REVIEWREVIEW Volume 7 2007-2008

Elaine Brown’s 2008 Thurgood Marshall Lecture and more . . .

1 Message from Director Darnell Hunt Riding down Los Angeles’ Crenshaw Boulevard on a Bunche Chair Lecture May 6, 2008 recent fall night was a moving experience for me. There, along Black L.A.’s center of gravity, unfolded a Anna Deavere Smith spectacle as surreal as it was strangely familiar. cont. pg. 8 Thousands of people, mostly African American and mostly young, had taken to the streets. Police cars marked` every intersection. Animated pedestrians gestured to passing motorists, who responded with honks and cheers. Others waved signs and t-shirts and chanted slogans. It was a moment that seemed to break with business-as-usual, when individual lives suddenly connected with some larger whole. No, the Los Angeles Lakers hadn’t just won the NBA championship. Just minutes earlier, the major broad- cast networks had projected Barack Obama the winner of the 2008 presidential election. The stunning The Cosby Show centered on the family of Cliff and landslide election of America’s first black president – Claire Huxtable, who — like Barack and Michelle Obama — only 43 years removed from the 1965 Voting Rights were well-educated, articulate, and successful professionals Act – felt like an end and a new beginning. The scene living in a multicultural world, despite the fact of their along Crenshaw Boulevard was of a community made blackness. Audience research revealed that viewers selec- manifest. tively made sense of the show in ways that resonated with The feeling was palpable. It was evocative of the one their own hopes and desires. Black viewers, for example, many black Angelenos had shared sixteen years earlier. embraced the show as a breath of fresh air, as a “positive Then — amidst the fires set off by the acquittal of four image” of black achievement and possibility, even if the police officers for the infamous, videotaped beating of show’s avoidance of contemporary black inequality seemed motorist Rodney King – some dared hope that the somewhat artificial. For many black viewers, the show was a destruction might actually pave the way to a brighter source of racial pride. future. Similarly, this was a feeling grounded in White viewers, by contrast, embraced the show because it optimism, a feeling that everything had suddenly allowed them to invite a family into their homes every changed, a feeling of transcendence. Thursday night they could relate to – a family that just Of course, the degree to which America became happened to be black. The material success of this fictional something altogether new on November 4 remains an black family, combined with white viewers’ affinity with it, open question. Throughout the 2008 presidential race, convinced many of these viewers that America had indeed Barack Obama ran both as the candidate of hope and transcended race. “Enlightened racism,” as the researchers the candidate of change. He undoubtedly represented a put it, led many white viewers to feel confident enough in break with the failed policies of the Bush Administra- their own racial morality to support a conservative, “color- tion, and for many Americans, this change alone evokes blind” agenda that sought to undermine progressive racial considerable hope. But what about racial change? Does policies like affirmative action. Black families that failed to the election of Barack Obama signal the arrival of a achieve like the Huxtables, these viewers reasoned, had only post-race America? Have we indeed finally achieved themselves to blame. the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so elo- A popular television show hardly compares in significance quently described on the steps of the Lincoln Memo- to the nation’s most meaningful presidential election. And rial 45 years ago? America 2008 seems headed in an entirely different direction Perhaps the Cosby Show experiment of the 1980s is than America 1984. But when I consider the musings of a cautionary tale worth considering as we ponder these television pundits, radio shock jocks, internet bloggers, and questions. For me, it stands as a reminder of the newspaper columnists in the days following the election, I’m pitfalls associated with selective perception and troubled by the parallels. I’m troubled not because I reject the wishful racial thinking. possibility of Dr. King’s dream or the importance of hope, but In a time when the nation was turning to the Right because so many want desperately to believe that Obama’s with the landslide reelection of President Ronald election, in and of itself, has ushered in a post-race America. Reagan, Bill Cosby aimed to create an image of the The truth is that the next few rounds of America’s race black family that recoded blackness, which transcended game have yet to play out, and much work remains to be the stereotypical portrayals of black Americans done before we can say justice has finally won. Still, it’s traditionally circulated in popular media. Cosby hard to look into the eyes of the youth who lined Crenshaw sought, in the end, to present blackness as a cultural Boulevard that night and not see Obama’s election as a game fact that paled in comparison to the humanity blacks changer. share with all Americans. In a primetime prequel to Obama’s electoral finale, the Cosby Show shot to the Darnell M. Hunt top of the ratings almost overnight. Director

