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Candis Watts Smith: Making Black Lives Matter

Do All Black Lives Matter To All Black People?This spring the Department of African & African American Studies continues to commemorate the 50th anniversary of black studies at Duke with a speaker series featuring prominent Duke alumni.

Candis Watts Smith, Ph.D. ’11, associate professor of political science and African American studies at Pennsylvania State University, kicks off the speaker series this month with a talk, “Do All Black Lives Matter to All Black People?”

The talk will be held in the Moyle Room at the Karsh Alumni and Visitor Center on Thursday, Jan. 30, at 4:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Kerry Haynie, chair of Duke’s Academic Council and an associate professor of political science and African & African American studies, will join Smith to discuss her latest book, Stay Woke: A People’s Guide to Making Black Lives Matter.

Haynie chaired Smith’s dissertation committee while she was a doctoral student in Duke’s Department of Political Science. Smith also received a B.A. and M.A. from Duke.

Smith’s expertise highlights race and ethnicity’s role in shaping the American political landscape. Her research agenda illuminates the ways in which demographic dynamics influence citizens’ and denizens’ of the U.S. understanding of their own identity, their political attitudes, and their policy preferences. She is also the author of Black Mosaic: The Politics of Black Pan-Ethnic Identity, and the co-author of Racial Stasis: The Millennial Generation and the Stagnation of Racial Attitudes in American Politics.

Haynie directs Duke’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Social Sciences, and is one of the editors of the journal, Politics, Groups, and Identities. Haynie’s research and teaching interests are in race and ethnic politics, intersections of race and gender, southern politics, and comparative urban politics. Haynie has traveled widely, attending invited talks in France, Germany, and South Africa. He is the co-winner of the American Political Science Association’s Women and Politics Research Section’s Best Paper Award for 2012.

Candice Jenkins, WSTC ‘01, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will discuss her new book, Black Bourgeois, at 4:30 p.m., Feb. 27. Jenkins’ talk will be held in the Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall in Smith Warehouse.

Local Black Women Artists join Professor Neal for Ruby Fridays

three women artists seated on stage, one in middle speakingThree black women artists, members of the vibrant and supportive Durham arts community, shared details of their creative practices, and the challenges and joys of being working artists at a Nov. 15 “Ruby Fridays” event.

Durham-based visual artists Candy Carver and Natasha Powell Walker, and independent filmmaker Natalie Bullock Brown joined Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke Professor of African & African American Studies, for a lunchtime public conversation in the Ruby Lounge at the Rubenstein Arts Center.

The event was held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Department of African & African American Studies.

 

On being a working artist and having “day jobs”:

WALKER: I just got comfortable telling people at my nonprofit “day job” that I’m an artist. It’s easier at a nonprofit where people have lives. It’s been interesting to see how much they intersect, my “day job” and my art.

BROWN: My parents were supportive. They said make sure you get an advanced degree. I had worked on the Ken Burns Jazz series. I was really worried at age 27 that if I didn’t get married soon, I would not have kids. I left New York and moved here. I now have 2 children and I am married. I just got back to filmmaking about 6 years ago. I started teaching, mostly because I had flexibility with my schedule.

Every waking moment is teaching, filmmaking, kids. It’s challenging.

The funding part, in N.C., I have not figured that out yet. I’m 6 years into a project that I could have done in 3 years in New York.

CARVER: I don’t have a 9-to-5 but I work all the time. It’s fun.

I actually work more than 9-to-5. It’s more than a full-time job, if we’re talking about 40 hours a week. My job can travel with me. I have a lot more flexibility than a 9-to-5. I’m currently figuring out balance, and opportunities that won’t cost me time. I need to be happy to make good work, unlike Mary J. Blige.

 

three women seated on stage with micsOn the challenges of being an artist in the Triangle area:

CARVER: There’s a challenge that many of the art galleries are run by white women and that’s a particular perspective that they are choosing art from.

