Black History (Video)

In 2002, a UC Santa Cruz college with the theme of social justice and community opened with distinguished professors, politically engaged students, and a number for a name: College Ten. That changed for good, and for better, in 2023 when College Ten was named for John R. Lewis, the late American civil rights leader and politician who stood up to Jim Crow–era segregation in the 1960s. He was one of...

Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner and U.S. Representative Barbara Lee speak from the heart about how the Black Church has helped to build African American electoral power. It’s a powerful story with practical lessons for present times. Dr. Williams-Skinner is head of the Skinner Institute and Co-convener of the African American Clergy Network. Rep. Lee represents Berkeley, California. She is a former c...

Twentieth-Century African American Freedom Struggles transformed both US and World History. These seminal liberation struggles include the important yet relatively unknown series of early twentieth-century southern African American streetcar boycotts as well as the iconic Civil Rights-Black Power Insurgency (1935-75). First, Waldo Martin examines why and how these foundational freedom struggles pr...

Opera News has called UC San Diego Music Professor Anthony Davis A National Treasure, for his pioneering work in opera. His six operas include works centered on recent historical figures & events, including Malcolm X and Patty Hearst. Davis' latest opera The Central Park Five, an exploration of the wrongful conviction of five teenagers of color in NYC in the 1980s, premiered at Long Beach Opera in...

UCLA history professor Brenda Stevenson studies slavery and the Antebellum South, some of our country’s most painful moments and eras. Because there is not much in the way of documentary evidence of the lives of women of color, enslaved women and women from the South, Stevenson must work as an investigator to discover their inner lives and experiences. This is often done through stories told throu...

By virtually any measure, prisons have not worked. They are sites of cruelty, dehumanization, and violence, as well as subordination by race, class, and gender. Prisons traumatize virtually all who come into contact with them. Abolition of prison could be the ultimate reform. Georgetown Law Professor Paul Bulter explores what would replace prisons, how people who cause harm could be dealt with in...

More recently known for her Black Panther and Wakanda Forever Marvel Comics, Nnedi Okorafor is an international award-winning novelist of African-based science fiction, fantasy and magical realism for both children and adults. Born in the United States to two Nigerian immigrant parents, Nnedi is known for weaving African culture into creative evocative settings and memorable characters. In a profi...

Peter Biggs experienced the transition from slavery to freedom a decade before the outbreak of the Civil War. Jarred Webb portrays the historical figure who lived in Los Angeles and was one of only twelve people in Los Angeles marked 'Black' on the 1850 US Census. Webb is then joined Dan Lynch (UCLA History) to discuss the high (and low) points of his life. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Som...

One of the most important composers in jazz history, Charles Mingus documented his lively impressions of Tijuana in "Tijuana Moods," a rarely performed suite. Join Grammy-winning jazz author Ashley Kahn; eminent alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, a longstanding member of Charles Mingus' band; Anthony Davis, UC San Diego professor of music and noted composer, pianist and improviser; and Steven Sch...

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Harvard Professor Annette Gordon-Reed for a discussion of her work as a lawyer/historian focusing on the contradictions in the life of Thomas Jefferson. Topics covered in the conversation include how her training as a lawyer empowered her to overturn the conventional historical view of the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Professor Gordon...

UCSB faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students discuss what we have learned over the last six years from research about what worked in stimulating achievement among Black children and what challenges African American learners face. Keynote speakers Na’ilah Suad Nasir from UC Berkeley and Tyrone Howard from UCLA. Moderated by UC Santa Barbara Professor Jeffrey Stewart. Series: "Voices" [Public...

From the moment Myrlie Evers-Williams faced the murder of her husband, civil rights activist Medgar Evers, she became a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement. For more than five decades, she has fought to carry on his legacy, never relenting in her determination to change the face of race relations in this country. She reflects here on the impact of the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, A...

Jazz made its path abroad in 1918 during the “Great War” when one black officer, Lt. James Reese Europe, volunteered for service with members of his Harlem Society Orchestra, forming the 369th Regimental Band. Because the U.S. Army did not allow black soldiers to fight alongside white comrades, the soldiers instead fought with the French and earned the moniker “Hellfighters,” along with the Croix...

Former UCSB professor Gerald Horne, the award-winning author of more than thirty books, discusses his book “The Counter-Revolution of 1776” which argues that for the country's forefathers, "freedom" meant the right to keep others enslaved—and that the consequences of this definition continue into the present in the form of a racialized conservatism and a persistent racism targeting the descendants...

Social psychologist and author Jack Glaser makes a compelling case against racial profiling in law enforcement, arguing that it’s not only wrong, but can lead to more crimes being committed by non-profiled groups in this timely conversation on race, shooter bias and stereotypes with Oakland Assistant Police Chief Paul Figueroa and Henry E. Brady, dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC B...

Angela Davis visited UC Santa Barbara for a screening of "Free Angela and All Political Prisoners," a documentary by Shola Lynch that chronicles Davis's life as a young, outspoken UCLA professor. Angela Davis and producer Sidra Smith answer questions from the audience. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 25917]

Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS, MBA, Associate Professor of Medicine, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership, Harvard Medical School, examines the role that children have played in advancing civil rights and justice and how that struggle impacts education and health care today. Series: "Lenoir/Hamburger Memorial Lecture" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Humanities] [Show ID: 24855]

MSNBC commentator, columnist for The Nation, and Professor of Political Science at Tulane University, where she serves as founding director of the Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South, Melissa Harris-Perry examines black women’s political and emotional responses to pervasive negative race and gender images in her new book, “Sister Citizen.” With wit and family anecdotes, Harris-Perry...

Join contributors to “Black Nature,” the First Anthology of Nature Writing by African-American Poets including the writers Harryette Mullen, Ed Roberson, Evie Shockley, Natasha Tretheway, Camille Dungy and Al Young. They read from their work and participate in a discussion on the literary and environmental issues raised by the new anthology. Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Show ID: 18356]

Celebrate forty years of the Bunche Center with key individuals who were instrumental in shaping the Center’s legacy. Part two explores the later year of adjustment sand revision from 1986 to the present. Speakers include former UCLA administrators Chancellor Charles Young and Vice Chancellor C.Z. Wilson and past Bunche Center directors Bob Singleton, Molefi K. Asante, Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, M....

Celebrate forty years of the Bunche Center with key individuals who were instrumental in shaping the Center’s legacy. Part one the early years of the center and its emergence and institutionalization from 1969 to 1985. Speakers include former UCLA administrators Chancellor Charles Young and Vice Chancellor C.Z. Wilson and past Bunche Center directors Bob Singleton, Molefi K. Asante, Claudia Mitche...

Dr. Milmon Harrison, African American and African Studies, and singer Mavis Staples consider the role of music in the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Series: "Mondavi Center Presents" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 16082]

Author Laura Pulido traces the roots of third world radicalism in Southern California during the 1960s and 1970s. Focusing on the Black Panther Party, El Centro de Accin Social y Autonomo (CASA), and East Wind, a Japanese American collective, she explores how these groups sought to realize their ideas about race and class, gender relations, and multiracial alliances. Series: "Voices" [Public Affai...

Revolutionary poet, playwright, and activist Amiri Baraka is recognized as the founder of the Black Arts Movement, a literary period that began in Harlem in the 1960s and forever changed the look, sound, and feel of American poetry. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 13561]

Trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos and a stellar ensemble pay tribute to the art and legacy of jazz legend Miles Davis, with a guest appearance by pianist Cecil Lytle. Series: "Rebecca Lytle Memorial Concerts" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 13691]