2 SUMMER HUMANITIES INSTITUTE

The Summer Humanities Institute (SHI) Past participants have continued their Terrica Sampson, Fisk University stated: “I provides intense training in humanities education at universities such as UCLA, enjoyed my time here...the seminars...the scholarship to students primarily from Carnegie Mellon, Indiana Univerity, and workshops really opened my mind for Historically Black Colleges and Universities Georgetown University. graduate school and helped me to criticlly (HBCUs). Generously funded by the think about issues and African American Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the SHI is SHI Participant Comments: Studies. I hope other students apply for designed to prepare participants for David Rozzell, Morehouse College stated: SHI, [it] really helps you find your way”. academic work at the graduate level. This “SHI was one of the best college experiences year we welcomed ten undergraduates from I’ve had in terms of getting me prepared for Selah Johnson, Spelman College stated: “I the following schools: post-graduation. [The] staff was energetic,. really enjoyed my time here...[it] has been I felt like a real professional and the one of the greatest experiences of my life. I Fisk University presentations made the most of the learned so much about African American Grambling State University experience.” history and how it correlates with other Hampton University disciplines.... Mentors were helpful and Howard University Alise Parrish, Hampton University stated: taking field trips to the African American Jackson State University “I’ve learned more about critical thinking and Museum was helpful. I will definitely Morehouse College just being confident in my abilities and now recommend [the program] to other North Carolina A&T State University I feel prepared to go on to whatever graduate undergraduate students.” Spelman College program I choose. I have never gotten that feeling from any other program I have attended.”

DEGREE PROGRAMS IN AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES Dr. Brenda Stevenson (History) continued Graduate Program IDP Admissions and Awards Committee, as Chair of the IDP. The two-year MA Program in Afro-Ameri- composed of affiliated faculty. This group Interdisciplinary Focus can Studies continues to attract a wide range formally reviews files of students seeking From a pedagogical standpoint, one of the of top young graduate-level scholars who admission to the program and makes major strengths of the IDP continues to be wish to ground themselves in key theoretical recommendations for admissions and its interdisciplinary, interdepartmental issues regarding African Americans and the awards to the Graduate Division. To approach to education. As the world Diaspora. There is also an MA/JD Program strengthen and facilitate interaction between becomes an increasingly interconnected place, in which students spend one year in the In- the IDP and students, the program has also students need training that will equip them terdepartmental Program and three years in reestablished the Afro-American Studies to analyze and negotiate across many kinds the UCLA Law School. Several of the most Student Association. of boundaries: geographical, social, political, recent graduating cohort have gone on to PhD programs, and others have plans to do educational, and economic. IDP-trained For more information, please contact Dr. so. students develop critical thinking skills that Lisbeth Gant-Britton at 310.825.3776, Program Administration allow them to analyze African American [email protected], or visit these In order to facilitate the admissions process, issues and situate them within the matrix of Web sites: www.bunchecenter.ucla.edu and Chair Dr. Brenda Stevenson maintains an global concerns. www.afro-am.ucla.edu

