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Home , Amiri Baraka, Derrick Bell, Manning Marable

REVIEWREVIEW Volume 8 2008-2009

Manning Marable’s 2009 Lecture and more . . .

1 MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

The UCLA Center for Afro-American Studies (now the *Library and Media Center — The Bunche Center’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at Library and Media Center (LMC) is one of the largest UCLA) was founded in 1969 and is celebrating its 40th libraries West of the focusing on African anniversary during the academic year, 2009-2010. American issues. Open to the public, the LMC features more than 8000 volumes, journals, CDs, The original proposal to create the Center noted that DVDs, cassette tapes, photographs, newspapers, and “[d]espite the obvious importance of Afro- vertical files on a wide array of topics related to ...neither the public at large nor scholars know African American history, experiences, and culture. very much about the precise role of Afro-Americans in American life, past and present....This situation has *Public Lectures/Conferences/Teach-Ins — Since its encouraged among the growth and founding, the Bunche Center has sponsored more than spreading of ideas and attitudes that are not only incorrect 400 major public events focused on research of but destructive to the most important, admirable values significance to black communities. Americans affirm. At the same time, ignorance on the part of black Americans about the history and culture of their *Public Intellectuals, Artists and Black Leaders — race in America has left them sadly vulnerable to the Since its founding, the Bunche Center has brought corrosive effects of American and has reduced their hundreds of renowned public intellectuals, artists and ability to understand and control the forces and attitudes black leaders to UCLA and to Los Angeles. Among the presently shaping their lives.” most notable (in alphabetical order): Chinua Achebe; ; ; ; Claude Forty years later, unfortunately, these words still ring true. Brown; Mary Frances Berry; Harry Belafonte; ; Despite the fact that America elected its first black Julian Bond; Elaine Brown; Octavia Butler; Stokeley president last year, much work remains to be done in the Carmichael; Johnnie Cochran, Jr.; ; St. Clair arena of racial equality. The mass of black Americans Drake; ; Henry Louis Gates; Lani continue to lag behind their non-black counterparts on Guinier; A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.; ; C.L.R. nearly every measure of socioeconomic status, prestige, James; ; Rev. James Lawson; Audre and wellbeing. Lourde; Manning Marable; ; Nell Irvin Painter; Deval Patrick; Marlon Riggs; Randall The Bunche Center, throughout its forty-year history, has Robinson; Gil Scott-Heron; Anna Deveare Smith; Ivan contributed mightily to our understanding of this reality, Van Sertima; ; Roger Wilkins; Juan Williams; to the unique and vexing challenges confronting blacks in William Julius Wilson; and Andrew Young. America and throughout the diaspora: Chancellor Gene Block has established academic *Research — Since its founding in 1969, the Bunche year 2009-2010 as “Celebrating 40 Years of Center has funded more than 350 students and scholars Ethnic Studies at UCLA.” Please join us as we conducting research into the experiences of blacks in commemorate the Center’s 40-year legacy and look America and beyond. The Center has also organized ahead to the challenges and opportunities of the dozens of research projects of particular significance for next 40. black communities, such as the Cultural Studies in the African Diaspora Project, the College Access Project for Darnell M. Hunt , and the Black Los Angeles Project. Director

*Publications — Bunche Center-generated grants, Center staff and faculty, and the Center’s CAAS publications have contributed over the years to hundreds of journal articles, books, monographs, and research reports on issues of significance to black communities. Its newest sponsored publication, Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities, is forthcoming from University Press (May 2010).

2 SUMMER HUMANITIES INSTITUTE 2009

The Summer Humanities Institute (SHI) Past participants have continued their provides intense training in humanities education at universities such as UCLA, scholarship to students primarily from Carnegie Mellon, Indiana Univerity, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities Georgetown University. (HBCUs). Generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the SHI is SHI Participant Comments: designed to prepare the participants for academic work at the graduate level. This “All of the mentors were very helpful and year we welcomed ten undergraduates from very open to meeting with us. The the following schools: seminars were excellent”. — Melanie Chambliss Clark Atlanta University “I absolutely enjoyed the seminars. The Hampton University interdisciplinary approach is great. Dr. Moore was a phenomenal mentor who Morehouse College truly helped me advance in my research.” Paine College — Tatiana Benjamin North Carolina Central University Spelman College The Leimert Park field course was a “Wonderful experience for interactive learning”. — Eric Stephens

