Many students piled into the Thomas Building expecting to hear a black conservative give a speech on current political topics last night. Instead, students left after receiving a lesson in black history and society.

In celebration of Black History Month, the Penn State Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) invited the lecturer Reginald Jones to come to campus.

Jones sparked a lot of controversy on his first trip to Happy Valley in 2000 because of the promotion of the event with fliers using language some felt was inappropriate.

In a gold suit fit for the senior prom, Jones told the crowd that there is an obvious agenda in America that tries to make black people feel inferior. In his speech, Jones said television and media are to blame for the negative portrayal of blacks.

"Our contribution is always seen as being a victim; not much is mentioned about our contributions to art, history and science," he said.

"It is troubling that no time is spent on the many areas we influenced," he added.

Blacks are raised to feel like victims, he said.

"Black folks are the New York Yankees, but we think of ourselves as the Cubs," he said.

Jones said the true heroes in black history are never seen on television or reported on in the news. The media does not talk about black entrepreneurs or corporate executives because it is "non-news" to many people, he said.

"Everybody expects the black man to dunk basketballs or rap, but they don't expect us to know about the economy or tax cuts," he said.

YAF Chairman Toby Eberhart said regardless of what people's opinions may be, Jones' message was very positive.

"I am very pleased; a lot people came with misconceptions about him, but he put all of those to rest with his message of self-empowerment, not just for blacks but for everybody," he said.

Many students said they were pleased with his message.

Asia Smith (senior-media studies) said she was glad to hear him speak because many people do not know what is going on now or what has happened in black history.

"He tells it like it is. He tells the story of blacks the way it has never been heard before," she said.

Dave Ponist (senior-telecommunications) said he did not recognize many of the influential black people in history that Jones mentioned during his speech.

"Not only did I not know who they were; they were never mentioned in all of my history classes," Ponist said.

Some students said they did not directly connect with all the issues he spoke about but agreed with his overall message of fighting hard to achieve goals.

"I'm not into all the racial issues, but I was more into the positive message of 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps,' " said Jason Madey (senior-computer science).

Other students did not see why so much controversy surrounded his conservative ideals.

Ronald Miller (sophomore-hotel, restaurant and institutional management) said his message was far from controversial.

"I was waiting for him to drop a bomb on me, but instead, he just made me think about what black history really is," he said.