3 RESEARCH

Established as an organized research unit However, the report also finds that campuses connects up with five central themes (ORU) in 1969, the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche still rely too heavily on traditional indicators that focus the volume: communities Center for African American Studies has a of merit in the admissions process. When com- and neighborhoods; political participa- primary commitment to undertake and bined with the stratospheric demand for fresh- tion; religious life; cultural production; sponsor research that enhances our and social justice. Historical and man slots (particularly at the most prestigious understanding of the history, lifestyles, contemporary anecdotes employ oral material conditions, and sociocultural systems campuses), this approach leads to inflated ad- histories, maps, photographic images, of women and men of African descent in the missions “prices” that underrepresented mi- demographic data, and other statistics Americas, and in the Diaspora. norities are often unable to pay due to K-12 in order to stitch contributors’ disparities throughout the state. “Gaming the chapters together into a coherent and compelling narrative about the rela- College Access Project for African System” charges that the majority of the UC tionships between Los Angeles and Americans (CAPAA) campuses surveyed do not make adequate ef- forts to account for the disadvantages experi- being black in America. The volume will be published by NYU Press in Significant Developments enced by African Americans and other early 2010. underrepresented minorities in K-12 education. UC Admissions Study and Report In the end, the UC campuses’ over-reliance on Primary Research Since affirmative action was outlawed in inflated numbers dilutes the impact that a con- California’s public institutions (with the pas- sideration of other important indicators of The Center is working on various projects sage of Prop. 209 in 1996), the admit rate of merit (e.g., tenacity, creativity, commitment within the Black Los Angeles Project, African American undergraduates has declined to community service, or academic achieve- including two projects funded by the dramatically at almost every UC campus. The ment within the context of challenges) could Center for Community Partnerships inability of each campus to consider race in the and should have in the admissions process. In (CCP). Dr. Belinda Tucker is the PI for admissions process has had a disastrous effect light of this, the report presents recommenda- the first project titled “Examining the on diversity at most UC campuses. In 2002, tions on what the UC system, each UC cam- Needs of Adult Family and Close Ties of as a response to this crisis, the UC system de- pus, and the community can do to increase and Incarcerated Persons in L.A. County,” signed an admissions policy known as com- preserve diversity at each UC campus. which is in partnership with Friends prehensive review in order “to improve the Outside in Los Angeles County and the quality and fairness” of the UC admissions pro- Black Los Angeles Project UCLA Center for Culture and Health. It cess by mandating that campuses consider a sets out to present a detailed description of Black life in Los Angeles has been full range of students’ accomplishments, as well the psychosocial impacts of incarcertion understudied relative to other impor- as their experiences and circumstances. The on the adult family members and close tant African American urban areas admissions policy prohibits the consideration friends of inmates in California, particu- around the nation. Yet Los Angeles of race. larly in Los Angeles. The second project is has been and remains an essential reservoir of black activity whose input titled : “The Black Los Angeles Oral CAPAA researchers have been studying the on broader cultural, political and social History Project: Black Politicians and UC admissions process for the past couple of developments is insufficiently under- How They Make Community,” and is in years, culminating in the latest Bunche Research stood. The Ralph J. Bunche Center for partnership with the California African Report titled, “Gaming the System: Inflation, African American Studies at UCLA American Museum and the UCLA Center Privilege, and the Under-representation of aims to correct this oversight. The for Oral History Research (COHR). The African American Students at the University Center has been engaged in a multi-year Center is also conducting an ethnographic of California” (released January 2008). research initiative, The Black Los Angeles study that seeks to gain a comprehensive Project, a monumental undertaking that understanding of the purpose and functions explores the historical and contemporary “Gaming the System” examines how each UC of the political organization, the Alliance campus has operationalized comprehensive re- contours of L.A.’s black community by bringing together the work of scholars for Equal Opportunity in Education (AEOE). view and, more specifically, how each campus’ from across Southern California. The AEOE is a multi-organization admissions process affects African American collaborative comprised of national, state access to the UC system. The report assesses The culmination of this and local African American organiza- how well comprehensive review at each UC groundbreaking research will be the tions. This Los Angeles based organization campus (except UC Merced, which does not book, Black Los Angeles: American was formed in response to the staggeringly employ comprehensive review) addresses edu- Dreams and Racial Realities. Radically low numbers of African American students multi-disciplinary in approach and cational disparities and ensures ethnic and ra- accepted and enrolling in the freshman class comprehensive in scope, the 16-chapter cial diversity. In general, the report’s analysis at UCLA in June 2006. The mission of the of the operationalization of comprehensive re- volume will rely on detailed case studies of black life in Los Angeles in AEOE is to provide educational oppor- view at each UC campus indicates a commit- order to connect the dots between the tunity and access to higher education for ment to evaluating students beyond traditional city’s racial past, present, and future. underrepresented students through indicators of merit by considering applicants’ Black Los Angeles: American Dreams activism, advocacy, and legal efforts. personal achievements and life challenges to de- and Racial Realities is not the the For more information on any of the research termine their admissions decisions. typical anthology. Each of its case projects at the Bunche Center, visit study chapters, in its own way, www.bunchecenter.ucla.edu.

