Asa Hillard believes that for African Americans to be strong, they must first learn their history.

The professor from Georgia State University spoke about African history and leadership last night in the Holmes Student Center’s Duke Ellington Ballroom.

The lecture was sponsored by the Center for Black Studies as part of a series of events planned for the African American Leadership Conference.

Hillard began by explaining the difference between an episode and a story in history.

“Oftentimes, we only get the episodes in African history,” Hillard said. “We know that Nat Turner fought for freedom, but what we don’t know is that he was part of a large tradition of resistance.”

He discussed African identity as it related to unifying the black community.

Those of African descent born in the United States are still Africans, he said. Hillard showed several slides of maps of Africa with the southern tip pointed in the upward direction.

Hillard said that in Africa, the traditional way of finding one’s bearings was to look to the south instead of the north.

Much of the lecture was devoted to examining black Americans’ roots in Africa, especially in Egypt.

Hillard said the first humans developed in Africa, according to research done with bones, DNA and linguistics.

Homosapiens appeared a quarter of a million years ago.

“White supremacy is ended,” Hillard said. “One of white supremacists’ arguments was that different races had different creators. Now we know we all had one grandma.”

Hillard believes Eyptologists “whitened” Egypt by withholding or distorting evidence about the region.

He showed slides of Egyptian corpses and pointed out African phenotypical traits such as high cheekbones.

“All of these mummies are perfect black,” Hillard said.

He briefly showed slides of movies and games that depicted Egyptians as being white.

He also displayed pictures of slaves.

“Because we are still contemplating out skin color, we haven’t learned our story,” he explained. “The slave trade interrupted us.”

Hillard concluded with a list of the criteria for leadership. The list stressed the importance of family and accountability.

Many audience members gave Hillard a standing ovation.

Kenneth Akins, a junior environmental health major, attended Hillard’s lecture after hearing about it through the Black Student Union.

“I came out tonight because it’s very important to know the history that has been hidden and transformed and stolen,” Akins said. “Knowing about your ancestors and about your history is the only way you can progress and really know about yourself.”