Tonight, Manning Marable, widely known as a scholar of African American history, will deliver this year’s Thurgood Marshall lecture on Law and Human Rights in the UCLA Covel Commons Grand Horizon Room.
Started in 1986 and named in his honor, the Thurgood Marshall lecture series aims to continually educate the public on the history of civil rights, as well as the current challenges that need to be overcome to move toward a more equitable society, according to the Bunche Center Web page.
This year’s honoree, Manning Marable, is the founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University.
“Under Dr. Marable’s direction, the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia became one of the nation’s most prestigious centers of scholarship on the African American experience,” said Darnell Hunt, director of UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.
He also established the Center for Contemporary Black History at the university, according to the Bunche Center Web page.
At this year’s lecture, Marable said he will focus on President Barack Obama, Thurgood Marshall and the struggle for civil and human rights.
“The first part of the lecture will lay out what the nature of the civil rights struggle was and what the roles of Marshall and others were in helping America overturn racial segregation,” Marable said.
The second part of the talk will examine the new black leadership of the 21st century, represented by Obama, and will explain how today’s struggle against racial injustice is different from the civil rights era 50 years ago, he said.
Marable has given lectures across the nation on topics such as making multiculturalism work and the role of black history in shaping the future.
He has also written numerous books on human rights and a political commentary series, “Along the Color Line,” which has appeared worldwide in newspapers and journals.
In addition, he is also the recipient of numerous honors, awards and research grants and has held leadership positions in his long-standing academic career.
To conclude the lecture, Marable said he will challenge the audience, especially students, to participate and help resolve the current struggle for human rights.
He said that it is reminiscent of what Thurgood Marshall would want all of us to do.
“The message of human rights is for everyone,” Marable said.
Past lecturers include Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Harry Belafonte, human rights activist and entertainer; Elaine Brown, scholar and former leading member of the Black Panther Party; and Thurgood Marshall himself.
“When I hear some of these people who come to gather and who are among world leaders on (civil and human rights) topics, I find it very inspirational,” Hunt said.
To celebrate the lecture’s 20th anniversary, admission will be free.
The lecture will also kick off the 40th anniversary of the Bunche Center, which organizes the event.
The event is funded by a number of individual and corporate donors, including Fox Diversity, campus-based supporters and the Bunche Center itself, Hunt said.
Each year an honoree and lecturer is chosen based on having a long, distinguished career in areas of race and social justice, he said.
“I think it’s one of those opportunities for students as well as the broader UCLA and Los Angeles community to witness a lecture by one of the world’s leaders on these topics.”