THE NEWSLETTER OF THE W.E.B. DU BOIS DEPARTMENT OF AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES UMASS AMHERST 2008 - 2009

W.E.B. Du Bois Department Founders Esther Terry and Ekwueme Michael Thelwell Retire

Drawing by Nelson Stevens

Inside this issue:

Message from the Chair 2

Upward & Onward: Esther 3 Terry and Mike Thelwell Graduate Student News 4 and Views

Alumni Lines 5

Faculty News & Du Bois 6 Department at ASALH ‘08 “Look Back & Wonder” 7 A Documentary by Ernest Allen, Jr.

More Faculty News…. 8

Springfield Forum on Art 9 and Social Empowerment

Photo credit: Edward Cohen PAGE 2 DU BOIS LINES MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Sankofa = “go back and take”

BLACK ARTS & BLACK POWER EVENT SERIES LAUNCHED 1969-2009 Sidney Kaplan, In April 2009, our last Visioning Jules Chamet- event for the year explored the future,

sky, Esther Photo credit: Edward Cohen present, and past of Black Studies. Terry and Mi- Presentations from founders Esther chael Thelwell, Terry and Michael Thelwell, under- along with Wil- graduate and graduate student panels, liam Darity, and a closing roundtable session of Chancellor Five Colleges Afro-American/Black Randolph Bro- Studies faculty (José Celso Castro mery, and others, Alves and Amy Jordan), traced the launched what roots of the field and the routes we are was then a hope- taking in the 21st century to teach and ful, experimental, develop the body of knowledge that and interdiscipli- defines our interdiscipline. We invited nary idea in U.S. broad participation in this one-day higher education conference that was jointly sponsored which, in 1970, Roots & Routes in Africana Studies Symposium student panel with our colleagues at Amherst, was officially ap- (l-r): Ernest Gibson (moderator), Sonia Gloss, Stephanie Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith proved by the Andrade, Phuong Vuong, Amanda Bass, and Gregory Walters Colleges, and generously supported by UMass Board of the Committee for the Collegiate Edu- Trustees; creating the W.E.B. Du (see article on p. 9) and looked at the cation of Black & Other Minority Stu- Bois Department of Afro-American connection between struggle-minded dents (CCEBMS). Studies. artists and struggling black communi- As more events in this series are We have come a long way since ties. We continue to learn from the planned we welcome your feedback, as 1969, but our journey has barely be- experiences of creative activists as we well as your material and moral sup- gun. In December 2008, for exam- work to develop the Greater Spring- port. We build our future on the shoul- ple, with the help of a College of Hu- field-UMass Partnership initiative. ders of Esther Terry, Michael Thel- manities and Fine Arts Visioning Our roundtable event in March well, Shirley Graham Du Bois, David Grant, the Department launched a 2009, on “Black Women and Black Du Bois, Max Roach, Archie Shepp, special series of programs examining Power,” brought together Cheryl James Baldwin, and other greats who the cultural and political history of Clarke of Rutgers University, Andrea were former faculty members. Let us African Americans in the 1960s and Rushing of Amherst College, Daphne never forget their contributions as we 1970s. In the series we critically ex- Lamothe of Smith College, and Dayo continue the work of developing Afri- plore the Black Arts, Black Power, Gore and Yemisi Jimoh of UMass cana Studies in the 21st century. and Black Studies movements that Amherst. Following their insightful — Amilcar Shabazz shaped the terrain on which our de- opening remarks, a dynamic discus- partment stands. sion ensued that will soon be available We started our “Visions of Em- on DVD for those interested in view- powerment” series with the visual arts ing the program.