4 INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN CULTURES (IAC)

Each year the IAC, an administrative entity about the project. identity formation that resulted from this composed of UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers, first encounter. with oversight from the UCLA Graduate IAC Research Grants: Division, sponsors a competitive fellowship and Janira Teague (History), Grad Student, “Af- grant program to support research by faculty, Walter Allen (Education), Faculty, rican-Americanization: African Americans visiting postdoctoral scholars, and graduate “Globalism, Higher Education, and Diver- and Immigrants of African Descent in the students. sity: Trends, Prospects and Challenges.” Dr. United States Construct a Black Identity.” Allen seeks to examine the comparative ex- Ms. Teague plans to conduct an important periences of students across international This year the Center has awarded one post- project that will examine intraracial relations higher education contexts at selective flag- doctoral fellowship, one pre-doctoral fellow- among African descendants (African Ameri- ship institutions and how these experiences ship, and seven faculty/student research cans and Caribbean immigrants) in the United shape the preparation of college students for grants (including one interethnic grant. States from the emancipation of Blacks in diverse global societies. America to the mid-1920s. Predoctoral Fellowship: Tina Henderson (Psychiatry), Faculty, “A Christina Zanfagna’s (Ethnomusicology) Discussion with African American Ministers Michael Stoll (Public Policy), Faculty, proposed project, Flippin’ the Script(ure) in the in Los Angeles.” Due to the lack of HIV/ “Redlining or Risk? Race and Auto Insur- City of Angels: Hip-Hop, Christianity, and the AIDS discourse in African American ance Rates in Los Angeles.” Dr. Stoll plans Politics of Salvation, examines the complex churches, Dr. Henderson plans to form Af- to use a unique data set to examine the rela- manner that commercialized cultural forms rican American minister focus groups to tive influence of place-based socioeconomic such as hip-hop mix with religious practices identify attitudes and beliefs which act as characteristics (or “redlining”) and place- in urban settings. One of her advisors states barriers towards servicing HIV-infected based risk factors on the place-based com- that her research would provide a “much congregants, to identify the psychosocial and ponent of automobile insurance premiums needed ethnographic perspective” on hip-hop cultural factors associated with sexuality which will reveal whether there is support and “spirit” literature. We believe her research stigma, and to explore attitudinal and be- for claims of racial discrimination in setting would be a “welcomed asset and contribution” havioral differences by geographical location. of auto insurance rates. to the Black Los Angeles Project at the Bunche Center. We hope to foster an intellectual com- Ernest Morrell* (Education), Faculty, “Life * Interethnic research grant recipient munity in hip-hop and ethnic studies, particu- in Our Schools: Youth Research, College housed at the Bunche Center. larly African American Studies, which has al- Access, and Educational Reform.” Dr. ready begun at UCLA through the Working Morrell seeks to investigate the potential of Group in Hip-Hop Cultural Studies. apprenticing African American and Latino teens in urban Los Angeles as action research- Postdoctoral Fellowship: ers of conditions in their schools to inform conversations about urban school reform Libby Lewis (African American Studies and and to increase the college access of the stu- Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) Libby dents involved. Lewis has a Ph.D. in African American Stud- ies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Stud- Chinyere Osuji (Sociology), Grad Stu- ies from UC Berkeley. She completed her doc- dent, “Black-White Interracial Marriage toral studies in September 2008. Dr. Lewis’ in Los Angeles and Rio de Janiero.” Ms. project is titled The Monolithic Media Myth: Osuji will examine black-white interra- Struggle Over Representations of “Blackness” in cial unions in two “marriage markets”— Television News. Dr. Lewis seeks to under- Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles—and stand how notions of “Blackness” circulate in uncover whether notions of “color-blind- U.S. corporate television news media and how ness” and/or “racial democracy” are part dominant readings of raced, gendered, sexual- of the discourse of people in unions in ized bodies are exercised and struggled over Brazil and the U.S., as well as the impli- in the knowledge production process of the cations of these relationships for racial media. Her project explores strategic and tac- inequality in both societies. tical patterns employed by Black journalists to grapple with notions of “Blackness” in their Susan Solt (Afro-American Studies), Grad news coverage throughout the African Student, “OTHELLO, the Signifying Moor: Diaspora. Dr. Lewis plans to conduct twenty Africa and the Matter of Race in Shakespeare’s additional extensive interviews and to work England.” Ms. Solt will examine the rela- on her manuscript, while working on an ac- tionship between the English and Africans companying DVD in the age of Shakespeare and the issues of

5 Elaine Brown cont’d Anna Devere Smith

Lectures and Special Events own, we have a duty to come on back home, 2007-2008 we have a duty to do everything we can to raise up our people and to remember our- UCLA Black Convocation, selves, and to remember that we are still not co-sponsored with the African free, that we are living in the house that we Student Union, the Interdepartmen- built with our blood. tal Program for Afro-American We must never forget that it was Studies, the UCLA Office of Student the blood that brought us here. We have a Affairs, the UCLA Black Alumni duty to commit our lives and our life’s work, Association, the UCLA Black Staff like the people that we know before us, like and Faculty Association, the Black Thurgood Marshall, like Dr. King, and all Graduation Student Association, and those unnamed, anonymous heroes and the James S. Coleman African Studies sheroes, and people who gave so much. You Center, the Academic Advancement got the people who say, ‘oh, we died for the Program October 2, 2007. vote.’ No, we didn’t die for the vote. We died to put people in office who were going to Coloring the Vote: Race, Politics and take care of business. Fannie Lou Hamer Disenfranchisement, sponsored with the didn’t give her eye just for us to vote, but for American Indian Studies Center, Asian us to vote for someone who was going to American Studies Center, Chicano make a change in this country and in our Studies Research Center, and co- lives. So, I think that we have to get back to sponsored by the Graduate Division, this and that’s the message that I think [is] Center for Community Partnerships, the legacy of Thurgood Marshall and what Instituteof American Cultures, UCLA has happened at this school and other School of Law, UCLA School of Law schools and these Black Studies programs, Critical Race Studies Program, UCLA that we have to continue to commit our life’s Office of Faculty Diversity, UCLA work until one day we can say, in fact, that we Social Sciences-Colleges of Letters and are free at last, free at last. Thank you very Science, UCLA Student Affairs, UCLA much. Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics, January 26, 2008.

