Announcing our Fall 2018 Schedule
August 08, 2018
September 6: The Long Struggle against Medical Apartheid: Black Health and Community Activism
Featuring Dr. Julius Garvey, Gabriel Mendes, and Alondra Nelson
Medical Apartheid and racial exclusion from equal health care and affordable insurance has been a persistent and deadly crisis for Black America. Now, Trump’s White House and a reactionary Congress wants to eliminate Obamacare. What can be done? Dr. Julius Garvey, Gabriel Mendes, and Alondra Nelson will explain what Black and Latino communities have done to advance health against the tide of racism in the past, including community organizing efforts like Harlem’s Lafargue Clinic and the Black Panther Party health care initiatives.
October 4: Rethinking H. Rap Brown and Black Power
Featuring Arun Kundnani, Robyn Spencer, and Akinyele Umoja
H. Rap Brown (Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin) was one of the youngest national leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panther Party. Although Rap Brown was among the most brilliant voices of the Black Power Generation, most history books criminalize him as a violent troublemaker. Come to hear how Uncle Sam framed Rap Brown for the 1967 Cambridge Riot in Maryland and how the Kerner Commission buried the evidence of his innocence. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary (1969-2019) of Rap Brown’s classic memoir, Die! Nigger! Die! This conversation is the first step toward next year’s national conference in Atlanta, Georgia to not only rethink Jamil Al-Amin’s role in Black Liberation but also to free Jamil Al-Amin and all Black Panther political prisoners. Arun Kundnani, who is writing a biography of Al-Amin, will join Akinyele Umoja and Robyn Spencer, two leading scholars of Black Power, for a conversation on Al-Amin's life and political legacy.
November 1: What’s at stake in the 2018 Elections? The Struggle for Voting Rights and the Poor People’s Campaign
Featuring Reverend William Barber, Gloria Browne-Marshall, and Reverend Liz Theoharis
Black America is singular as the oppressed group denied citizenship, economic justice, and voting rights in the USA. If there was a New Deal for White America, then there was a Raw Deal for Black America. As an alternative to the Raw Deal for the “Other America” and understanding that economic justice was linked to voting rights, Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King championed the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968. Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis are leading today’s new Poor People's Campaign, challenging racism, voter suppression, poverty, militarism, and environmental devastation. Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall is the author of The Voting Rights War: The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice. Together they will discuss what is at stake in the 2018 elections.
December 6: A Divided America: Black Politics and the Struggle for Justice in Sports
Featuring Howard Bryant, Amira Rose Davis, and Randy Roberts
Black athletes raising their voices and taking a knee against injustice are under attack by Trump’s White House, commentators, coaches, and many fellow Americans. Three writers will examine the role Black male and female athletes have played in the long struggle against racism and injustice and the barriers and criticism they have faced for their politics. Professor Randy Roberts will discuss Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. Professor Amira Rose Davis will preview her forthcoming book, “Can’t Eat a Medal”: The Lives and Labors of Black Women Athletes in the Age of Jim Crow. And, ESPN’s Howard Bryant will discuss The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America and the Politics of Patriotism.