In commemoration of our 40th anniversary, the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Stud- ies continues its “Visions of Empowerment” event series. Dynamic programs are planned in the fall on the Cuban Revolution & Black Power and on African American poetry of the 1960s & 1970s. We are orga- nizing a symposium on the Sit-In/Black Student Movement and a special program on Black Theater in the spring. Look for our Call for Papers for an international conference we will hold on “Art & Power in Move- ment: Black Culture & Politics of the 1960s & 1970s,” in October 2010. The Call for Papers solicits pro- posals from faculty, students, community organizers and social justice activists. We want to encourage deep examinations of the period that witnessed the emergence of our field as well as to reconsider what our com- mitment to academic excellence and social responsibility means today. Details will be posted at http:// www.umass.edu/afroam/. THE NEWSLETTER OF THE W.E.B. DU BOIS DEPARTMENT OF AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES AT UMASS PAGE 3 In Tribute: Two Du Bois Department Co-founders Recognized Two founding members of the Du Bois Department retired this year. Below are brief tributes to their amazing record of accomplishments: ESTHER ALEXANDER TERRY was a major contributor to the develop- ment of Black Studies; Esther Terry holds a B.A. from Bennett College in Greens- Photo credit: Edward Cohen boro, North Carolina, a M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she has had a long career as both a faculty member and as an administrator. Esther first arrived in 1965 and, except for a brief stint at St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, has worked to develop the UMass campus into the premier research university it is today. Professor Emeritus Jules Chametsky shares a moment with Vice A founding faculty member of the Du Chancellor Esther Terry and Professor James Smethurst Bois Department, Esther was tapped to serve as its sixth Chair in 1988, a position she held until 2007. Under her leadership, the department inaugurated a Ph.D. program in 1996, the second doctoral program in Afro-American Studies to be established in the country. Esther’s administrative responsibilities have included Associate Provost for Faculty Relations from 1978 to 1983. She has also been Associate Director and Co-Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities. In 2005, she was appointed Associate Chancellor, with responsibility for oversight of the Chancellor’s Action Plan which sought to make the UMass Amherst campus more inclusive. This past year Esther has served as Interim Vice Chancellor for Stu- dent Affairs. In the Fall she will begin a new chapter in her dynamic career when she becomes the Provost of her alma mater, Bennett College. Esther will be deeply missed, but she has promised that her spirit will never leave us.

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL Photo credit: Edward Cohen A pioneer in Afro-American Studies, in 1970 Mike Thelwell became the founding chairman of the Du Bois Department. The Jamaican-born writer, activist, educator, and intellectual received his early education at Jamaica College. He came to the United States in 1959 to attend Howard University and went on to do his graduate work at the University of Massachusetts Am- herst. Thelwell was active in the civil rights movement; participating in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Thelwell’s anti-apartheid activism in the 1980s resulted in successful legislation that outlawed tax write-offs for U.S.-based corpora- tions paying taxes to the apartheid regime in South Africa. As a writer of fic- tion, as well as of influential essays, his work has been published nationally and internationally in journals and magazines including The Black Scholar, Temps Moderne, the Partisan Review, Presence Africaine (Paris), the New York Times, and African Commentary. His novel The Harder They Come (1980) has become a classic on life among Jamaican common folk. His po- Professor Michael Thelwell litical and literary essays are collected in Duties, Pleasures and Conflicts (1987). Thelwell’s literary awards include fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Centennial Medal of the Institute of Jamaica. We hope to continue to draw upon the wisdom of the “Moor of Pelham” for years to come. PAGE 4 DU BOIS LINES