Live from Baghdad: Real World Intersections, by Jerry Quickley, Performance Poet, co-sponsored with the Center for Performance Studies, Janaury 24, 2008.

Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales, by Patrick Johnson, sponsored with the Center for Performance Studies and the Department of Theater, February 21, 2008.

Re-Framing Merit: Strategies for Impacting Media and Community Perspectives on African American Access to Higher Education, College Access Project for African Americans Symposium, with Keynote speaker, Lani Guinier, May 16, 2008.

8 UCLA FACULTY UPDATES and AWARDS Faculty Awards

Walter Allen, Professor, Department of Education was awarded the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Presidential Citation for his commitment to the production of high-quality social science research on matters of pressing important to many publics. He was honored for his significant re- search contributions focused on higher education, race and ethnicity, family patterns, and social inequality.

Vickie Mays, Professor, Department of Psychology and Department of Health Services received several awards including American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2007 Award for Distinguished Contributions for Research on Public Policy, the APA’s 2007 Master Lecture in the Area of Health Psychology, the Western Psychological Association’s 2007 inaugural annual award for Social Responsibility for her work on Katrina and Mental Health Disaster Response.

Ernest Morrell, Associate Professor of Education, Urban Schooling and Associate Director for Youth Re- search at the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) was awarded the Education Department’s distinguised teaching award for his phenomenal teaching and mentoring in his undergraduate, doctoral, and TEP courses.

M. Belinda Tucker, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, joined the Graduate Division as Associate Dean on September 1, 2007.

Antronette Yancey, Professor School of Public Health, received a Center for Disease Control grant totaling $4.25 million over five years to address health disparities related to heart disease, stroke and cancer among African Americans, Latinos and Asians at the local, state and national level.

The Roxanne Chisholm and Jeannette Chisolm Moore Endowed Scholarship will be used to support students interested in African American Studies.

10 During the past year, the Bunche Center has gener- ated substantial news interest. In particular, our ongoing CAPAA Research Reports examining the admissions policies on UC campuses have garnered attention in the media throughout the nation and beyond. Some of the outlets that have featured the Bunche Center include the following:

2009 Thurgood Ad Week Cape Times (South Africa) Chronicle of Higher Education Marshall Lecture Daily Bruin Daily News of Los Angeles Diverse Issues in Higher Education Globe Trekker Keynote Speaker Inside Higher Education KCSB-91.9 FM (Santa Barbara) KJLH – 102.3 FM KNBC – Channel 4 Manning Marable, KPFK - 90.7 FM KTLA - Channel 5 La Opinion Columbia University LAist Los Angeles Sentinel Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Wave April 16, 2009 New York Times Our Weekly 6:00pm reception PR Newswire Speak Up Radio 7:00pm lecture State News Service Targeted News Service TV One Grand Horizon Room, Covel Commons UCLA Today University Wire US Fed News

11 Jakobi Williams, Circle of Thought, 3/07/08 Lani Guinier, CAPAA Conference, 5/16/08 Kara Walker, Circle of Thought, 2/07/08 photo by Adona Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co., photo by Jaya Howey

Bunche Review, Vol. 7 (edited by Darnell Hunt, Ana-Christina Ramon & Jan Freeman)

Darnell Hunt, Director; Ana-Christina Ramon, Assistant Director, Research; Jan Freeman, Management Services Officer; Veronica Benson, Financial Officer; Elmer Almer, Accounting Assistant; Alex Tucker, Special Projects & Community Outreach Coordinator; Ulli K. Ryder, Senior Editor, CAAS Publications; Dawn Jefferson, Grants Editor; Yeng Vang, Tech Support; Lisbeth Gant-Britton, Student Affairs Officer; Dalena Hunter, Librarian, and Yolanda Jones, Front Office Coordinator.

