Conference promotes black culture centers
Published Nov. 2, 2007
In an effort to improve diversity on campuses across the nation through improved black culture centers, MU played host to the 17th Annual Association of Black Culture Centers Conference.
The conference began Thursday in Memorial Union's Stotler Lounge with welcoming speaker Matsimela Changa Diop, the director of Multicultural Student Services at the University of North Dakota. Following him, keynote speaker professor James Stewart from The Pennsylvania State University spoke on ways to create better black culture centers. He named ways students, faculty members and families could improve diversity awareness and activity on campuses. Students and professors from across the nation attended the event.
Junior Bryan Callis from McKendree University said he felt empowered by the first speaker.
"I want to be more socially aware," Callis said. "The world would be a better place if we were more culturally aware."
In addition to cultural awareness, Stewart spoke on how generation gaps negatively affect the effort to promote equality and diversity in communities. Stewart also said it was important to fuel efforts with the Jena Six controversy. The Jena Six is a group of black teenagers originally charged with attempted murder for assaulting a white student at their high school. Charges have since been reduced to second-degree battery.
"We have to have people come to speak on campuses and have a broader organizing effort," Stewart said.
Senior Krystl Johnson from Rutgers University said she found Stewart's presentation on activist Paul Robeson, a Rutgers graduate, particularly relevant. Robeson was the third black student accepted to Rutgers.
"The biggest thing I took away was to hold professors accountable and not to give us the sugar-coated version," Johnson said. "That makes us soft as minorities."
Educators were able to see the commencement as well and take away strategies to implement in their programs. Sandra Adell, professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, took a new prospective on student involvement away from Stewart, who urged students to be less materialistic and more concerned with grassroots efforts for change.
"Students have to be the generators of struggles for social, economic and political empowerment," Adell said.
Speakers from other universities and organizations are scheduled to speak at the conference. One such speaker is spoken-word poet Freedom Speaks. She applied to become a speaker to help educate students through spoken word.
"People don't see the academic value that can be achieved from spoken word," Speaks said.
After Stewart's speech, attendees were invited to Jesse Wrench Auditorium to watch the movie "Black is ... Black Ain't."
According to the event Web site, today's events include concurrent sessions in diversity, leadership and civic engagement. Professors from various colleges will give the lectures. After lunch, the ABCC will play host to a graduate school fair and more concurrent sessions.
In the evening, the ABCC will play host to a Nostalgia Dinner and the second keynote speaker, Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux.
Following her speech, the St. Louis Black Repertory Company will perform "No Land's Man: A Chapter in the Lives of Dred and Harriet Scott."
After more events Saturday, the conference will conclude with the ABCC Awards Banquet at 6 p.m., featuring keynote speaker Darlene-Clark Hine. Following the awards, the Delta Sigma Theta sorority will sponsor a party at The Fieldhouse.