GRADUATE STUDENT Jonathan Fenderson has been awarded a two-year pre- NEWS & VIEWS doctoral fellowship at the Uni- versity of Virginia’s Carter G. Christopher Tinson is hard at work on his disserta- Woodson Institute for African- tion research on black radical- American Studies. He is our ism and the Liberator maga- first Ph.D. student to receive the zine, 1960-1971. A course prestigious fellowship. Also, his entitled “Black Radicalism in article “Toward Organizational the U.S. and Beyond: 1960s Dialogue in Black Studies,” ap- and 1970s” he is teaching at peared in March 2009 issue of the Journal of Black Hampshire College is mod- Studies. “Write on” Jonathan! eled after Professor Allen’s Black Power course. At the David Lucander was University of Connecticut, awarded the Gilder Storrs Chris taught an intro- Lehrman Research Fellow- ductory course on African ship for the Spring 2008 American Studies. Along semester. David conducted with fellow W.E.B. Du Bois research for his dissertation Department comrades Jonathan Fenderson and An- entitled, “It is a New Kind thony Ratcliff, Chris co-edited and wrote an article of Militancy: The March on for a recent issue of The Black Scholar. In addition, Washington Movement, Chris was one of the lead organizers of the Trigger- 1940-1946,” at the Schom- ing Change: Hip-Hop, Media Justice and Social Re- burg Center for Research in sponsibility conference held in Holyoke, Mass, April Black Culture in New York. 25, 2008, which featured activists and artists from around the country. Finally, our hearty best wishes Kabria Baumgartner won the Phillips G. to Chris and Kyngelle Mertilien who jumped the Davies Graduate Student Paper Award at the broom this summer. National Association for Ethnic Studies (NAES) for her paper, “Public Pages: Inci- dents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Education, and GUEST EDITORS: Abolitionism.” Jonathan B. Fenderson Her paper is Anthony Ratcliff being consid- Christopher M. Tinson ered for publi- cation in the “The Voice of the Black Protest Ethnic Studies Movement”: Notes on the Lib- Review, which erator Magazine & Black Radi- is the journal published by the NAES. The calism in the Early 1960s / association also provided her with a travel Christopher Tinson grant to attend the April 2009 conference in San Diego, CA. Kabria also received a “Black Writers of the World, travel grant from the National Council for Unite!”: Negotiating Pan- Black Studies (NCBS) to present her paper African Politics of Cultural on, “The Struggle for African American Fe- Struggle in Afro-Latin Amer- male Education in Canterbury, Connecticut,” ica / Anthony Ratcliff at the NCBS’s 33rd Annual Conference. In its early stage, her dissertation examines the “Wherever I’ve Gone, I’ve Gone political activism of African American th Voluntarily”: Ayi Kwei Armah’s women educators and abolitionists in 19 Radical Pan-African Itinerary / century United States and Canada. Jonathan B. Fenderson THE NEWSLETTER OF THE W.E.B. DU BOIS DEPARTMENT OF AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES AT UMASS AMHERST PAGE 5

ALUMNI LINES Our 2008-09 Ph.D. graduates are working: Lehman book recognized.

The Colored Cartoon: Black Rep- Dr. Thomas Edge (‘08) is a visiting resentation in American Animated professor at Northwestern Univer- Short Films, by Christopher Lehman sity; Marieta Joyner is a lecturer at (‘02) has been designated a Choice Brandeis University; Daniel Outstanding Academic Title of McClure is an assistant professor at 2008. The book is one of 700 so hon- Grand Valley State University; Ale- ored from a pool of 7,000 books reviewed each year. sia McFadden Williams is an in- Choice is a publication of the Association of College and Research Librar- structor at the University of South ies. Each year more than 25,000 titles are submitted to the journal for re- Alabama; Zebulon Miletsky is an view. According to Choice, “The Outstanding Academic Titles are truly ‘the assistant professor at the University best of the best.’” Lehman, who is an Associate Professor in the Ethnic Stud- of Nebraska-Omaha; and Anthony ies department, also has authored A Critical History of Soul Train on Televi- Ratcliff is an assistant professor at sion, and American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era. Lehman insti- California State University, North- tuted the African American studies minor at St. Cloud State. ridge. Yes, we’re proud of them! . If one Choice title wasn’t enough… Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans (‘03) Assistant Professor, African Ameri- Another book that started as a dissertation in the Du Bois Depart- can Studies and Women’s Studies, ment also was named a Choice Outstanding Aca- University of Florida, has published demic Title of 2008. Dr. Jennifer Jensen- “Women of Color in American Wallach (‘04), Assistant Professor of History at Higher Education” in the National Georgia College & State University, received the Education Association’s Journal of coveted honor for her Closer to the Truth Than Thought & Action. Any Fact: Memoir, Memory, & Jim Crow.