DEGREE PROGRAMS IN AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES Dr. Brenda Stevenson (History) continued As a department, Afro-American Studies will graduate school and other professional as Chair of the IDP. continue to draw on the strengths of core endeavors, the IDP encourages both Graduate Program Afro-American Studies and Bunche Center undergraduates and graduates to present The current two-year MA Program in Afro- professors, as well as affiliated faculty in other conference papers of the research they have American Studies continues to attract a wide departments. Afro-American Studies faculty undertaken while at UCLA. range of top young graduate-level scholars continue to be committed to developing who wish to ground themselves in key theo- students’ critical thinking skills to allow schol- The IDP hopes that donors will come retical issues regarding African Americans and ars to analyze African American issues and forward to provide funding for these the Diaspora. Several of the most recent situate them within the matrix of global con- undertakings and other programmatic graduating cohort have gone on to PhD pro- cerns. endeavors. grams, and others have plans to do so. There Program Administration is also an MA/JD Program in which stu- In order to facilitate the admissions process, For more information, please contact Dr. dents spend one year in the Interdepartmen- Chair Dr. Brenda Stevenson maintains an Lisbeth Gant-Britton at 310.825.3776, tal M.A. Program and three years in the UCLA Law School. IDP Admissions and Awards Committee, [email protected],web: www.afro- am.ucla.edu. Departmentalization Proposal composed of affiliated faculty. The committee discusses and votes on key issues In order for the Afro-American Studies IDP to regarding potential graduate students and grow and develop, the IDP Committee has assists in making recommendations for begun to prepare a proposal to the university admissions and awards to the Graduate for departmentalization. Division. To support students preparing for

3 RESEARCH

Established as an organized research unit (ORU) The second project is titled : “The in 1969, the Ralph J. Bunche Center for Black Los Angeles Project Black Los Angeles Oral History African American Studies at UCLA has a Project: Black Politicians and How Black life in Los Angeles has been under- primary commitment to undertake and They Make Community,” and is in sponsor research that enhances our studied relative to other important African partnership with the African American understanding of the history, lifestyles, American urban areas around the nation. Museum and the UCLA Center for material conditions, and sociocultural systems Yet Los Angeles has been and remains an of women and men of African descent in the essential reservoir of black activity whose Oral History Research (COHR). Americas, and in the Diaspora. input on broader cultural, political and social developments is insufficiently For more information on any of the research projects at the Bunche Center, visit Primary Research understood. The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA aims www.bunchecenter.ucla.edu. Studying Community Action to correct this oversight. The Center has been engaged in a multi-year research Funding Received CAPAA researchers completed an ethno- initiative, The Black Los Angeles Project, a graphic study that sought to gain a monumental and historic undertaking that The Center received an archival grant for comprehensive understanding of the explores the historical and contemporary $25,000 from the Haynes Foundation to purpose and functions of the political contours of L.A.’s black community by digitize archival materials in the library organization, the Alliance for Equal bringing together the work of scholars media center. Opportunity in Education (AEOE). The from across Southern California. AEOE is a multi-organization collabora- The Center received a $10,000 award from tive comprised of national, state and local The culmination of this groundbreaking the California Program on Opportunity African American organizations. Member research will be the book, Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities. and Equity (CalPOE), the UCLA Chicano groups include the NAACP, the Los Radically multi-disciplinary in approach and Studies Research Center and funds from Angeles Urban League, the Southern comprehensive in scope, the 16-chapter the Willam and Flora Hewlett Foundation Christian Leadership Conference of Los volume will rely on detailed case studies of to conduct analysis on the Los Angeles Angeles, the African American Collabora- black life in Los Angeles in order to connect County Social Survey (LACSS). tive, the Brotherhood Crusade, local the dots between the city’s racial past, present, and future. Each of its case churches, the UCLA Black Alumni Forthcoming Publication Association, and the UCLA African study chapters, in its own way, connects with five central themes that focus the Student Union. This Los Angeles-based Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial volume: communities and neighbor- organization was formed in response to Realities, a multidisciplinary volume that hoods; political participation; religious the staggeringly low numbers of African life; cultural production; and social explores the historical and contemporary American students accepted and enrolling justice. Historical and contemporary controus of Los Angeles’s black commu- in the freshman class at UCLA in June of anecdotes employ oral histories, maps, nity, will be released in spring 2010 by 2006. The mission of the AEOE is to photographic images, demographic data, NYU Press. The volume is a culmination provide educational opportunity and access and other statistics in order to stitch of the Bunche Center’s Black Los Angeles to higher education to underrepresented contributors’ chapters together into a Project. It includes chapters by Bunche students through activism, advocacy, and coherent and compelling narrative Center-affiliated faculty and is edited by legal efforts. about the relationships between Los Bunche Center Director, Darnell Hunt, and Angeles and being black in America. Assistant Director, Ana-Christina Ramon. The volume will be published by NYU Through observations gathered from Press in early 2010. attending AEOE meetings, and hour- long, in-depth interviews with AEOE Primary Research members, this study investigated how and The Center is working on various projects why the organization was founded, how it within the Black Los Angeles Project. In functions, its challenges and accomplish- 2008-09, two projects are funded by the ments, its membership’s commitment, Center for Community Partnerships (CCP). and its future. Most importantly, this Dr. Belinda Tucker is the PI for the first study’s findings revealed a model of project titled “Examining the Needs of effective community collaboration that may Adult Family and Close Ties of Incarcer- be used in other cities across the country. ated Persons in L.A. County,” which is in The findings will be released in a chapter partnership with Friends Outside in Los of the Black Los Angeles book in spring Angeles County and the UCLA Center for 2010. Culture and Health. It sets out to present a detailed description of the psychosocial impacts of incarcertion on the adult family members and close friends of inmates in California, particularly in Los Angeles.