As our area becomes more diverse they will have to seek from a more diverse spectrum of creativity. Black life is way more interesting than shackles, chains and lunch counters. It’s more interesting and it’s broader.

 

On being taken seriously as women:

WALKER: I’ve experienced harassment. I’ve had both male and female mentors tell me to use it to my advantage, or that’s just the way it is.

CARVER: The majority of my clients are men. Why? I would have thought it would be more women. I’m not sure why. But I’m comfortable with guys. Always have been.

BROWN: Women don’t get as much funding as men. You might have to work on projects where you’re token, or the topic is black and you’re being used for your blackness.

It doesn’t matter if you went to film school. What matters is experience. I want the chance to do artwork that will help me to grow.

 

On where they create:

WALKER: I like creating at home. I don’t like people walking up to me while I’m creating. I had a studio space in Richmond that I shared.

CARVER: The whole downstairs of my house is an art studio. My dining room and living room are full of art supplies. I’m social, dialoguing doesn’t disrupt me too much. I actually enjoy it. I paint on the floor. It feels nice.  I’ve painted on the walls. My mother learned pretty early that I was a different kind of kid.

 

What will you be doing 5 years from now?

CARVER: That’s so limiting. If I had done what I thought 5 years ago I would have missed out on so much.

I’m working on figuring out ways to make more money and work less.

 

On “black girl magic”:

CARVER: It’s the ability to pivot, to constantly and successfully adjust.

BROWN: It agree that it is being able to react in the moment to what is needed. It’s being able to have joy in the midst of all of the challenges. Also, it has begun to encapsulate this idea of being a superwoman, which is not real, not healthy, not sustainable.

Magic has be paid, funded, supported or it will fizzle.

three artists seated facing camera smiling with arms around each other

 

Challenging Borders Conference Highlights Severity of Migration

Stephen Smith at podium smiling, Charlie Piot seated, smilingwith reporting by Jasmine Clairsaint

Migrants are facing increasingly difficult challenges such as being publicly beaten, accused of being criminals, or forced to pay unreasonable amounts of money for visas, trying to find a better life, according to panelists at Monday’s Challenging Borders conference.

Achille Mbembe, a philosopher, political theorist and public intellectual, delivered a keynote address, “Bodies as Borders.”

“To be alive or to remain alive, or to survive is increasingly tantamount to being able to move and to move speedily,” Mbembe said. “If you do not move, you are likely to lose your life.”

Charlie Piot at a podium

The conference on migration and borders, held Monday, November 18, at the Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, was sponsored by the Africa Initiative, the Franklin Humanities Initiative and the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke.

Charles Piot, co-director of the Africa Initiative and professor of cultural anthropology and African & African American Studies, provided opening remarks and co-moderated the conference with Stephen Smith, associate chair of the Department of African & African American Studies.

Mbembe encouraged the audience to “think about a bigger thing that is going on,” in regards to migration.

“Our earth is being partitioned again,” he said citing technological, biological – and ecological reasons for a new global redistribution of the population. “The earth is burning. The ground on which we stand is burning, the air we breathe is burning, the oceans are burning.”

Mbembe suggested getting rid of one’s body as the first step towards a radical freedom.

Piot described his experience and research regarding consular processing through embassies in the U.S. and foreign countries. There are only 50,000 diversity visas given away in the U.S. annually, while there are more than 20 million applicants, he said.

Piot, author of, The Fixer: Visa Lottery Chronicles, said the cost prevents many people from applying for visas, because even if families are accepted, they are required to pay “over $800 per person just for an embassy interview,” which becomes wasted money for these families if they do not end up receiving the visa. Piot stressed that there is a problem with embassy interviews where consulates are subjective in deciding who qualifies.

“The conversation between console and visa applicant in discourse, in words between the two of them, are often a short encounter… In that encounter the border is constructed in a very contingent way. The criteria is always changing. It is an unstable border,” Piot said.