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA 160 Haines Hall Box 951545 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1545

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12 2008 Speaker: Elaine Brown

was that we had been free between April the time, and so forth and so on. But, the do this and Lyndon Johnson had nothing of 1968 and November of 1993. I must fact was that Martin Luther King would to do with this. have slept through it because I remem- have never said that. Martin Luther King The Black Panther Party formed in ber being in the Black Panther Party loved people. He didn’t condemn Black 1966, in October, and a new wave of identity from April of 1968 until 1978 and think- people and poor people. Even though he and politics came into being because we ing that I was fighting for freedom. I re- was a graduate of Morehouse, which he talked about revolutionary change and not member when Dr. King said that we entered at 16 years old, he could have gone just questions, because Dr. King himself weren’t free. If I didn’t know we weren’t off into the sunset like a whole lot of said, you know, “where do you go from here? free, he was telling us that we were going preachers and just gotten his little church. We’ve got the ’64 Civil Rights Act, Voting to Washington to cash our check, get our He made a choice to work for his people Rights Act, but where do we go from here? reparations, get some redistribution of and see himself as a part of a community When I look out over America, I see an wealth, get some medical care and so of people, to devote his life to that. He America in which the Black person who has forth. But we’ve forgotten that. would not have condemned the poor built this entire country, but yet we still have He said the problem was the because we know that he was assassinated only half of what is good and double of break down of the Black family. I was while organizing the poor people’s what is bad,” Dr. King said [this] before he thinking to myself, that probably happened campaign. So, Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. somewhere in the 1600s when we started wouldn’t have condemned the poor and During this same period, we had a being piled on to those ships and taken said further criminalizing poor women, lot of Panthers uprising. In San Francisco, from the continent and taken from our when we know that the poor of the there was a huge uprising going on in San mothers and fathers, our history and so country, of the world, are women and Francisco State over development of a Black forth. Then he said what about those their children. He would have never said Studies program matter and that was by pro- unwed teen mothers? Those bad girls that. test. What happened here at UCLA was a laying up having all those babies, not even similar thing. There was a design for a pro- caring about themselves and messing up Legacy gram that the students weren’t involved in the Black community by having unwed and the students said, we’ve got to have stu- children? As a product of an unwed What little progress we have made dent involvement in these programs, and of mother, I took offense at that. As a child I is because our people fought and we died course, at that January 7th 1969 meeting, there was often called illegitimate, and I often and we paid in blood, and it was not be- was a dispute over whether or not the stu- wondered what made me illegitimate or a cause of the benevolence of anyone, but dents had the right. Those people who were bastard. The irony of that statement is of from the struggle that our people put for- targeted to be killed that day, were my friends, course, that the highest number of teen ward, and we’re here to honor and talk about John Huggins and Bunchy Carter. I was pregnancies in America, the highest the legacy of Thurgood Marshall, then we there, so I’m here to tell you that I know it percentage came in the 1950s, not in the have to remember Brown. was the blood that brought us here today, if 1990s. But we don’t let facts get in our way In 1954, we have this man you don’t know it, I’m here to testify for because we don’t want to like that sister in Thurgood Marshall, leading various cases that. the ‘hood. She’s like a Martian to us. together under the Brown theory, and little We, Black people, who were Clinton suggested that there was Linda Brown’s father saying, ‘wait a minute, brought out of the cotton fields and the rice nothing wrong with America. Something’s separate is not equal as to public education.’ paddies, who survived, we are the children wrong with you, having all these babies out When people tell me that Black people don’t of those that survived the beatings, the of wedlock, killing each other and what I’m care about education, you must have for- rapes, and the murders, the loss of genera- going to help you do is I’m going to help gotten about the blood that was shed in tion upon generation, and resisted, genera- you with the 3 strikes crime bill and 1954, ‘55, ‘56, to enforce Brown. Little tion upon generation, we are the children of everybody went for it. But for the Black Autherine Lucy with her little dress and little those who fought and survived the chain Caucus that bill wouldn’t have passed; and Ruby Bridges that we see in the pictures that gang, the Klan, the Black codes, Plessy, and so that criminalized a lot of people. As we Norman Rockwell painted, had the momma the failure of Brown. We are the children of well know, here in the state of California, had to wring the spit out of the dress, send- those who defended our people against this burgeoning population of prisoners [is] ing her child to school, thinking if I get an lynchings, who protested, who resisted, who doubling, and of course, most [are] Black education, maybe I’ll be free, in 1954. Have tried to overcome, and did overcome some- men. That’s the result of the 3 strikes crime we forgotten everything? This wasn’t a Civil times, all that Jim Crow meant, who got bill and we went for that because we said, Rights Movement, it was a freedom move- beatin’ down and rose up anyway, and up- well, he’s right, we need to fix ourselves. ment. “Oh freedom, oh freedom over me, lifted the rest of us. I know it was the blood What is wrong with us? and before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my and we have to remember that and stop pre- Then there was that Shaniqua grave.” This was a freedom movement, tending that something is wrong with having all those babies. He says, well, I’m 1964, ‘65, Civil Rights, and Voting Rights Shaniqua and Dante and those little Black going to help her too. I’m going to give Act. Hillary Clinton tells us that Lyndon children that we don’t like sometimes, and you the welfare reform bill, we’re not paying Johnson did this. Lyndon Johnson didn’t think they made bad choices. We did not get anymore for those out-of-wedlock little here on our own, we did not raise up on our children that she’s laying up having all