4 INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN CULTURES (IAC)

Each year the IAC, an administrative entity IAC Research Grants: Natasha Rivers, Grad Student, Geogra- composed of UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers, phy, “An Evaluation of Historical and with oversight from the UCLA Graduate Lorrie Frasure, Faculty, Political Science, Contemporary Sub-Saharan African Division, sponsors a competitive fellowship and “Multiracial Politics after Obama: Results Migration to and within the United grant program to support research by faculty, from the Collaborative Multiracial Post States.” Rivers aims to highlight the visiting postdoctoral scholars, and graduate Election Survey.” Frasure will use data diversity of black groups in the United students. from the Collaborative Multiracial Post- States and also to address the immigration election Survey to examine respondents’ and community services needed for African This year the Center has awarded one post- views about the impact of a deracialized Diaspora groups, both immigrant and doctoral fellowship, one pre-doctoral fellow- campaign strategy in the context of the native born. ship, and seven faculty/student research 2008 Presidential Election. grants (including one interethnic grant). Jesse Ruskin, Grad Student, Ethno- Negin Ghavami, Grad Student, Psychol- musicology, “Teaching Tradition, Market- Visiting Scholar: ogy, “Black and White ing Culture: Educators, Entrepeneurs, and Racism: The Effects of Proposition 8.” the Globalization of the Yoruba Talking Dr. Robert Singleton, is the Bunche Ghavami examines how black gay men and Drum.” Ruskin will focus on the educa- Center’s 2009-2010 IAC Visiting Scholar. lesbians fare with rejection from both the tional and community-based work of Dr. Singleton was the Bunche Center’s first black community and the gay/lesbian Nigerian Yoruba “talking drummers” in director in 1969. He is a professor at community in light of the passage of two major American cities, Atlanta and San Loyola Marymount University teaching California’s Prop. 8. Francisco. Labor Economics, Urban Economics, Local Economic Development, and Nataria Joseph, Grad Student, Psychol- Regional Economics. Dr. Singleton ogy, “Stress and Sociocultural Resilience in UC PRESIDENTIAL proposed to study the efforts behind the African American Hurricane Katrina POSTDOC founding of the Center for African Survivors: Stress Exposure and Perceived American Studies at UCLA by conduct- Stress Endurance Beliefs as Predictors of Libby Lewis ing interviews of those involved and Mood and Cortisol.” Joseph seeks to researching the UCLA Archives. determine which cultural and mainstream Dr. Lewis’ work as a television news factors continue to protect African Ameri- anchor/reporter for CBS and NBC is what Predoctoral Fellowship: can Hurricane Katrina survivors from life motivated her interest in television news. stress-associated vulnerability to mental She gave a lecture that examined how Erica Morales, a doctoral candidate in the and physical health difficulties. notions of “Blackness” are circulated and Department of Sociology, will be the resisted in the corporate Bunche Center’s 2009-2010 IAC Mignon Moore, Faculty, Afro-American television news media. She examined how Predoctoral Fellow. Ms. Morales’ project, Studies/Sociology, “Social Histories of dominant readings of raced, gendered, “Unpacking Blackness: How Black African American Lesbians and Gay Elders: and sexualized subjectivities are Undergraduate Students Define and A Two-City Study.” Moore will collect oral exercised and struggled over in the Express Black Racial Identity,” will examine history and video-recorded interviews for a knowledge production process of how class and gender influence the ways pilot study for African American LGBT television news. Her research project black students at UCLA experience their elders born in or before 1954 to examine attempted to better understand how race on campus. how they understood and experienced a relations of power and representations gay sexuality in the context of other group of “Blackness” operate in corporate memberships based on race, gender, and newsroom culture. Dr. Lewis also class during the and liberation examined television news and its movements. professionalizing process; the ways in which “Blackness” is promoted Chinyere Osuji, Grad Student, Sociology, through the lens of the dominant “Marriage and Mistura: Black-White culture order and grid of intelligibility; Interracial Marriage in Los Angeles and Rio how “Blackness” is placed spatially and de Janeiro.” Osuji seeks to compare the geographically and how Black journal- experiences of black-white couples in Rio ists negotiate race, gender, and sexuality de Janeiro with those of black-white differences in a hetero-normative couples in Los Angeles. newsroom culture.

