“I would say probably the most significant impact of black studies is the ways that it has transformed the mind of white students as well, not just black," Jackson said. 

Although the month of February is recognized as Black History Month, U.S. youth are still not learning the proper history of African Americans in secondary education, Jackson said. 

African American studies courses are structured differently then typical history courses, focusing on in-depth studies of the history of Black Americans. 

“They have the African American experience at the center of the conversation, instead of on the periphery and that’s what Eurocentrism is, Eurocentric means literally european perspectives at the center, and everything else on periphery,” Jackson said.

Jackson noticed the disconnect students experience studying African American history outside of high school for the first time.

“Students will say that the content of the course, the readings, basically turned their world upside down,” Jackson said. “Some of them became angry. They say ‘why was I lied to in high school? Why was I taught this misinformation about the nature of American democracy, freedom and equality?’”

Over the last decade, there is an increasing number of African American studies courses at major universities, encouraging African American studies programs to play a leading role in overcoming the deficit. 

Red Cedar Black Caucus treasurer and social relations and policy sophomore Amari Fleming believes she should have learned black history, even though it wasn’t taught in her high school.

“I should have taken that extra initiative to learn my history and really read books and read up on it, and not just know the basic stuff and really go into depth about where I come from,” Fleming said.

As a part of James Madison College, Fleming is required to read books focusing on the marginalized parts of U.S. history.

“They talk about not even African American history, but the history of Jews, Indian history, just how everybody is misrepresented throughout American history," she said. "America is this dominant force and wants to be represented and seen as superior and always the heroic type and never do anything wrong but it’s like an actuality." 

Fleming said she notices the differences between history courses in high school and college.

“In high school, teachers are just trying to get students in and out,” Fleming said. “A lot of my college professors are invested in it. We have discussions about this history and what the stereotypes are around it. We look into it like a theory.”

Carter G. Woodson, a black historian, author and journalist, began the tradition of celebrating black history in 1926.

"Negro History Week" was used to integrate the celebration of the birthdays of two men, Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass, into many other moments and individuals of African American history in the United States. 

Jackson believes black history is vital because it teaches not just the experiences of black Americans. but also the nature of U.S. democracy.

“It is a reality that if you want to understand the American experience of the struggle for democracy, then one has to look at the African American experience because that’s what our struggle has been about," he said. "The struggle of democracy, citizenship, equal access to education and basic protections.”