A lynching re-enactment, conversations with foreign ambassadors,
lectures and film screenings are among the various programs planned
at UCLA for Black History Month.
The UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies,
the UCLA African Studies Center, and the Black Graduate Students
Association, among others, are planning events highlighting African
Americans and their interests this month.
Black History Month began in 1926 as Negro History Week. It was
launched in February by Carter G. Woodson because both Frederick
Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were born in February, and other
critical events in the advancement of the rights of African
Americans also occurred in that month, such as the founding of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In the
1960s, Negro History Week became Black History Month.
Though Black History Month is officially only the month of
February, members of the Bunche Center for African Studies
emphasize that celebrating black history and culture occurs all
year long. In February there are more events concerning African
Americans because there are more outside groups wanting to work
with the university this time of year.
For Theri Pickens, president of the Black Graduate Students
Association, Black History Month is a time to highlight that black
history is much broader than the history of African Americans.
“Black history is a part of American history. It often
gets minimized, marginalized,” she said.
The Bunche Center for African American Studies has its signature
event in the lecture “Ralph Bunche and the Role of Race in
U.S. Policy Formulation” by Randall Robinson, author of
several books on issues concerning African Americans and founder
and president of TransAfrica ““ an advocacy group influencing
enlightened U.S. foreign policy toward Africa and the
Caribbean.
In addition to honoring Black History Month, the lecture will
also celebrate the new endowment of the Ralph Bunche Chair in
International Studies.
Ralph Bunche, recipient of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize and
alumnus of UCLA, is most famous for brokering an armistice between
Israel and the Arab states after an 11-month negotiation in 1948
and 1949 during the war that resulted in Israel becoming an
independent nation. He was also active in advocating for civil
rights, and Bunche Hall is named in his honor.
The Ralph Bunche Chair has received $500,000 in donations from
230 donors in a grassroots fund-raising campaign.
The Bunche Center Authors’ Series is hosting talks and
book signings by Bob Laird and M.K. Asante. Laird, an author and
former director of undergraduate admissions at UC Berkeley, will
give a talk on affirmative action. Asante, a UCLA graduate student
in the film department and author and filmmaker, will speak about
some of his works.
The Black Graduate Students Association is attempting to
generate a campus-wide discussion on lynching with its Feb. 15
re-enactment of lynching on campus, which will include a panel
discussion with Professor Paul Von Blum of the Afro-American
studies department, among others, and an art display.
The UCLA African Studies Center is hosting a series of events in
February involving issues concerning Africa and African Americans,
but they are not specifically for Black History Month. One series
will focus on various situations affecting Africa: African Union,
HIV/AIDS and U.S. policy toward Africa.
The talks feature high-profile speakers such as Mamadou Seck,
former Senegal ambassador to the U.S.; Princeton N. Lyman, former
assistant secretary of state for International Organization Affairs
and former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria; and
Debrework Zewdie, director of the Global HIV/AIDS Program for the
World Bank.
The UCLA African Studies Center is also showing films dealing
with the relationship between soccer and African nationalism.