5 THURGOOD MARSHALL LECTURE on LAW & HUMAN RIGHTS Manning Marable’s Lecture ...My talk this evening is titled, cultural, and commercial contacts with branch organization, who was brutally “Thurgood Marshall, , and Africa, the Caribbean, and other regions in assassinated in front of his home and the struggle for human rights.” I believe the African Diaspora, and the construction family in June 1963; Septima Poinsette that there is a long arc, a trajectory that of an African American centered cultural Clark who created the Citizenship Educa- brings together the contributions of set of rituals, traditions, and identities that tion Program, which taught thousands of Thurgood Marshall with the trajectory of reinforce an oppositional politics to the poor and illiterate African Americans to hope and vision that Barack Obama U.S. nation-state. read and to write and to register to vote; represents. The fundamental impulse From the vantage point of the courageous Ella Baker, veteran of Civil behind all of African American history and contemporary Black history, modern Rights organizations who inspired the all Black American social movements African American political history actually creation of SNNC-the Student Non- throughout U.S. history has been the quest begins with two signature events that Violent Coordinating Committee in 1960; for freedom and for human rights. occurred roughly (50-55) years ago. The the legendary Fannie Lou Hamer, a former Throughout much of the long first of these events, which I will talk cotton field laborer who was co-founder of nightmare lasting nearly 250 years, freedom about in a few minutes, occurred on May the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, had a clear and unambiguous meaning to 17, 1954, the Brown v. Board of Educa- who challenged the racism of all-white those who were shackled together and tion decision of Topeka, Kansas. The delegation from Mississippi at the 1964 branded together, living by the whips and Brown victory was the culmination of Democratic convention in Atlantic City, on chain; it meant reuniting Black families that decades of legal and political efforts by the television.... had been divided and sold apart. Freedom NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other There had been a long tradition and human rights meant the ownership of civil rights organizations. of women and men who fought the fight farms and private property by Black people; Over 90 years after the Emancipa- for human rights and social justice, yet few it meant the personal and collective feelings tion Proclamation, African Americans stand as tall and few have had such a of safety and integrity that are guaranteed could demand of the federal government profound impact upon our history today by state power and Constitutional rights. their constitutional rights of a quality than Thurgood Marshall, born on July 2, Deeply embedded even within education for their children without the 1908, the younger of two sons of a poor these notions of freedom, moreover, were barriers and material inequities of Jim man railroad car porter and a school two strategic concepts implying the Crow, the U.S. version of what South teacher.... Both of his parents reinforced in collective action to maximize Black civic Africa called, Apartheid. him the expectation of achievement and capacity. The strongest of these was the The second political event self-confidence. His mother even pawned struggle for equality supported primarily occurred in Montgomery, Alabama on the her wedding ring and other precious items but not solely by the African American 1st of December 1955, when Rosa Parks, a to pay for her son’s tuition to enroll in the middle class—the diverse social movement respected seamstress, 43 years old and University of Maryland Law School, but that championed the cause of all racial NAACP local activist, refused to relinquish during the 1930’s, he was immediately segregation laws, the granting of Blacks’ her seat to a white man while riding on a rejected solely on the basis of his race. voting rights, and the guarantee of civil segregated public bus. Local Black labor Marshall decided, therefore, to attend liberties and the Constitutional rights union organizer Edie Nixon outraged by Howard University Law School, where he guaranteed to all citizens. Rosa Parks’ arrest, urged the African quickly rose to the top of his class as an A second tendency drawing American community in Montgomery to articulate, aggressive, and quarrelsome upon greater working-class support can stage a 1 day boycott—it was only sup- student.... In 1933, Marshall was awarded be described as the social movement for posed to last one single day. his law degree, his LLB, Magna Cum collective self-determination. Many African ...The Women’s Political Council, Laude. Americans perceived themselves as an headed up by Joann Robinson, was largely One of the first actions as legal oppressed nation or a national minority responsible for the success of the boycott. counsel of the NAACP chapter of group with a distinctive history, culture, ...Also a decision was made to select Dr. Baltimore, which must have given traditions, and a unique political history, King as the leader of the boycott, a Thurgood an immense amount of and as such they had the right to determine minister who was the youngest Black pleasure was to force the University of for themselves what kinds of political minister in the city and was the least Maryland Law School to admit its first arrangements should define Blacks’ influential in the city at the time.... African American student in 1935. relationships to the U.S. nation-state. In An unusual number of talented During the Great Depression, everyday political terms, African American and even extraordinary women and men Marshall developed a private practice in activists who favored this perspective since emerged during the Black Freedom Baltimore by taking on the most difficult the 19th century generally called themselves, Movement in the 1950’s and the 1960’s. [and] demanding Civil Rights cases one Black Nationalists. You can begin, of course, with Dr. King, after another.... He became Charles Tactically, Black Nationalist but then you go immediately to Ralph Hamilton Houston’s chief lieutenant in oriented social movements have encour- Abernathy, Martin’s closest friend and the legal department of the NAACP and aged the development of Black-owned confidante, one of the favorites; the he was appointed Houston’s successor in enterprises, the cultivation of a Black brilliant tactician Bayard Rustin; Medgar late 1938. business class, the initiation of political, Evers, the leader of Mississippi’s NAACP