Dr. Shawn Alexander (‘04) Assistant Professor, African Ameri- can Studies at the University of Kan- sas, has been appointed its Interim Director of the Langston Hughes Center for African American Stud- ies; the University Press of Florida has published his anthology of the writings of T. Thomas Fortune and The W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies he has published “Vengeance With- would like to acknowledge the participation of several of its out Justice, Injustice Without Retri- graduate students, alumni, and faculty at The Harlem Renais- bution: The Afro-American Coun- sance Revisited: Politics, Arts & Letters conference held at the University cil’s Struggle Against Racial Vio- of Connecticut, March 27-29, 2008. H. Zahra Caldwell, Jason Hendrick- lence” in the Great Plains Quarterly. Shawn won the 2008 Frederick C. son, Allia Matta, and McKinley Melton presented papers in the panel Luebke Award for outstanding re- session “Named & Being Named: Womenspace, Gender, Topos, and Self gional scholarship and is now work- Definition in the Harlem Renaissance.” Du Bois Department alumnus Dr. ing on a larger monograph on Afri- Ousmane Power-Greene, Assistant Professor of History at Clark Univer- can American civil rights activity in sity, shared his current research on Hubert Harrison and black literary criti- the Post-Reconstruction era, for the cism of the New Negro. Department Chair Amilcar Shabazz presented a University of Pennsylvania Press. paper on the Black Press and the New Negro. The conference featured presentations by poet Amiri Baraka and film director Spike Lee. PAGE 6 DU BOIS LINES

