approved by my director, I just went for it.”
While assistant teaching, Howard still had to balance being a part-time student and Campus Recreation employee. On a typical day, he would work in Batesville until 3:45 p.m. and then come back to Oxford to take night classes or complete online assignments and to work at the Turner Center on weekday nights or the weekends.
“It was a lot of restless nights because working all day with children, which is a great experience, is also draining,” Howard said.
Though the two years that Howard kept up this schedule were busy, he said they were worth it and taught him how to manage his time. During the same period, Howard worked his way up from refereeing intramural games to his current position.
As a facility manager, Howard is “the man in charge,” responding to any concerns that employees or patrons have about the Turner Center. But, for Howard, working for Campus Recreation is like being part of a “team” or “family.”
Because of this, Howard said the Turner Center is an ideal location for the Black History Month mural.
“(Campus Recreation) was really for this and supportive about it because this is a safe haven and a great environment to just be who you are,” Howard said. “We back each other up, and we support each other for embracing who you are and being proud of who you are.”
One of Howard’s managers, Mark Garneau, assistant director of facility operations for Campus Recreation, saw Howard coloring that Friday. When Garneau walked in the following Monday, he wasn’t expecting to see a whole mural.
“It threw me for a loop when I walked in on Monday morning,” Garneau said. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s what he was working on?’ … It was just something that inspired him.”
But Garneau said that the mural was just one example of a larger trend.
“You always see (Howard) doing something small, and it ends up being a huge, cool thing,” Garneau said.
Howard said he hopes the Black History Month mural he made inspires people now and in the future.
“I hope that, after I graduate, this becomes a tradition — and not just for Black History Month but for any race, gender, sexual orientation (or) religion,” Howard said. “(I hope) this inspires people to be true to you and be proud of who you are.”