6 2009 Speaker: Manning Marable

During the next 16 years, it was extends from cradle to grave, and I Rights organizations, was a clear, unam- Marshall who was the field commander in emphasize graveyard rather than the grave. biguous commitment to what the fight the legal assault against Jim Crow segrega- Or, to put it more bluntly, in many areas was about. Few of them entertained any tion. These were glorious days in the fight of this country, a white paroled murderer illusions about trying to get elected to for freedom, legal rights, and social justice, would be welcomed in places which would Congress. Their goal was the vigorous because in a series of brilliant legal maneu- at the same time exclude people such as advocacy of what they perceived to be vers, Marshall successfully argued case after Ralph Bunche, Marion Anderson, Jackie African Americans’ collective interests, and case before the Supreme Court. He won 29 Robinson, and many others.... to use the variety of means—nonviolent out of 32 cases.... But, the most important According to a recent statement demonstrations, economic boycotts, legal victory, of course, occurred on the by our State Department experts, nearly lobbying Congress to pass legislation, etc. issue of racial segregation in public schools. half of the recent Russian propaganda to pressure white leadership and institu- Challenging the influential about America has been concentrated on tions to make meaningful concessions to Constitutional attorney John W. Davis, race, linking Communist warfare charges African Americans. Marshall argued before the Supreme Court with alleged racial brutality in this country. The passage of the 1965 Voting that racial segregation was a direct violation In addition, Americans returning from Rights Act and the widespread exodus of of African Americans’ constitutional rights. abroad consistently report having been white racist Dixiecrats into the Republican By segregating the public schools, Marshall questioned over and over again about race Party led to the rise of an African American argued, “slavery is perpetuated;” the High problems in this country. This concern electorate as the central component of the Court agreed. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. about America’s racial practices seems Democratic Party. The number of African Supreme Court unanimously ruled that especially strong among the two-thirds of American officials soared from 1,100 in racial segregation in public schools was the world that is dark-skinned”.... 1970 to 3,600 by 1983. The Congressional indeed unconstitutional.... This is the real Thurgood Black Congress formed in 1971 to bring The Brown v. Board decision Marshall, challenging racial injustice, not greater leverage within Congress for African provided the legal rationale for the [insur- nationally but transnationally and globally, American demands [and] increased the gence] of Civil Rights activism in the 1950’s raising the issue of equality under the law power of Black elected officials. and 60’s, symbolized by the work of those for all Americans and being an effective In March 1972, thousands of who fought for Black freedom in many litigator in the courtroom, in the fight for African Americans met in Gary, Indiana Civil Rights organizations, including the freedom. and formed the National Black Political NAACP.... Marshall was not only a brilliant How has... the fight for human Assembly with the explicit goal of lawyer, he articulated a theory of the law rights and social justice- changed since constructing a comprehensive Black agenda that spoke to racial justice, and I regret Thurgood Marshall?... of public policy issues that would guide deeply that at the end of his professional We are now confronted in the the actions of newly elected officials across life, that he did not speak more because 21st century by what I call, “the Paradox of the country.... Some even anticipated the there are a number of speeches that he gave Integration.” At no previous time in U.S. establishment of an all-Black independent that are truly extraordinary.... history has there been more influential political party where Blacks could exercise In a speech from Thurgood he and more powerful Black elected officials the greatest possible leverage within the says, “Our government is based on the and government administrators serving American political system between these principle of equality of man, the individual, the nation’s capital. two white parties and institutions.... not the group. All of us can quote the Back in 1964, the year that the During the 1980’s, political events principle, ‘that all men are created equal.’ Civil Rights Act was signed, outlawing triggered a fundamental transformation in Our basic document, the Constitution of racial segregation in public accommoda- the internal dynamics of Black leadership the United States, guarantees equal protec- tions, the total number of Blacks in nationally and in the agendas that we tion of the laws to all of us. Many state Congress was five (5), the total number of pursued....Black politics was largely constitutions have similar provisions. We African American mayors of U.S. cities was being redefined from new militant even have a Bill of Rights in the constitu- zero (0), the total number of Blacks who economic boycotts, street demonstra- tion of Louisiana. These high sounding were elected officials throughout the entire tions, people going to jail, to people principles we preach and teach. U.S. was a paltry one hundred and four running for elective office. Increasingly However, in the eyes of the (104). This meant in practice that the voice by the late ‘80s and the early ‘90s, Black world, we stand convicted of violating of Black political leadership largely political activism was redefining itself these principles day in and day out. Today, emanated from two sources, the African as “electoralism,” as running for 177 years after the signing of the Declara- American Christian religious community, office.... tion of Independence and 86 years after the and secondly, Civil Rights organizations. We need to rewrite the history Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitu- As a result, Black political of the Black Freedom Struggle between tion we adopted...we have a society where leadership acquired a certain kind of 1984 to about 2000, and what we find is in varying degrees throughout the country, character and an approach to tactics in their that tens of thousands of veteran organiz- especially [in] the south, Negros are... efforts to challenge Jim Crow segregation, ers who came through the anti-Apartheid segregated. We are ostracized, set apart from but what they all had in common despite movement, who worked with Herald all other Americans; the discrimination their differences tactically within Civil Washington, who worked with the