Roy Wilkins Years. Drawing on the knowledge gained as co- FACULTY NEWS editor of the Papers of the NAACP, Bracey participated in the scholar-activist sessions that included Herb Boyd, Scot Brown, rofessor John Bracey is always engaged. In 2007-08, Lorenzo Morris and Patricia Sullivan as scholars and Kweisi P he and Joyce Vincent were invited to Brown University Mfume, Mildred Roxborough, Mel King and Hilary Shelton to address Dr. Rhett Jones’ class on representing the NAACP. Denton Watson wore both his hats Native American and African Ameri- as an ex-staff member, now historian. The NAACP Hollywood can Relations. Bracey and Vincent Bureau, led by Vic Bullock and his staff, is producing and di- use Jones’ work in their course and recting the Civil Rights Schools as part of a larger project to have exchanged ideas and materials create a film commemorating the 100th anniversary of the with him over the years. While at NAACP’s founding. The Hollywood connection also enabled Brown they had the opportunity to the participants to attend a pre-release screening of Denzel dine with Aishah Rahman, former Washington & Oprah Winfrey’s “The Great Debaters.” director of the New Africa House Cultural Center who is still writing February 7th: As part of the OAH Distinguished Lecture Pro- plays and fiction. gram John Bracey visited Norfolk State University (NSU). The lecture entitled “Black Power Scholarship: New Paths and Dead Ends” was in response to an initiative by Tanya Mears October 31st: Bracey invited Dean Joel Martin to lead a dis- (‘05) now an assistant professor in NSU’s History Department. cussion of his book The Sacred Revolt: The Muskogee’s Tanya sends her regards to all. The students were interested Struggle for a New World to his AFROAM 397B Native and engaged, and on display in the library was an outstanding Americans/African Americans class. The defeat of the Mus- collection of African art and artifacts. William P. “Doc” Rob- kogee in 1813-1814 ended the largest uprising of Native peo- inson, an old friend from Bracey’s youth on Howard Univer- ples in the nation’s history, the largest loss of Native lives, sity’s campus has a building named after him there, and his and the largest lost of land in the Southeast. papers and a portrait are in the library archives. In 1969, “Doc” Robinson became the first African American elected to November 5th: Bracey appeared on Channel 40 News as a the Virginia legislature since Reconstruction. All in all, he said commentator on the significance of the noose and lynching in that it was a wonderful trip. the history of African Americans. The story involved an inci- dent at a local high school. February 21st: Bracey received a certificate from the United States Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, in ap- December 7-8: Participated in the third segment of the preciation for his participation as a keynote speaker at their NAACP’s Civil Rights School. The “Schools” are structured 2008 Black History Month Celebration. as a combination of free flowing discussions between scholars and NAACP activists and leaders, dialogue with college stu- February 27th: Keynote speaker at the MCI Shirley Correc- dents of the hip-hop generation, and individual interviews tional Facility where he spoke on “The History of the Black focused on specific aspects of the history of the NAACP. Intellectual and Their Importance within the Black Liberation Held at Harvard University, this segment was devoted to the Movement” with particular focus on W.E.B. Du Bois.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies al- of the Du Bois Department and Black Studies, African American ways has a significant presence at the annual meeting of the Asso- popular music, and the current state of the black community. ciation for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). However, even by those standards the 93rd annual The highlight of the meeting for the Du Bois Department was a well- meeting of ASALH in Birmingham, Alabama last October was attended screening of Ernest Allen’s documentary history of the exceptional. What made the difference in this year’s meeting was founding and growth of the department, Look Back and Wonder, the critical mass of UMass Afro-American Studies Ph.D. gradu- followed by a panel examining the value of the film as a tool for ates who have gone on to jobs in the academy. understanding the Black Studies Movement and as a model for insti- tutional histories of other African American/Africana Studies depart- The numbers alone were impressive. Ten UMass faculty and staff ments. Two other high points were the ASALH Graduate Student members, five UMass Afro-American Studies graduate students, Essay Contest Prize to Jonathan Fenderson for his essay, “’Large and ten graduates of the Du Bois Department Ph.D. program par- Ideas Which Never Got Down to Earth or Finance:’ W.E.B. Du Bois, ticipated in (and often organized) sixteen panels and one plenary Carter G. Woodson, and the Encyclopedia Africana, 1909-1963,” session and won two awards. The topics of the papers and the and the presentation of an ASALH Executive Council Award to Pro- panels covered a broad range of topics, including black women’s fessor John Bracey, for his work as faculty advisor to the Amherst history and education, the Civil Rights Movement, African ASALH Branch. He also chaired the plenary session, “Reflections American political and cultural radicalism in the 1950s, the birth on Returning to Birmingham,” which featured Sonia Sanchez and Mary Frances Berry (photo on p. 12). THE NEWSLETTER OF THE W.E.B. DU BOIS DEPARTMENT OF AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES AT UMASS AMHERST PAGE 7 n interview with Professor Ernest Allen, producer and out to be my most important film school. But I gained experi- A director of the video documentary “Look Back and Won- ence beginning several years ago by filming campus lectures der: The Rise of Black Studies at the University of Massachu- and dissertation defenses and transferring them to DVDs, and setts Amherst.” The documentary has been screened at several devouring tutorials on every aspect of film production that I venues this year, and will be available to the public in DVD could afford to purchase. format sometime in 2009. Du Bois Lines: What did you learn from producing the film? Du Bois Lines: Why did you decide to produce “Look Back Ernest Allen: Apart from the technical aspects, the complexi- and Wonder”? ties of producing a documentary that I thought would tell a uni- Ernest Allen: Actually, this project started out as an oral his- fied departmental story. But there were and remain contested tory project concerned with documenting the history of the Du stories of the same events told by department members that I Bois Department here at UMass. A number of us had been talk- had to reconcile or, failing that, had to choose between. Many ing for some time about the need to write stories had to be edited down to “sound the history of the department. I wasn't pre- bites” almost, although they deserved far pared to take on such a writing project my- more than that. At the end of the process self, and it didn’t appear that anyone else you are led to ask yourself what the was either. On the other hand, I had a pretty “truth” of the final product is, especially decent digital video camera, and decided when you hear the polite groaning of that I could at least record the oral testimo- some of your colleagues when certain nies of colleagues—especially those who treatments come up. Even with all the started the department or who were around painful cutting, the film is still running during the earliest years—and make them two hours in length. I’ve still got some available in an archival DVD format for trimming to do, and need to conduct at that special someone who, I was convinced, least a handful of re-takes. I’ve been would come along some day to write that asked to produce a one-hour version for history. Such a project is still necessary. classroom use. I’m not convinced that will work, but will make an effort in that Du Bois Lines: So how did an oral history direction. The final DVD will contain project turn into a video documentary? longer excerpts from significant testimo- Ernest Allen: Several factors. First, I can- nies that could not be shoe-horned into the not describe how moved I was by the testi- larger project, and there is also the possi- mony of my colleagues as I interviewed bility of putting such testimonies on the them over the last three or four years. I web as well. thought that I had heard all the stories sur- rounding the department’s beginnings—but learned otherwise Du Bois Lines: How much did “Look Back and Wonder” cost once I sat them down in front of the camera. As time went on, I to produce? became convinced of the need to bring our incredible, collective Ernest Allen: It depends on how you count, and we’re not story to a wide audience. Second, I had been involved with through yet because we are now in the process of trying to se- computers since 1979 when I purchased an Apple II, and was cure copyright clearances for the music used, which will be in- well aware of the convergence of technologies which had been credibly expensive if, indeed, we will even be able to afford it. occurring over the past decade, a convergence manifested in the At this point, excluding hardware, software, and labor, the cost ability to manipulate text, moving pictures, and sound in the was less than a grant. To purchase the minimal equipment and same digital space. Much of what I needed in the way of tools software required, we are talking around twenty thousand dol- was already on my computer desktop. The third part—the ac- lars. But that sum can be spread over multiple projects. I am quisition of lighting, camera, and editing skills—was the most just guessing here, but I think that the same equipment might be daunting, but I’ve at least been able to develop them to such a rented for less than ten grand. degree as to be able to fool the public into believing that they’ve seen an actual documentary! And fourth, I was strongly encour- Du Bois Lines: What, in your opinion, is the greatest signifi- aged by colleagues in Film Studies—Cathy Portuguese and cance of “Look Back and Wonder”? Nancy Inouye, especially—to commit to putting the documen- Ernest Allen: It demonstrates, for all who need proof, that a tary on the screening schedule of the Massachusetts Multicul- video documentary history of an African American Studies de- tural Film Festival this past spring. partment can be produced on a shoestring with acceptable pro- duction values. I’m hoping that this will inspire other depart- Du Bois Lines: So how did you pick up your film skills? ments to document their own histories, and would be more than Ernest Allen: Well, producing the documentary itself turned pleased to assist others in that process. PAGE 8 DU BOIS LINES