Other panelists for the day-long conference included Catherine Besteman, an anthropologist from Colby College; Hans Lucht, a senior researcher on global transformations at the Danish Institute for International Studies; Aïssatou Mbodj, a researcher at the National Center on Scientific Research/Institute of the African Worlds; Amade M’charek, an anthropology professor at the University of Amsterdam; Miriam Ticktin, associate chair of anthropology at The New School for Social Research; and Henrik Vigh, a political anthropologist at the University of Copenhagen.

view of panel from rear of room

Actress Kim Coles To Visit Duke Comedy Class, Oct. 24

Kim Coles bannerDURHAM, N.C. — Actress and comedian Kim Coles, perhaps best known for her five-season turn as “Synclaire” on the FOX series, “Living Single,” will be special guest for the Duke University course “Dick Gregory and the History of Black Comedy,” Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6:15 p.m.

The course is taught by Professor Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke Professor of African & African American Studies, with the support of Dr. Christian C. Gregory, executor of the Estate of Dick Gregory and the Estate of Jenny Lillian Semans Koortbojian.

The class is free and open to the public on Thursdays where it is held at the NorthStar Church of the Arts, a converted church founded by Nnenna and Phil Freelon that serves as “a sacred space for healing, creative expression and spiritual connectivity.”

RSVPS are requested: tinyurl.com/kimcoles

​Coles has starred on numerous television programs including Frasier, In Living Color, and One on One. She is also a playwright and the author of “Open Your G.I.F.T.S.: 22 Lessons on Finding and Embracing Your Personal Power,” volume 2 of the series, “42 Lessons of Finding and Embracing Your Blessings in Disguise.” These days, she presents inspirational programs encouraging others to walk in purpose and share their stories based on her perspective and experience in the entertainment industry.

Earlier guests were actress and comedian Marsha Warfield, cartoonist Keith Knight, and author Bassey Ikpi. On Nov. 14, actor and comedian David Alan Grier will join the class and on Nov. 21, New York Times culture critic Mel Watkins will be a special guest.

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They Shoot Black People, Don’t They? A Cartoonist’s Take

Artist Keith Knight keeps it real during visit to Duke Comedy Class

Cartoons can take a simple concept and impact lives.

That was the message cartoonist Keith Knight shared with an audience on a Thursday evening at the NorthStar Church of the Arts. Knight shared slides of his most impactful comic strips, including one that may have potentially influenced national policy.

Knight was the special guest on Oct. 3, for Prof. Mark Anthony Neal’s course, “Dick Gregory and the History of Black Comedy.” The course features guest appearances by professional comedians, critics and screenings of rare and/or classic films. And is free and open to the public on Thursdays where it is held off-campus in a renovated church.

The course is taught with the support of Dr. Christian C. Gregory, executor of the Estate of Dick Gregory and the Estate of Jenny Lillian Semans Koortbojian.

An award-winning artist, Knight showed many of his strips which tackle difficult issues such as police brutality, discrimination and politics – but with a humorous spin.

A particularly resonant comic strip that tackled the issue of gay rights in the military may have influenced President Obama to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” said Knight, zooming in on a photo of the president with Knight’s comic strip visible in a folded newspaper on his desk just months after his strip ran.Mark Anthony Neal introduces Knight

“Drawing helps me work out issues,” said Knight, a Boston-native who now splits his time between Carrboro and Los Angeles where he is the subject an upcoming Hulu series, “Woke,” a live-action, animated comedy.

“I really enjoy the creative process, I really enjoy being in the writer’s room with other funny people and we’re all just trying to make each other laugh,” Knight said.

The series is based on Knight’s autobiographical comic strip, “The K Chronicles,” which was syndicated, running in publications like Salon.com and the San Francisco Chronicle.  Now he shares his work online with subscribers.

“The Internet has been amazingly helpful because people are not reading newspapers anymore,” Knight said. “Syndicates used to sign 15-year deals. And you used to be able to get into 500 to 1000 papers around the world. Now getting in 50 papers in huge.”

