Doing Historian Business: Local History, Student Historians, and the Hall of Fame for Great Americans

Bronx Community College (BCC) is home to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, a 630-foot open-air colonnade with busts of ninety-eight honorees inducted between 1900 and 1976. Faculty are encouraged to integrate the Hall of Fame into their courses, but the demographic disparity between the hall’s honorees (primarily white and male) and the BCC student body (the majority of which is African American and Hispanic/Latino women) creates challenges. In an American history course, students become public historians as they record podcasts about a location in some way connected to an honoree. The assignment introduces students to historical thinking, while helping them develop research and critical thinking skills, an appreciation of the history of their environs, and an academic identity and sense of connection to the college community.