calism,” at the Modern Language Association brary Lecture in October, 2008 at Alle- MORE FACULTY Annual Convention, Winter 2008. gheny College. She also delivered this talk at Columbia University in November, NEWS . . . Professor Amilcar Shabazz was elected to 2008 to celebrate its publication in Our membership in the Texas Institute of Letters Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln n After Winter: The Art and Life of and was formally introduced as a new induc- and His World, edited by Eric Foner. I Sterling A. Brown (Oxford U. P., 2009) tee at the Institute’s annual meeting, April 17 Professor Steven -18, 2009. The TIL was founded in 1936 to Professor Bill Strickland gave a public Tracy and John Edgar recognize distinctive literary achievement. lecture at Florida Atlantic University in Tidwell have brought By his induction he joins the ranks of many Boca Raton on “Black History and Black eminent historians, essayists, poets, journal- Politics: Past, Present, and Future.” On together a book-length ists, publishers, and novelists with Texas ties February 11th, he was awarded a plaque collection of critical including Lorenzo Thomas, Nicholas by Virginia State University in recogni- and theoretical writings Lemann, Harryette Mullen, Robert Caro, tion of his support for VSU’s Jim Crow about Sterling Brown Donald Barthelme, Molly Ivins, Bill Moyers, Exhibit, “Hateful Things,” a two week that recovers and reas- Ntozake Shange, and others. traveling art exhibit “of pictures, signs serts his continuing and items from the late 19th century to importance for a con- Professor Manisha Sinha was invited to the present that embody the terrible ef- temporary audience. Tracy was a plenary speak in the plenary session of the Atlantic fects of Jim Crow.” He also keynoted at speaker at the international conference on Emancipations Conference held at the Uni- the opening ceremony at VSU. August Wilson in Lexington, KY (2008). versity of Pennsylvania in April, 2008. Her talk was on her book project, “African On February 7th Professor Strickland was In July, he also performed with his Cincin- Americans and the a plenary speaker on the panel, “Taking nati band, the Crawling Kingsnakes, at the Abolition Move- Back America,” at the Statewide Confer- Behringer-Crawford Museum in Coving- ment.” She was ence of the Massachusetts ACLU, ton, KY; and continues to play a couple of also a respondent “Beyond the Politics of Fear: Reclaiming times monthly with the King Bees in the to a keynote ad- our Civil Liberties,” held at UMass Bos- Amherst area. Tracy also spoke and per- dress on slavery ton. formed at the Centennial Conference on and capitalism at Richard Wright in Paris in June 2008. The the University of On February 21st he spoke at the Metro- University of Kansas’ Langston Hughes North Carolina politan A.M.E. Zion Church in Hartford Center for African American Studies has Chapel Hill in for the Greater Hartford NAACP on February, 2008. “Remembering Du Bois on the 100th published Tracy’s chronology of Hughes She commented Anniversary of the NAACP.” Professor on the web at “http://www2.ku.edu/ on a panel on an- Strickland was a panelist and gave a pa- ~lhcaas/” which places events of Hughes's tebellum politics per entitled, “Du Bois’s Revenge or Why life in the context of other important events and friendships at the Annual Conference of We Need a Revolutionary Black Research taking place in the world at the same time. the Society of Historians for the Early Agenda in the 21st” on March 21st at the American Republic in Philadelphia in July, National Conference of Black Political Professor James Smethurst participated 2008. Scientists 39th Annual Meeting in Chi- on a panel at the “Women in the Black Professor Sinha delivered a talk entitled, cago. The paper was an update of an Revolt Mini-Conference,” Brooklyn Col- “Allies for Emancipation? Lincoln and Black article he published in the journal SOULS lege, March 5-6th. Also, he delivered a Abolitionists” at a number of venues, includ- in 2008. The panel was: The Worldwide paper entitled, “Rethinking Southern Radi- ing the 13th Annual Lawrence Pelletier Li- Paradox of Black Political Leadership.