7 Manning Marable cont’d

Rainbow Coalition, are women and men promoting an agenda for democratic prison as I speak this evening. who ended up being field operators for renewal and the incorporation of All these guarantee that spontane- Barack Obama in 2008, and that they marginalized and oppressed groups into ous local protests, grassroots mobilization learned their politics of grassroots not in the mainstream of American civil life. of people of African descent and Latinos 2008, but in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. And, Obama won the presidency in part because will continue to erupt from the bottom up that is my thesis and I think I am right. tens of thousands of his volunteers and in this country, even under Barack Obama. By the mid-1990s, there were a paid staff had learned over a 20 year As during the Great Society of the 1960s, if whole host of grassroots community- period. Many of their formative political Obama’s reforms are successfully imple- based social movements. The best evidence lessons both inside the social movement mented, and I believe they will be, the irony of this is Barack Obama himself, who fighting for the election of Herald Wash- is [that] just like in the ‘60s that when you came out of those community struggles, ington [and] Jesse Jackson, opposing had the Great Society implemented, you had and that’s why he was able to defeat Hillary South African Apartheid, protesting police what?-More grassroots protests. Clinton, because he did not operate like a brutality cases like Amadou Diallo, [The] same thing is going to “normal” politician; he operated like a defending the labor rights of the poor happen in the next 5 years, the best community organizer.... Obama’s approach Black workers of the south, denouncing reinforcement for people to feel that they to community organizing and political environmental racism. It was these have a sense of human dignity and leadership drew upon an activist model of campaigns that gave Barack Obama’s possibility is to give them hope, give them Civil Rights movements from a quarter campaign the overall activist quality and resources, organize at the community-based century earlier. Veteran Civil Rights spontaneous character. level, give people jobs and dignity, stop organizers such as Ella Baker , Medgar The yet unanswered questioned is putting them in prison. That’s going to Evers, and Septima Clark, all characterized whether the activist-militant base of happen under Obama’s administration and what they called the role of servant-leader. Obamaism can be reconciled with the as it does, people will be willing to fight Servant-leaders are women and men who liberalism which Obama must cleave to in back for righteous causes and for justice. provide a kind of leadership that views order to govern a coherent organized And, who knows, just like [i]n October itself as a facilitator rather than those who socialist left. There is no coherent left that 1966, the Black Panther Party of Huey P. dictate political outcomes. The servant- exists today in the United States, in its Newton, Bobby Seale, etc. was founded in leaders’ task is to encourage intense group national politics.... Therefore, Obama’s an East Oakland anti-poverty office. discussion and debate, fostering a sense of public policy program by necessity must be Do you understand the irony of consensus and unity of action that could to the right of what his core political this in an anti-poverty office? Just like in ’66, be employed in challenging institutions of constituency is, and that’s his dilemma. the next Black Panther Party may be on the power.... Whether and how President Obama can political horizon for our time as well. Now, without question, in 2007 balance these divergent forces will be a Thank you. and in 2008 Barack Obama’s lieutenant ran a major test of his leadership over the next 3 brilliant electoral campaign, wisely playing ½ years. down the African American candidates’ I conclude with a question: from ethnic and racial identity, while linking him the perspective of Black social movements, to the Democratic civil values best repre- does the triumph of Barack Obama sented by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal represent a kind of end to Black politics? and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. What I’ve had people say to me, “Well, Obama’s Obama’s people recognized from day 1 is victory means the end of racism.” I said, that the majority of white America at this “Oh, really? Have I left this country and moment in history, given its racial gone someplace else?” consciousness, would not elect a Black A leader of African descent woman or man to the presidency. But it having achieved state power has great would elect an American who had a history symbolic meaning and it seems to indicate and background of ethnicity of African that there are now no fundamental barriers descent if that was part of his background, that exist to deny Black access to political but only part. power. But once again, we must return to In other words, they weren’t the paradox of integration, which unfortu- ready for or Marcus Garvey. nately is that millions of Americans of But, a Barack Obama who could speak like African descent remain stigmatized, other Americans, relate to their civil values, oppressed, and excluded from unemploy- and was the smartest guy in the room ment [benefits], from quality health care, when he walked in, could win the nomina- from educational opportunities, and from tion and the presidency, but they would home ownership, relative to whites. These have to put their historic racism on hold.... dire conditions combine with the continu- The economic crisis of 2008 and ing incidents of police brutality and mass 2009 created an unprecedented opening, incarceration of 2.3 million people in

