Fifty, Sixty, and One Fifty PLUS Fall 2014 / Spring 2015

MSU African American and African Studies

Marking and Assessing the Long Black Freedom Struggle

Speaker Series Fall 2014

The 1954 Supreme Court decision, known as Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, mark the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Our 2014 speaker series will deviate slightly from this standard narrative of civil rights which tend to present a linear view of the movement using Martin Luther King and other national male leaders as the defining figures of a short fifty to sixty year period. We reconnect ‘60/50’ years to the longer 100 years civil rights struggle with the long Black Freedom Struggle that dates back to the Emancipation Declaration of 1863. For us, 2014 marks the celebrations and the academic reflections of the 150 year plus movement. We are interested in questions that consider how far we have come with civil rights to date, what are the alternative and self-defining narratives on civil rights, and what are the range of disciplinary perspectives and issues that inform the civil rights dialogue.

September 26, 2014

Mandy Carter

Creator/Co-Creator of SONG (Southerners on New Ground) and NBJC (National Black Justice Coalition)

Contemporary Civil Rights and Black Queer

Brody Complex, Room 134

November 14, 2014

Dr. Francis Njubi Nesbitt

Associate Professor, Africana Studies: San Diego State University

Civil Rights Solidarities: African Americans and South African Blacks

International Center, Room 115

October 10, 2014

Dr. Deborah Willis

Director of Photography/Professor:

Tisch School of the Arts at New York University

Historicizing and Representing Civil Rights through Visual Arts

International Center, Room 115

December 5, 2014

Dr. Fobanjong

Professor of Political Science and African American Studies: University of Massachusetts

Comparative Civil Rights and Brazil

International Center, Room 115