Professor Ekwueme Michael Thelwell is a highly sought after lecturer. Here are just a few of his many recent appearances: On November 16, 2007, he spoke at the National Arts Club where the eminent writer and scholar Chinua Achebe received its Gold Medal of Honor for Literature. On April 7, 2008, he lectured at Connecticut College on “James Baldwin — A Prophet Without Honor? The Black Writer and the Politics of Lit- erature in American Culture.” He also presented in April 2008, at the Lannan Symposium “Let Freedom Ring”: Art & Democracy in the King Years, 1954-1968 at Georgetown University; and in March 2009, at the 1968 & Beyond: A Symposium on the Impact of the Black Power Move- Michael Thelwell with his children Mikiko and Chinua at the National Arts ment in America organized by the Smithsonian National Museum Club Tribute to Achebe in New York of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. THE NEWSLETTER OF THE W.E.B. DU BOIS DEPARTMENT OF AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES AT UMASS AMHERST PAGE 9 SPRINGFIELD FORUM: ENVISIONING EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ART n Saturday, December 13, o 2008, the Du Bois Depart- ment convened The Visions of Freedom Roundtable on African American Visual Art of the 1960s & 1970s as its first in a series of events on the meaning of the Black Arts and Black Power movements. A community forum, held in the Springfield Museums’ Davis Auditorium, it examined the visual arts in this period not only in broad national and inter- Forum speakers (l-r) Professors Margo Crawford, Mario Ontiveros, Richard Yarde, and Nelson Stevens national terms, but also with the Du Bois Department and how in cano Art movement in Los Ange- local context as a touchstone. It the 1970s he began directing the les in juxtaposition to the Black drew close to a hundred partici- creation of more than thirty public Arts Movement. pants on a chilly afternoon. murals in Springfield. COBRA was This community forum, one of The Springfield Museums’ Di- a “major architect” of the Black Art the first since the formal an- rector Heather Haskell opened Movement. nouncement of the Greater the forum. Du Bois Department Professors Margo Crawford, a Springfield-UMass Amherst Part- chair Amilcar Shabazz spoke faculty member in the Du Bois De- nership signals, that the time is next, noting how the forum, par- partment, and Mario Ontiveros, in ripe to work together with com- tially funded by a Visioning Grant the Art History Program at UMass, munity people in a renewed effort from the College of Humanities & gave thought-provoking presenta- to foster Springfield’s economic Fine Arts, launches an ongoing tions based upon their original re- revitalization. As we recalled the program series on Black Power search. Dr. Crawford focused on Du Bois Department’s past role in and Black Arts. Professor James Chicago’s Wall of Respect, while Springfield, particularly in the Smethurst, a leading authority on Dr. Ontiveros discussed the Chi- arts, we see the forum as prologue the Black Arts Movement, then to renewing a critical, collabora- moderated the rest of the program. Augusta Savage Gallery & Du tive engagement with the city and Richard Yarde, UMass Am- Bois Department Toast Stevens its African American community, herst art professor since 1990, and . the second largest in the Com- Nelson Stevens’ works on paper, a major presence in the art world canvas, doors, board, album covers, and monwealth of Massachusetts. As since the mid-1960s, presented prints in magazines and calendars were projects and plans emerge to ex- first. Through slides of some of on display in the Gems in the Valley: A pand Springfield’s Pan-African his most important water color Toast to Nelson Stevens Historical Museum (PAHMUSA), paintings he discussed his evolu- exhibit, February 9-March 13, 2009, in African American exhibits in the the Augusta Savage Gallery in New tion as an artist and the impor- Africa House. Some works in this show Springfield Museum of History, tance that subjects like black life have been part of the Augusta Savage and various "creative economy" in Boston’s Roxbury/South End and Afro-American Studies permanent initiatives in the City of Homes, area where he grew up, Malcolm collections. Stevens received a BFA we feel that it is important that a X, the ring shout, and Yoruba degree from Ohio University and MFA department with the faculty and degree from Kent State University. He cosmology had for him. has always advocated for and promoted student resources of the Du Bois Nelson Stevens, a member of aesthetic integrity within the Black Department and the larger UMass the Coalition of Black Revolu- community, catapulting numerous campus be engaged with and of tionary Artists (COBRA) and a groundbreaking projects that are rooted service to the Greater Springfield former UMass Professor, re- in a strong philosophy concerning the community where it can. cultural currency of African Americans. flected on his thirty years in the Page 10 DU BOIS LINES

