By Perry Busby
The African American Research Library & Cultural Center kicked off its Cultural Conversations at the Center series on Thursday, September 5 with keynote speaker Dr. Stefan Bradley. Dr. Bradley is a professor and Chair of the African American Studies Department at Loyola Mary-mount University, Los Angeles.
Dr. Bradley’s research on African American student activism in higher education has also led him to author three books: “Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s in 2012; “Alpha Phi Alpha: A Legacy of Greatness, the Demands of Transcendence” in 2016; and, his latest book, Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivy League,” which was the topic for the evening’s conversation.
From his opening remarks to the Q&A session at the end, Bradley captivated the audience with a lecture that was informative, engaging and enlightening.
In “Upending the Ivory Tower” Bradley delved into the many issues Black students championed on Ivory League college campuses, from the demand for an African American studies curriculum to Black students at Columbia University challenging, and winning, a dispute against the university over its attempt pave over a public park, in the neighboring Harlem community, to build a private gymnasium.
Today, Ivy League universities boast about having diverse student bodies, but for much of their histories, these institutions were almost entirely white. As these colleges started to recruit and enroll Black students in the 1960s, many leaders of the institutions were stunned to find that the students were not remotely happy about their situation. They didn’t just want to be admitted — they wanted changes in the institutions.
“I wanted to write a nuanced history of Black people. I wanted to do away with the one-dimensional view of Black people that is often seen on television and in film,” said Bradley when explaining his motivation for writing the book. “I also wanted to follow the instruction of my elder, hero and fraternity brother, John Hope Franklin, who said, ‘Every generation has to write its own history.”
The next Cultural Conversations at the Center event is scheduled for October 3rd at the African American Research Library & Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Paul Ortiz, who will discuss Black and Latinx contributions to American history.
For more information contact Makiba Foster at mjfoster@broward.org or (954) 357-6176.