7 THURGOOD MARSHALL LECTURE on LAW & HUMAN RIGHTS

bad choices, some sort of new age wrong- Dr. King gave his last great speech and he doing, or maybe it’s even genetic. As far as talked about in Memphis, Tennessee that some people are concerned, maybe we’re just night before he was assassinated and Dr. lazy and that’s why we have so many prob- King said, “I’m not fearing any man tonight, lems in the Black community. Otherwise, we I’ve been to the mountain top seeing the can’t explain it because racism is over and it’s other side, knowing we’re going to get there. all about personal choices. It’s all about what Might not get there with you but we as people we’ve done and what we haven’t done. will get there.” We all love that last moment and Dr. King’s voice so powerful and so We see, “act Black” academics who wonderful. I want to just make note here are running around talking about there are because there is this notion that the Black two nations of Black America. We have Dr. Panthers were these violent people and Gates talking about, “these brothers in the Dr. King was non-violent and that we hood are like Martians to me.” And we look didn’t like him. He was as much our at some of these people, like Bill Cosby put- hero as Malcolm X. We loved Dr. King ting down Shaniqua [and] Dante, talking and many of us still do see him as a hero about how ridiculous they are, walking and also a revolutionary, not some 2-di- around with their names, and they’re never mensional person that has been rein- New Age Racism going to amount to anything, as though vented over the years as somebody who Oprah and Condoleezza were not ghetto was not a serious struggle fighter for the Thank you very much Daniel. I names. liberation of all oppressed people. want to thank Dr. Darnell Hunt and certainly We have gotten to a point where everyone at the Bunche Center for allowing we have whitewashed the truth. We know it me this opportunity to participate in this was the blood that brought us here, we important forum. I particularly want to make didn’t get here because we were really, really note that you are holding fast to the spirit of smart. We have people like Condoleezza Rice, Justice Marshall and his effort to guarantee a who opposed Affirmative Action when she meaningful education to Black students. was the Provost of Stanford University, and [When] I thought about what I would say yet, she came in to Stanford University on an here tonight I thought of a Mahalia Jackson Affirmative Action program as a professor. song, “I know it was the blood, I know it You have Clarence Thomas who went to was the blood, I know it was the blood for Holy Cross on a King scholarship and has me.” I’m going to talk a little bit about that, almost destroyed the whole notion of [and] what that means. Somewhere in the worker’s rights, employment and equal op- night of time, I think we’ve lost the thread portunity. We have Wardell Connerly. Wardell of community, why we all came together and Connerly and Connerly Associates got all of some of the things that brought us here in their money by referring to himself as a mi- the first place. nority owned business and getting Pete Wil- People are saying that “We are in son to give him money as a minority owned the post-racial period.” That means there’s business and now advocating the end of no more real racism and so there’s no more Affirmative Action. So we have got to get debt to pay, no more reparations, no more back to who we have always been and begin worrying about anything else. I think that to understand that we did get here from The Black Community one of the things [that] is beginning to per- somewhere and it wasn’t because we’re all meate our discussion, [is] that we don’t re- really smart or did any work or did anything. Bill Clinton had this incredible member that we are a people and that we are Many of us Blacks [have] become statement, talking to all these black people at still struggling for something. We are [say- advocates for what I call New Age racism. the church, he said “I look out at you and I ing] that we have come to the end of Black- We say that this is a sort of new age choice think to myself what would Martin say if he ness and the Black problems of America. The and [in] this nation that so many Black were alive today?” Here was Bill Clinton say- “white man’s burden,” as it used to be called, people are living in such desperate and dis- ing that if he were to look out into the black has now been effectively lifted and we can all parate ways, we say that it’s something about community today in November 1993, 1 year go forward as though there was no history personal choice. I pegged this [thinking] to after Clinton was elected, saying “I think and no struggle and no blood that has been Bill Clinton, that would be Hillary’s husband. Martin would say I died for your freedom shed. As a result, we’ve come to the conclu- The reason that I peg it to him is because in but look what you’ve done with it.” Black sion that the disparities that we suffer today 1993 Bill Clinton stood in the pulpit where people started saying this is terrible. “You in America as an oppressed group of people [are] right Master Clinton. We messed up are the result of personal failures, individual freedom.” I was trying to wonder when it