 

Where Did the Hammond Sound Come From – and Where Did It Go?

Ashon Crawley lecture begins AAAS 50th speaker series
Long view of the Moyle Room
Department Chair Mark Anthony Neal provided introductory remarks for the speaker series.

Ashon Crawley, Ph.D.‘13, grew up in the Black Pentecostal church playing the Hammond organ by ear. He thought it was a sound that belonged to the black church. In fact, the sound of the organ can be traced from pre-slave trade Islam to southern delta gospel and blues.

His late afternoon talk, “Migration Stories and the Hammond Sound,” explored how the sound of the Hammond organ has crossed continents and time as a sonic device regarded for its mystical and spiritual significance.

“There is sonic evidence in the way we pray. If we listen to the sound of Islam, we might hear the relationship to the blues,” Crawley said before playing surprisingly similar-sounding clips of music from the Islamic, blues, Black Baptist and Black Pentecostal traditions.

Crawley lecturing from podium
Ashon Crawley, University of Virginia

Nearly 30 students and faculty from Duke and neighboring universities filled the Moyle Room at the Karsh Alumni and Visitor Center on Sept. 18, for the launch of the Department of African and African American Studies’ 50th anniversary speaker series. The 2019/20 series features a lecture by Duke alum who was trained or mentored in black studies at Duke and went on to a career in the field.

Crawley is an associate professor of religious studies and African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. He is also the author or “Black Pentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility,” and the forthcoming, “The Lonely Letters.”

“Migration is an attempt to allow for creative practice in the unfamiliar. We can understand the journey by the cities traveled through. Migration is a cause of remembrance. What do we carry when we migrate?” Crawley said.

“Let’s take it to church,” Crawley said, a common refrain, means “there is something worth carrying.”

He notes the moment when a musician changes the sound from major to minor, heightening the audience expectation.

“These are occasions to think about the interrelatedness of sacred practice,” Crawley said.

He listened to musicians play the same song on the Hammond and how the chords changed in cities such as Brooklyn, Detroit, Houston and Chicago, the location of churches known for their musicianship.

“They are actually playing what it feels like to be a question,” Crawley said. “The chord changes mark difference, what is it like to live and breathe in difference?”

Of the musicians, often queer people “who serve as a sonic foundation” for the church, Crawley said “the church does not want them to come out nor do they want to risk losing their labor so they don’t talk about queerness, unless it is in a disparaging way.”

With more stringent church rules that did not allow for experimentation and the decline of music education in public school, Crawley’s work traces the sacred sound of the organ as it “creates new worlds.”

AAAS Speaker Series Highlights Duke Black Studies Alum

Ashon Crawley close up
Ashon Crawley, Ph.D. ’13

On Wednesday afternoon the Department of African & African American Studies will launch its 50th anniversary speaker series with Duke alum Ashon Crawley.

Crawley, Ph.D., ‘13, will deliver a talk, “Migration Stories and the Hammond Sound,” at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18 in the Moyle Room of the newly opened Karsh Alumni and Visitor’s Center (2080 Duke University Rd., Durham).

The talk is free and open to the public. Free parking is available across the street in the gravel lot. A reception will follow the talk.

Each month, the department will host a lecture by scholars who have been immersed in black studies at Duke. All of the talks will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the Karsh Center.

“The series is an opportunity to acknowledge the impact of Black Studies on the Duke University campus, and there’s no better way to do that than to highlight the fine scholars whose research was directed by current and former members of AAAS faculty, said Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke Professor of African & African American Studies and chair of the department. “The scholars presenting in the series have emerged as some of the leading voices in the field of Black Diaspora Studies.”

Crawley, who earned a Ph.D. in English and a certificate in African & African American Studies at Duke, is an associate professor of Religious Studies and African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia, is the author of “Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility.”

