UCLA will celebrate Black History Month throughout February with a series of lectures and cultural exhibitions to enlighten the community about black culture and history.
On Wednesday, African studies professor Adams Bodomo, from the University of Vienna, will speak on contemporary Africa/China relations and the increasing number of Africans visiting and settling in China in his lecture “Africans in China.”
“We live in a media-saturated world in which different issues and perspectives continually compete for our attention,” said Darnell Hunt, director of the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, in a statement. “It’s important to set aside a special time to pay particular attention to the rich history – the challenges and achievements – of African-descended people in America.”
Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week in February 1926 not for the black community, but for the rest of the nation to recognize the achievements of black individuals, said UCLA history professor Robin D. G. Kelley. The week was later extended into a full month in 1976. Woodson is the second black individual to receive a doctorate from Harvard University and he established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Black History Month became a way to celebrate the heritage and to educate new generations about black history, Kelley said. The month is a time to study and question that history, and to ask hard questions about the past and future, he said.
UCLA English professor Christine Chism, who teaches about black literature in her classes, said she thinks commemorating Black History Month is important because various forms of discrimination still exist.
“You’re going to find race in places you don’t expect and inside you in places you don’t like,” she said.
Currently, 3.8 percent of undergraduate students at UCLA are black.
After Proposition 209 banned affirmative action, the consideration of race in state university admissions, black student enrollment at UCLA decreased significantly, said Paul Von Blum, a senior lecturer in African American studies and communication studies at UCLA.
“We are slowly building up (our) diversity, but we are not where we need to be. Black History Month is a good opportunity to get the wider campus community to be cognizant of these wider contributions,” Von Blum said.
Kelley said he thinks that although Black History Month is a valuable way to commemorate black heritage, reflecting about the history of black individuals needs to be done all year.
“As a world-class university that is part of the U.S., we (at UCLA should) participate in this national reflection,” Kelley said.
Events honoring Black History Month began last week with a lecture by Jonathan Holloway, a professor of history, American studies and African American studies at Yale University, on his book about the effects of Jim Crow laws on 20th century black Americans.
The Fowler Museum is showcasing two exhibits in honor of the occasion, including “Double Fortune, Double Trouble: Art for Twins Among the Yoruba” and “Powerful Bodies: Zulu Arts of Personal Adornment.” The exhibits will remain open until March 2.
Gemma Rodrigues, the Fowler Museum’s curator of African arts, will speak Thursday on the development and use of Zulu personal objects.
The Race and Hollywood Symposium will take place Thursday and focus on an analysis of the findings from the first full report on Hollywood diversity from the UCLA Bunche Center.
The Afrikan Student Union will also commemorate Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, said Kamilah Moore, a fourth-year political science student and chairwoman of the UCLA Afrikan Student Union. Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, was fatally shot last year by George Zimmerman, who was later acquitted.
In honor of Black History Month, the Afrikan Student Union will unveil the newly renovated “The Black Experience” muralnext to Panda Express on the first floor in Ackerman Union at the end of the month.