It’s no secret that, in recent years, N.C . State has had its share of incidents surrounding racial issues.

But by providing students with a safe, academic setting to discuss these issues and others like them through historical context, one professor said she hopes to inspire a change in thinking that will extend beyond the classroom.

Blair L.M . Kelley, associate history professor, will be co-teaching an innovative course called “The South in Black and White” along with Duke University visiting professor and award winning author of Blood Done Sign My Name, Timothy Tyson next semester.

According to Kelley, the course will examine both the history and future of life in the South from multiple perspectives—something that may prove both challenging and enlightening for the students and collaborating professors.

“[Tyson and I] have similar training and we are in similar fields, and yet I think our positions as historians are very different. He grew up in the South as a white man, and he had different kinds of experiences than I had growing up as an African American woman,” Kelley said. “So I think our particular positions in the world make us see things differently, and it’s interesting for students to see two historians who like each other and agree and know similar things and yet have different points to make, different emphasis and even some disagreements.”

By witnessing these discussions—including potential disagreements—every week, students will not only gain a more detailed understanding of the subject, but also examine their own opinions, Kelley said.

“This course gives you an opportunity to think about our own position in our world, how to engage in it and how to think quickly about what’s going on around us,” Kelley said. “It’s a fun way for them to see that we all can come to this material from our own points of view and walk away with different things and have different thoughts about it.”

Another way the course attempts to show students the past and present of life in the south is through an interactive exploration in music. According to Kelley, accomplished Mary Williams—the vocalist for soundtrack of the movie rendition of Tyson’s Blood Done Sign My Name—will introduce the class to southern history through gospel music, and efforts are being made to bring guest speakers to discuss the country music genre as well.

“She is an amazing gospel singer,” Kelley said. “She starts class off by singing different spiritual and freedoms songs of civil rights movement, and she connects it all so it becomes almost a text we can study of how these songs over time formed and transformed life in the South.”

Students should not expect to only discuss the South’s past, Kelley said. A major emphasis of the course will be to not only learn about the complexities of life in the historical South, but also to discuss how what happened in the past has influenced events and issues being dealt with today.

“What is interesting about this class is that when I teach history, I don’t really get into the present, so if I make it to the [19]70s, I’m pretty excited,” Kelley said. “But in this class we’ll talk about the hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, immigrant rights in North Carolina, issues with the Wake County School Board…so we get to very contemporary questions about things that are happening right now. And then we view it through a historical lens to examine these contemporary questions.”

While Kelley said she acknowledges the difficulty many students have in talking about racial issues, she said she hopes this course will provide students with an opportunity for much needed growth in that area by allowing them to speak freely—and often bluntly—about their opinions.

“Most people are taught not to talk about the things that they have to talk about in my class. And sometimes it is really difficult—it’s not always a happy history—but it’s important to engage with it and learn from it by being  honest and open,” Kelley said. “We need to create a space that’s safe, where students feel brave enough to say what they think. Because sometimes saying what you really think—which may not be the most ‘correct’ and ‘kind’ thing to say—will also be what someone else was thinking, and will allow the idea to be on the floor and everyone deals with it. And we have to do this collectively.”