September 13, 2004

NOTE: Please note that the keynote address for the "African American Studies: Meeting the Challenge Today, Learning from the Past – Envisioning the Future" has been rescheduled to 7 p.m. Sept. 24 in Stewart Center, Room 218. The original news release was sent on Sept. 1. No other symposium events have been rescheduled.

African American studies keynote speaker rescheduled

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The keynote address for Purdue University's African American Studies and Research Center trilogy celebration on Sept. 23-25 has been rescheduled to Sept. 24.

The "African American Studies: Meeting the Challenge Today, Learning from the Past – Envisioning the Future" symposium will feature a variety of lectures by Purdue and visiting professors, as well as a keynote address by Charles Ogletree from the Harvard Law School. His talk is at 7 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 218. Ogletree was originally scheduled to speak on Sept. 23.

This trilogy marks the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the 30th anniversary of the African American Studies and Research Center's establishment and the 20th anniversary of the center's symposia series. Brown is the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

Ogletree is the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, vice dean for clinical programs and director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. He also is the author of "All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education." A book signing will follow his lecture in Stewart Center's west foyer.

All lectures during the symposium are free and open to the public. There is a registration fee for anyone interested in program materials or attending a Sept. 24 social. For more information, call (765) 494-5682 or visit the African American Studies & Research Center web site.

"Purdue's African-American Studies emphasizes the African-American experience in the United States, Africa and the Caribbean," said Venetria Patton, director of the African American Studies and Research Center and associate professor of English. "For example, our faculty study issues of poverty, black women's literature and issues of inequality. We approach those fields from different perspectives that not only analyzes race, but also class and gender."

African American Studies offers an undergraduate major and minor. Courses, including "American Popular Culture," "African American Sexuality and Society," "Black Women Rising," "Blacks in Hollywood Film" and "The Black Male," also are open to other students as electives. Faculty in the program also offer study abroad experiences to Africa, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Brazil.

Students also have the opportunity to participate in Soul Plus Radio Magazine, a half-hour, student-produced live news magazine on WBAA AM920, which reports social and global issues from an African-American point of view.

The research center also sponsors the Harriet A. Jacobs Lecture Series in the Humanities and the Arts; W.E.B. DuBois Lecture Series; Talkin' & Testifyin' Works-in-Progress Series; Conversations on the Diaspora; Symposium on African American Culture & Philosophy; Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture Series; Malcolm X Commemorative Lecture; and Ethics, Justice & Culture Forums. The center also publishes a newsletter, called Nommo: Power of the Word.

The Ogletree presentation is part of Brown at 50: Lessons in Progress, which is a yearlong celebration sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Human Relations. Support also comes from the Office of the Provost, School of Education, the Graduate School, School of Liberal Arts, Krannert School of Management, as well as the School of Liberal Arts departments and programs of American studies, English, foreign languages and literatures, health and kinesiology, history, interdisciplinary studies, sociology and anthropology, and women studies. DPK and Associates, Inc. also is sponsoring Ogletree's visit.

Writer: Amy Patterson-Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Venetria Patton, (765) 494-2151, vpatton@sla.purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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