He is also author of the forthcoming, “The Lonely Letters,” described as an exploration of the interrelation of blackness, mysticism, quantum mechanics and love.

Next month, on Oct. 14, Courtney R. Baker, Ph.D. ‘08, an associate professor of English at the University of California, Riverside will give a talk, “Black Humanity, Visible Violence, and Liberation Aesthetics.”

For more information on the Department of African & African American Studies, visit aaas.duke.edu.

AAAS 50th Anniversary Speaker Series

Oct. 14 Courtney R. Baker, Ph.D. ‘08, University of California, Riverside
Nov. 11 Patrick Alexander, Ph.D. ‘12, University of Mississippi
Dec. 4 Kinohi Nishikawa, Ph.D. ‘10, Princeton University
Jan. 30 Candis Watts Smith, Ph.D. ‘11, Penn State
Feb. 27 Candice Jenkins, WSTC ‘01, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
TBA Danny Hoffman, Ph.D. ‘04, University of Washington

AAAS speaker series group poster

Duke’s Black Comedy Class Brings ‘Upper Ghetto Godmother,’ Sept. 19

Image of Marsha Warfield and info about her visitBy Camille Jackson

Next Thursday, Sept. 19, comedienne, actress and self-dubbed “upper ghetto godmother,” Marsha Warfield, perhaps best known for her wise-cracking bailiff ‘80s-sitcom character, Roz, on NBC’s “Night Court,” will visit Duke University.

Warfield is a special guest for the Duke University course “Dick Gregory and the History of Black Comedy” course, taught by Professor Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke Professor of African & African American Studies. The course features guest appearances by professional comedians, critics and screenings of rare and/or classic films.

The 6:15 p.m.-7:30 p.m. class is free and open to the public on Thursdays where it is held at the NorthStar Church of the Arts, a converted church founded by Nnenna and Phil Freelon that serves as “a sacred space for healing, creative expression and spiritual connectivity.”

Registration is not necessary but RSVPs are requested: tinyurl.com/DukeMarshaWarfield.

Warfield lives and works in Las Vegas where she performs her show, The Marsha Warfield Experience, at L.A. Comedy Club at the Stratosphere Casino & Hotel. She describes herself as “a loving godmother, an opinionated feminist, an out and proud Black lesbian and a talented actress,” she brings these attributes to her one-woman show. After an overlong period of retirement, Warfield now tackles issues including politics, blackness, coming out as a gay woman and her affair with pizza.

Warfield is best known for “Night Court,” but she also starred in “Empty Nest” as Dr. Maxine Douglas, and as a performer on “The Richard Pryor Show.” She has appeared on shows such as “Soul Train,” “The Arsenio Hall Show,” “The Tonight Show,” and her own talk show, “The Marsha Warfield Show.”

Other guests are:

Oct. 10

Bassey Ikpi is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “I’m Telling the Truth but I’m Lying.” An active voice in pop culture commentary and the mental health community, Ikpi’s essays have been published by The Root, Ebony, Huffington Post and Essence. She was also the resident pop culture critic for Philly’s WURD FM radio station and is currently a contributing editor for Catapult. A poet, she has been featured on HBO’s ‘Def Poetry Jam.’ Ikpi is the founder of The Siwe Project, a mental health organization, and the creator of #NoShameDay, an initiative that attempts to reduce stigma and create space for neurodivergent people to be heard and seen through their own personal stories.

Oct. 24

These days comedienne and actress Kim Coles, best known as “Synclaire” on the FOX comedy series “Living Single, is using comedy to inspire and empower others through a series of designed programs. “Pulling from her experiences, research and years in the entertainment business,” Coles hosts workshops and group sessions related to topics such as using your gifts, “walking in purpose,” and “sharing the power of your story.” She has made appearances on Oprah, The Dr. Oz Show, and at the annual Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.

