Courtney Gordon ’24

Majors: Nursing and Pre–Music Therapy
Project: How Did Black Intersect the Blue and Grey? Black History at Moravian University
Advisor: Jane Berger, associate professor of history

When Jane Berger, associate professor of history, and Chris Hunt, vice president and dean for Equity and Inclusion, first approached Courtney Gordon with the idea of an analysis of Black history at Moravian, she was hesitant. The project entailed a detailed examination of the historical accounts of Black alumni, an undertaking Courtney wasn’t sure she wanted to pursue.

“I was afraid of what I might uncover,” she says, explaining that what drove her to seize the opportunity was how different this project was from the material she worked with on a daily basis for her majors, nursing and pre–music therapy.

Although Berger and Hunt originally pitched the idea to Gordon, she made the project her own, sifting through oral interviews, archives, newspapers, and even the school yearbook to illuminate the experiences of Black alumni. While these stories reach far back to the experiences of the first Black students navigating Moravian and Bethlehem, Gordon found parallels that echoed her own experiences on campus as a minority student.

“I was able to uncover some difficult truths about Moravian that have never been explored before,” she shares. “In addition, I was able to interview some alumni with comparable experiences to those of current students, which only served as a reminder of how similar our experiences were, yet also different.”

Gordon detailed how her main challenge arose from the nature of historical research, explaining that she struggled with differentiating between the beginning and middle elements of “the bigger story,” a particularly difficult process given a lack of complete documentation. She stressed the importance of her advisor’s guidance and general knowledge about Bethlehem in navigating her dive into history.

“Working with Dr. Berger is honestly nothing short of fun,” Gordon says. “While we dealt with difficult topics through the uncovering of history, she always made a point to redirect me and say, ‘This is our goal.’ She definitely was my source of encouragement, since history research can lead to so many dead ends.”

As a result of her research, Gordon connected with different students around the Lehigh Valley who had conducted similar research at their predominantly white institutions (PWI).

Gordon presented her research at a Friday Forum, a DEI-facilitated event at Moravian. She also presented at a November conference in 2022, cosponsored by DEI and the history department, and donated her presentation to Moravian’s archives.