8 SPECIAL PROJECTS and EVENTS

Building Relationships, Taking Ownership, The Screening of Eastsiders: A Celebration, co- CIRCLE OF THOUGHT Black Convocation, co-sponsored with the sponsored with the UCLA Library’s Center African Student Union, the Interdepart- for Oral History Research, February 12, Libby Lewis, Postdoctoral Fellow, Bunche mental Program for Afro-American 2009. Center, The Monolithic Media Myth: Struggle Studies, the UCLA Office of Student Over Representations of “Blackness” in Affairs, the UCLA Black Alumni Associa- Screening of Leimert Park: The Story of a Television News, May 14, 2009. tion, the UCLA Black Staff and Faculty Village in South Central Los Angeles, co- Association, the Black Graduation Student sponsored with Melnitz Movies, February AUTHOR’S SERIES 18, 2009. . Association, the Community Programs Carlos Moore, February 2, 2009. Office, the James S. Coleman African Screening of Black on Black, co-sponsored Studies Center, and the Academic Advance- C.Z. Wilson, February 11, 2009. ment Program, October 2, 2008. with the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s Research and Study Center, Screening of Ballast, co-sponsored with Devon Carbado, February 26, 2009. February 25, 2009. Melnitz Movies, October 14, 2008. Black on the Block: The Politics of Race Staceyann Chin, April 23, 2009. and Class in the City, Mary Pattillo, Roxanne Chisholm and Professor of Sociology and African 40th ANNIVERSARY Jeannette Chisholm Moore American Studies, Faculty Affiliate, Endowed Scholarship Institute for Policy Research, North- The Bunche Center will celebrate 40 years western University, co-sponsored with of service to the UCLA and Los Angeles This scholarship was established in 2008 to the Race and Ethnicity Working communities during the 2009-10 year with honor the memory of Jeannette Chisholm Group and the Ethnography Working various events and activities. Moore’s daughter and provide support for Group, March 16, 2009. students interested in African American The Ethnic Studies Centers will have an Studies. Five incoming freshmen were exhibition at the Fowler Museum from awarded scholarship funding for the February 28, 2010 to June 13, 2010. 2009-10 academic year.

John Densmore CAAS PUBLICATIONS Scholarship UPDATES Library & Media Center The CAAS Publications unit oversees the In 1991-92 John Densmore (former drum- editing, production, marketing, and sales mer for the musical group The Doors) The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African of texts relevant to the culture and history established an endowment fund to support American Studies Library & Media Center of people of African descent. UCLA undergraduates who have demon- (LMC) supports academic programs and strated outstanding academic achievement, research projects in African American The publication Resistance, Dignity, and Pride: with preference given to Afro-American Studies and provides specialized reference, African American Artists in Los Angeles by Paul Studies majors. Tameka Norris was the award collection and information services on Von Blum is sold out. The publication Black winner for this academic year. diverse aspects of African American life, Folk Here and There volume 1 and 2 is history and culture in the Diaspora. The available in limited quantities. Librarian is Dalena Hunter. Adderley Scholarship Black Folk Here and There $10.00 This scholarship was established in 1976 to Fundraising & Black Folk Here and There Boxed set honor the memory of the renowned Development $25.00 musician Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. (price does not include shipping) Various donors contributed to the Awards are made on a competitive basis to undergraduate students specializing in Afro- Director’s discretionary fund during Check our Web site for order forms: American Studies, music, and related areas. 2008-09. www.bunchecenter.ucla.edu Sabrina Woods was the recipient for the 2008- 09 academic year. The Center continues to The College Drop In program was funded by solicit corporate and private donations to re- the James Irvine Foundation to expose plenish the fund. L.A. high school students to African American Studies.