Nov. 21

Mel Watkins is an author and former editor, writer, and critic for the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Since 2007, he has been the NEH Professor of the Humanities at Colgate University where he has taught courses on literature and African American studies. His books include On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy, Dancing With Strangers, and Stepin Fetchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry. His articles and reviews have appeared in numerous national magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, and he has frequently appeared as a commentator on televised documentaries about American culture and humor.

ABOUT THE COURSE

AAAS 331: Black Popular Culture
Dick Gregory and the History of Black Comedy

At the peak of his fame in the 1960s, Dick Gregory may have been the most influential comedian in America, offering truths about race, the Black community and politics in an era highlighted by the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. “Dick Gregory and the History of Black Comedy” will examine the roots of the Black comedic tradition that informed Gregory’s art and activism, with a particular focus, in the spirit of Mr. Gregory, on the ways in which Black comedy has been used in the quest for civil and human rights.

The course will also highlight the role of Black literary satire, including the work of George Schuyler and Ollie Harrington, as well as contemporary examples such as novelists Danzy Senna, Kiese Laymon, Paul Beatty, and Fran Ross, cartoonist Aaron McGruder, comedians Issa Rae, Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes, Chris Rock and, even critical race theorist and legal scholar Derrick Bell.

The course is taught with the support of Dr. Christian C. Gregory, executor of the Estate
of Dick Gregory and the Estate of Jenny Lillian Semans Koortbojian.

 

Classic Black Comedy Films

August 29  Ethnic Notions (dir. Marlon Riggs, 1987)

September 5 Putney Swope (dir. Robert Downey, Sr., 1969)

September 12 Bamboozled (dir. Spike Lee, 2001)

September 26 Watermelon Man (dir. Melvin Van Peebles, 1970)

October 3 Sweet Love, Bitter (dir. Herbert Danska, 1967)

November 7 Blue Collar (dir. Paul Schrader, 1978)

November 14 Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley (dir. Goldberg, 2013)

December 5 Hollywood Shuffle (dir. Robert Townsend, 1987)

1969 Allen Building Takeover Alumni Reunite on 50th Anniversary

Nearly two dozen of the protesters met with administrators then told their stories to a sold-out audience

ABT Alumni
Members of the original group of black student activists who participated in the 1969 “takeover” of the Allen Building gather for a group portrait at Duke Gardens. (Not all pictured.) Credit: Duke University Communications.

The 1969 Allen Building Takeover has loomed large in Duke’s history. This past weekend, Feb. 9-10, nearly two dozen of the Duke alums who protested returned to campus to check on the status of the demands they issued 50 years ago and to see the impact of their activism.

The sold-out event, “Commemorating the Allen Building Takeover: Fifty Years Later,” was hosted by the Department of African & African American Studies (AAAS) and held in the Ambassador Ballroom at the Washington Duke Inn. Two panel discussions, “The Original Protesters Tell Their Stories,” and “Activism Then and Now: An Intergenerational Discussion,” were followed by a reception at the Nasher Museum of Art. Hundreds attended and watched via livestream.

On Saturday morning, the black Duke alumni who participated in the Allen Building Takeover were invited to a private brunch with President Vincent Price. Price acknowledged their role in challenging Duke to become more inclusive and diverse.

“In the action that you took, you forever shifted our sails towards the prevailing winds of justice and equality,” Price said.

Lynette Allston, ’72, and Mike LeBlanc, ’71, speak with President Price during a private Saturday morning brunch for the original Allen Building protesters.

“I don’t quite know how to say thank you enough for what you did 50 years ago,” Valerie Ashby, dean of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, told the alum in her introductory remarks during Saturday’s main program, adding that her role on campus would not exist had it not been for the takeover.

“So something happens differently for me when I walk in the Allen Building,” she said, describing the portrait of Julian Abele, the black architect who designed Duke’s campus. “Then I go into my office … which is right outside of where you did your work, I am not confused about how I am able to walk into that office each day. I owe you a huge debt of gratitude. Our job is to make you proud. Our job is to continue to help the university move forward so nothing that you did would have been done in vain.”

