The MXIBS was established when Black students demanded cultural recognition. It is now housed in a $2 million, two-story building. Among other things, students mentor and tutor youths in Crawfordsville. While the institute has long provided space for ethnic revelry and fellowship, Lake, who became director in 2006, believes student cultural centers “cannot only celebrate ourselves but also be places of inquiry and knowledge production.”

To that end, he has launched an academic journal called Letter X, which he hopes will publish annually beginning this year, featuring writings about the Black experience from Wabash faculty and students and from elsewhere in the country. The 2008 inaugural edition of Letter X included articles examining the environmental impact of colonialism on Kenya and how and why African-American literature has historically dealt so heavily with protest.

In 2008, Lake and the MXIBS also launched a lecture series named after John W. Evans, the first Black man to graduate from Wabash. The inaugural address coincided with the centennial anniversary of Evans’ graduation. As with Letter X, Lake also aims for a lecture to take place annually on campus.

Future research projects like the public markers undertaking fuel Lake’s hopes of turning MXIBS into a destination for out-of-state scholars wanting to study the impact of African-Americans on the Midwest and the Midwest on them.

A native of Fort Wayne, Ind., Lake teaches courses in English, philosophy and rhetoric. Before joining Wabash, he had been an administrator at Manchester College’s Black cultural center.