6 SPECIAL LECTURES

CIRCLE OF THOUGHT AUTHORS’ SERIES 40th ANNIVERSARY

October 12, 2007 David H. Anthony, February 11, 2008. The Bunche Center will celebrate 40 Senta Georgia, Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Yergan: Race Man, Internationalist, years of service to the UCLA and Los Hillblom Islet Research Center, Stop and Cold Warrior Angeles communities during the Go: Beta Cells, Cell Cycle and Implications for 2009-10 year. We are planning many Emerging Diabetic Therapeutics. Camille F. Forbes, February 13, 2008. wonderful activities that will be open Introducing Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, to the public. In the fall we will have February 8, 2008 Broadway, and the Story of America’s a kick-off event to set the tone for the Deidre Cooper Owens, Doctoral Candi- First Black Star whole year. We are planning a retro- date, Department of History, UCLA, On spective, special lectures and talks, an exhibition and many other activities Equal Footing?: A Medical History of Kara Walker, February 27, 2008. throughout the year. Please check our Enslaved and Irish-Immigrant Women. Kara Walker: My Complement, My website later in the year for more in- Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love formation. March 7, 2008 Jakobi Williams, Doctoral Candidate, Scott Kurashige, February 28, 2008. www.bunchecenter.ucla.edu Department of History, UCLA, Police The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Radical Coalition Politics in Chicago: Fred Japanese Americans in the Making of Hampton, the Chicago Branch of the Black Multiethnic Los Angeles. Panther Party and the Rainbow Coalition.

May 9, 2008 Densmore Scholarship Adderley Scholarship Mignon Moore, Assistant Professor, In 1991-92 John Densmore (former This scholarship was established in 1976 to Department of Sociology and Afro- drummer for the musical group The honor the memory of the renowned jazz American Studies, UCLA, Still a Child Doors) established an endowment fund musician Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. of God: Contradictions and Cohesion in to support UCLA undergraduates Awards are made on a competitive basis to the Negotiation of Community Life for who have demonstrated outstanding undergraduate students specializing in Afro- Black Gay Women. academic achievement, with preference American Studies, music, and related areas. given to Afro-American Studies ma- Adam Shumate was the recipient for the Lisbeth Gant-Britton, February 1, 2008. jors. Phyllis Thompson was the award 2007-08 academic year. The Center contin- ues to solicit corporate and private dona- African American History: Heroes in winner for this academic year. tions to replenish the fund. Hardship

UPDATES CAAS PUBLICATIONS LIBRARY & MEDIA FUNDRAISING & CENTER DEVELOPMENT The CAAS Publications unit oversees the The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African The fundraising dinner in April 2008 editing, production, marketing, and sales American Studies Library & Media commemorated the 19th anniversary of of texts relevant to the culture and history Center (LMC) supports academic the Thurgood Marshall Lecture series. of people of African descent. programs and research projects in African American Studies and provides A donor via the the Getty Fund con- The publication Resistance, Dignity, and specialized reference, collection and tributed matching funds for the Black Pride: African American Artists in Los information services on diverse aspects Los Angeles research project. Angeles by Paul Von Blum is available in of African American life, history and limited quantities. This book is culture in the Diaspora. Various donors contributed to the essential for scholars of African Director’s discretionary fund American art and Los Angeles history The LMC hired an Assistant Librarian, during 2007-08. as well as those interested in visual Dalena Hunter in 2007-08. culture and civil rights . Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities, a multidisciplinary vol- Resistance, Dignity, and Pride ume that explores the historical and contemporary contours of Los Angeles’ black $20.00 community, will be released in spring 2010 by NYU Press. The volume is a cul- (price does not include shipping) mination of the Bunche Center’s Black Los Angeles Project. It includes chapters by Bunche Center-affiliated faculty and is edited by Bunche Center Director, Check our Web site for order forms: Darnell Hunt, and Assistant Director for Research, Ana-Christina Ramon. www.bunchecenter.ucla.edu

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