Ashby joined Mark Anthony Neal, chair of AAAS, and Qsanet Tekie, ’19, president of the Duke Eritrean and Ethiopian Student Transnational Association, to welcome “the Originals” and provide historical context for their activism 50 years ago. On Sunday, the Duke alumni had an informal Sunday service with remarks by Rev. Bill Turner, ’71, and previewed an exhibit on the takeover in Perkins Library.

Many of “the Originals” had attended rural, segregated schools. They had been hand-picked by their communities — as national merit scholars and academically gifted — to attend Duke not long after the university integrated in 1963.

The impetus for the Takeover came when fall semester grades were released.

“I had black people coming up to me who had never come to any meetings or who had never spoken to me, come to me and said, ‘Chuck we have to do something, these grades are not fair.’ They had stories of [the racism] they had experienced in class,” said Chuck Hopkins, ’69, co-founder of the Afro-American Society.

On Feb. 13, 1969, Hopkins and dozens of other black Duke students barricaded themselves inside of the Allen Building, presenting the university administration with a list of demands, an action that has become a model for student activism on campus over the years.

The takeover resulted in the hiring of more black faculty, the creation of a black studies program which would eventually become AAAS, and a black student union that is now the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.

All agreed it took courage and commitment to go into the building.

“I was concerned we might die, especially if we brought guns,” Michael McBride, ’71, said. At other colleges and universities, students were being shot and killed for protesting.

“One of the things we strategized in our meetings was that we weren’t going to bring arms or touch anyone. Our whole thing was let’s not give the administration a reason to focus on something else,” Hopkins said.

“Once we decided to do that I called Mark Pinsky, ’69, at the (Duke) Chronicle to make sure the national press would cover it. We didn’t want to be an isolated event down here in Durham,” he said. “Howard (Fuller) came later in the day.”

ABT 50th Protesters Speak During Panel
During the first panel, The Original Protesters Tell Their Stories, Charles Becton, JD ’69, reads a statement from President Price.

Fuller, who at the time of the takeover was a local community activist in Durham, mentored the Duke students and later became co-founder of Malcolm X Liberation University, where some of them enrolled after leaving Duke that spring.

In the aftermath, the students were put on probation, some were arrested, and some left Duke altogether, never to return.

“We figured the university would not suspend all black students. As part of our trial strategy, we had them sign a document saying they had gone into the building, even when they hadn’t,” Becton, JD ’69, said. “It was not just the students, but the future of Duke that was on trial.”

“It’s easy to talk about now, but it wasn’t easy on that day. We could have been killed. That is not a statement in the abstract,” Fuller said. “When we went into that building in 1969, we were extending the lines of hope and organization. We took our people’s history and suffering into that building.”

VIEW COVERAGE INCLUDING PHOTOS HERE

 

 

 

 

Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Allen Building Takeover

tear gas on allen quadThis Saturday, Feb. 9, Duke University will grapple with a portion of its racial history, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of a pivotal occasion that forced the university to eventually evolve to offer one of the top-ranked black studies programs in the country.

The story of the Feb. 13, 1969, “takeover” of the Allen Building, a surreal moment when tear gas covered the quad, only hastily captured in blurry black and white photos, has been passed down through generations of student activists.

In response to pervasive discrimination, a group of 60-75 black students organized and barricaded themselves inside the university’s main administrative building, issuing a typed list of 12 demands. At the top of the list, they wrote– “we want the establishment of a fully accredited department of Afro-American studies.”

Now, on the anniversary of their activism, the Department of African & African American Studies at Duke for which they paved the way, has invited those black student activists back to campus to acknowledge their sacrifice and contribution to the university.

The group will reunite this weekend for “Commemorating the 1969 Allen Building Takeover: Fifty Years Later,” an event hosted by the department.

The 12:30 p.m. program will be held in the Ambassador Ballroom at the Washington Duke Inn and includes two panel discussions: “The Original Allen Building Takeover Protesters Tell Their Stories,” followed by “Activism Then and Now: An Intergenerational Conversation.”