For the PH.D. Daniel McClure Alesia McFadden Zebulon Miletsky Anthony Ratcliff . For the B.A. Michelle Christian Victor Cruz Brian Ellis Kristofer Handel Vanessa Lima Shaun Robinson UMass Amherst Chancellor Robert C. Holub, Aaron D. Spencer, founder, director and chair- Monica Vance man emeritus of UNO Pizzerias, and Faculty Marshal Amilcar Shabazz, at the Undergraduate Commencement, May 23, 2009, in the Warren P. McGuirk Alumni Stadium. Seated to the left Nathan Wagner is Earl W. Stafford, an alumnus and Virginia businessman, who also received a Distinguished Achievement Award. His Stafford Foundation paid $1 million to help less-fortunate citizens Gregory Walters take part in the inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009.

Congratulations & Farewell to Clarisa Amezquita

Clarisa received her B.S. in Biology and Psychology! She entered the Scholars of the 21st Century Program in as a freshman and continued as our work study student for five years. Clarisa, we thank you for your dedication and hard work over the years, and most of all, for your charming personality, cheerfulness and willingness to help our students and faculty. We wish you peace, happi- ness and a wonderful future!! THE NEWS OF THE W.E.B. DU BOIS DEPARTMENT OF AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES AT UMASS AMHERST Page 11

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NON PROFIT ORG Du Bois Lines U.S. POSTAGE PAID AMHERST MA W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies #A105184 PERMIT NO. 2 University of Massachusetts Amherst, 325 New Africa House, 180 Infirmary Way, Amherst. MA 01003-9829 USA