9 UCLA FACULTY Faculty Awards

Cheryl Keyes, associate professor of ethnomusicology, is an award winner for a 2009 NAACP Image Award under the category of World Music for her debut CD Let Me Take You There. The CD is more than simply an homage to Quiet Storm aesthetics, although it may be that as well since Keyes is an accomplished historian of African American music. Let Me Take You There certainly succeeds as the touch- stone for a number of strains in African American music broadly interpreted to take in the eclectic mix of hybrid styles that issue forth from the Black Atlantic. Keyes is the author of “Rap Music and Street Consciousness,” which received a CHOICE award for outstand- ing academic books in 2004. Her areas of specialty include African American music, gender, and popular music studies.

Professor Edmond J. Keller, Political Science, was the winner of the 2008 African Studies Association Distinguished Africanist Award.

Faculty News

Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw joined Dick Gregory, Alice Walker and Nobel Prize Laureate Jody Williams in speaking at the 2009 Inaugural Peace Ball, held Jan. 20 at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum to commemorate President Barack Obama’s inauguration and honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Crenshaw spoke about the peace movement and the , describing the inspirational role that Martin Luther King Jr. played throughout. The Peace Ball also featured special performances by Joan Baez and other artists.

James Newton, professor of ethnomusicology, has been hired as a permanent faculty member, which will allow the Department of Ethnomusicology in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music to expand and strengthen core course offerings in jazz studies.

Philip Goff, who joined the UCLA faculty in July 2008, has been on leave as a Fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York. Goff, an assistant professor of psychology, is the recipient of the 2008 Early Career Award from Division 48 of the American Psychological Association (Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology Division). He was recognized at the January 2009 convention of the American Psychological Association in Toronto where he received a cash award and gave an address at the convention.

In Memorium

The Bunche Center mourned the passing of Dr. Mark Alleyne, Associate Professor of Communication at Georgia State University. Alleyne was the former Associate Director of Research for the Bunche Center. Professor Alleyne was coordinating a study abroad program on behalf of Georgia State University in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and his death was the result of unexpected complications from pneumonia, for which he had been hospitalized several days earlier. Mark Alleyne was an accomplished scholar of international communication. Born in the Caribbean — he worked for Caribbean media and was a freelance broadcaster for the BBC World Service in London prior to entering the professorate — Alleyne earned his undergraduate degree in communication at Howard University. He was the first ever graduate of an American HBCU to be named a Rhodes Scholar, and subsequently earned Master’s (1988) and Doctor of Philosophy (1992) degrees at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University. After appointments at the University of Illinois and UCLA, he joined the faculty at Georgia State University in 2005. Dr. Alleyne’s scholarship focused on the legacy of racism within the international system, and he sought in particular to better understand the anti-racism campaigns undertaken by the United Nations. In coordinating this work, Alleyne joined with scholars from across Central and South America and organized multinational projects with others similarly committed to undoing the centuries-old social and political consequences of racial discrimination.

10 During the past year, the Bunche Exhibition: Center has generated substantial news interest. Outlets that have fea- tured the Bunche Center include the following:

Art, Activism, Access ADWEEK.com Alberni Valley Times (British Colum- 40 YEARS OF ETHNIC bia) Calgary Herald (Alberta) STUDIES AT UCLA CBSnews.com Hattiesburg American KTLA Channel 5 February 28, 2010 to Los Angeles Sentinel June 13, 2010 Maclean’s Magazine National Public Radio Fowler Museum, UCLA UCLA Today University Wire

11 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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C.Z. Wilson, Author’s Series, 2/11/09 Denise Nicholas, Author’s Series, 2/19/09 Devon Carbado, Author’s Series, 2/26/09

Bunche Review, Vol. 8 (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; Yolanda Jones, Front Office Coordi- nator; Alex Tucker, Special Projects & Community Outreach Coordinator; Ulli K. Ryder, Senior Editor, CAAS Publica- tions; Dawn Jefferson, Grants Editor; Yeng Vang, Tech Support; Lisbeth Gant-Britton, Student Affairs Officer; and Dalena Hunter, Librarian.

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