[NOTE: The event is at capacity. Attendees already registered are encouraged to arrive early as seating is limited. Late attendees will be directed to overflow seating at the Nasher Museum of Art or the Rubenstein Arts Center. At the end of the program, attendees will be shuttled to a reception at the Nasher Museum of Art for where a live DJ playing music from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Free parking is available for all of the day’s events. A free shuttle will transport attendees back and forth between the two venues during the afternoon and early evening.]

To see the full schedule and available parking, go to https://aaas.duke.edu/abt50. Those unable to attend can watch a YouTube live stream and follow the discussion on Twitter @dukeaaas or by searching hashtag #DukeABT50.

the student demands 1969
Black student demands, 1969. Credit: Duke University Archives

Nearly 30 of the original Allen Building Takeover participants are expected to return to Durham, many of whom have not seen each other for 50 years. They have mixed feelings about their experience at Duke and are pleased to know about the impact of their activism.

“Fifty years later, it brings me great joy to know that the same institution which called in the police and National Guard on us in 1969, would today, welcome us back and acknowledge that our actions contributed positively to the evolution of the university,” said Catherine LeBlanc ’71, a business/education consultant, who was among the fifth class of black students to enter Duke.

LeBlanc will moderate a panel of fellow participants sharing first-hand accounts. A second panel will feature Duke alumni from several generations, including the recent 2016 Takeover, as well as former local/community activist Howard Fuller who mentored the Takeover participants.

“Six years after the first cohort of Black Students entered Duke in 1963, Blacks students and their allies were willing to put their academic careers and professional futures on the line, to push the university into the future,” said Mark Anthony Neal, professor and chair of the Department of African and African American Studies.

“The sacrifice of those students, including the trauma and anger they may have carried with them from participating in The Takeover, has helped create the Duke that we know today – not quite where it needs to be, but a far cry from what it was,” he said.

For more information on the Allen Building Takeover, visit Guide to the Allen Building Takeover Collection, 1969-2002 or listen to recordings of student radio station broadcasts from February 13, 1969.

OTHER ALLEN BUILDING TAKEOVER 50TH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS

The Allen Building Takeover marks the moment that Duke as an institution began to grapple with what it means to be an inclusive community, said Duke University Archivist Valerie Gillispie. “The alumni who participated in the Takeover did so at significant personal risk in order to bring attention to the struggles of African American students,” she said.

Last summer Gillispie organized a team of undergraduate students to curate an exhibit, “Black Students Matter: Taking Over Allen in ’69,” set to open on Feb. 13 in Perkins Library, Chappell Family Gallery. The event, free and open to the public, will begin at 4:30 p.m.  Duke undergraduates, Lexi Kadis, Alan Ko, and Zara Porter, under the mentorship of a Duke graduate student, Ellen Song drew from a number of collections held by the University Archives to curate the exhibit.

“It was important to me that the exhibit resonate with today’s student body, and that it draw connections between the issues of 1969 and the concerns faced by today’s students of color,” Gillispie said. “The exhibit is a chance for the entire campus to reflect on the events of February 13, 1969 and the ways it impacted the fifty years that have followed.”

At 6:30 p.m. on the same evening, “Students Demand Change: The Genesis of the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture,” also free and open to the public, will be held at the in the Flowers Building in The Underground room. [Space is limited]

“It will be a reflective conversation,” said Chandra Guinn, MLWC director. “Through dialogue, we will consider how student activism and students’ demands called for and became the catalyst for institutional change.”

Attendees will reflect on student activism throughout the years and the conditions that gave rise to the Allen Building Takeover with a focus on “what work is left to do.”

“It is important to take time to reflect on how far we have come and what is left to do to help make the campus community one where all feel welcome and supported. It is because students demand change that institutions are made better,” Guinn said.

For more information, contact the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.