News In and Around the Hughes Center
News:
February 2009
William Tuttle Lecture
William Chafe, "From Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement: The Continuity of Struggle." March 22, 2009. 6:00 pm @ Hansen Hall, Dole Institute of Politics.
“Despite the presumption that Jim Crow was a time of total white domination and total black submission, it was a time of ongoing resistance that laid the foundations for the civil rights movement. William Chafe is the Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History at Duke University. He is the author and editor of twelve books. His work has focused on civil rights history, women's history, and modern political history. He helped to start the Duke Oral History Program, the Center for the Study of Civil Rights and Race Relations, the Duke-UNC Center for Research on Women, and the Center for Documentary Studies. He chaired the Duke history department from 1990-95 and was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education from July 1, 1995 to July 1, 2004. From 1999-2000 he served as President of the Organization of American Historians.”
January 2009
NEW MA in African & African-American Studies at KU
On January 15, 2009, the Kansas Board of Regents approved the establishment of a M. A. degree program in African & African-American Studies at the University of Kansas. The Program will begin in the Fall of 2009 and the University is currently accepting applications.
Founded in 1970, the Department of African and African-American Studies seeks to educate students to function in a multicultural environment and in a global community. The objective of the M.A. program in African and African-American Studies at the University of Kansas is to produce scholars, teachers, administrators, and other professionals who have the intellectual and scholarly capacity and skills to make on-going contributions to the world in which they live.
The African and African-American Studies M. A. program is designed to take two years of full time study. A total of nine upper-division and graduate courses, in addition to a thesis or additional course work for a non-thesis option, are required for the degree -- 33 credit hours. There are four core courses, Introduction to Africana Studies I: African-American; Introduction to Africana Studies II: African; Research Methods in Africana Studies; and Seminar in Africana Studies. The students are then expected to choose five courses, fifteen credit hours, within their area of specialization. Students are able to take six credit hours outside of the Department in related course offerings including, among others: American Studies, Anthropology, Art, Communications, Economics, Education, English, Geography, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Sociology, Theater & Film, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
For more information contact the Department of African & African-American Studies at
or contact the Graduate Program Coordinator Shawn Leigh Alexander at
slalexan@ku.edu (785) 864-5044
For more information about the Department visit us at http://www2.ku.edu/~afs/
Fight for Freedom! A Century of the NAACP and the Struggle for Racial Equality
The Langston Hughes Center at the University of Kansas announces, Fight For Freedom: A Century of the NAACP and the Struggle for Racial Equality.
Marking the centennial of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and honoring Langston Hughes’ 1962 history of the organization, this symposium (re)investigates the NAACP and its various legacies for a dawning new century. This commemoration will also provide a powerful entry for larger conversations on race and racism in America today.
February 13, 2009 | 8 am - 5 pm | Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union, The University of Kansas
To register online or for more information, visit
October 2008
Spring 2009 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor
Henry Miller has been named the Spring 2009 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor. He will give a public lecture entitled, “The Spiritual Origin of the Drama: Baldwin, Osiris, Dionysus, Eshu and the Bible,” on November 12. See the LHC Calendar for more details.
September 2008
Michael Tilford Conference on Diversity & Multiculturalism:
“Changing Demographics: Is Kansas Ready?”
(9/12/08)
The Michael Tilford Conference on Diversity & Multiculturalism, sponsored by the Kansas Board of Regents and the Council of Chief Academic Offices, will be held at Wichita State University on October 2-3, 2008. The focus of the conference is the changing demographics, both nationally and regionally, and its impact on higher education in Kansas. For more information and registration go to the Office of the Provost’s Diversity Matters website.
Blacks and the United States Constitution
(9/9/08)
A traveling exhibit from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is on display at the Brown Foundation from September 1-30. This exhibition surveys the pivotal role of race in American Constitutional History. Moreover, the exhibit places the role of African American freedom struggles in a perspective that reveals their relationship to the Constitutional history of all Americans.
Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Site | 1515 SE Monroe | Topeka, KS
Free and Open to the Public | Daily 9 am - 5 pm
For more information call the Brown Foundation at 235-3939 or email to brownfound@juno.com
Power, Place, and People: African American and Indigenous Stories
(9/9/08)
The Power, Place, and People: African American and Indigenous Stories exhibition visually illustrates the “Shifting Borders” project. The exhibit includes photographs, documents, and artwork illustrating each participant’s oral story, and will be accompanied by a DVD featuring the oral history interviews. The exhibition is on display at the Lawrence Arts Center from September 9-19.
On September 17 @ 7pm at the Larwrence Art Center Gallary, there will be a panel discussion on the overall project. Panelists include, Daniel Wildcat and Mike Tosee from Haskell Indian Nations University, Maryemma Graham from the University of Kansas, and James Leiker from Johnson County Community College
Richard Wright Centennial
(9/2/08)
September 4, 2008 marks the centennial of author Richard Wright’s birth. You may click on the Richard Wright Centennial webpage for more information about the author and his works. Of special interest will be the events page which has information about a number of events and celebrations this week and throughout the rest of the year. It also includes a slideshow of the conferences in France and Japan.
Finally, note that Julia Wright, Richard Wright’s daughter, will appear at KU on November 6. See our calendar for more details. LHC Calendar
July 2008
St. Luke’s AME Church
(7/19/08)
In June, St. Luke’s AME, the boyhood church of Langston Hughes, received a $60,000 Heritage Trust Fund grant to help restore the historical site. St. Luke’s, located at 9th and New York, hopes to finish the restoration by 2010, the centennial of the site. If you would like to learn more about the restoration or donate additional funds, contact the church at: St. Luke’s AME, 900 NY St. Lawrence, KS 66044
June 2008
Jesse B. Semple Brownbag Series
(6/30/08)
The Langston Hughes Center introduces the Jesse B. Semple Brownbag Series every second Monday of each academic month. The series is an informal forum for the African Americanist community and those who are interested in the general study of race, culture, and American society. The Jesse B. Semple Brownbag will begin on September 8, 2008. Check the Calendar for more details once the Semester begins.
“Come to Africa and its here!” African Americans and Africa
(6/30/08)
During the month of October, in conjunction with the Kansas African Studies Center, the Langston Hughes Center will facilitate an interdisciplinary seminar series on the general topic of African Americans and Africa. Through a series of presentations, KU faculty and invited scholars will discuss the relationship of African Americans to Africa in social, historical, and philosophical contexts. Check the Calendar for more details once the Semester begins.
May 2008
Richard Wright Centennial
(5/20/08)
2008 marks the centennial of author Richard Wright’s birth. His life and writings are being celebrated throughout the year and the Hughes Center will continually update its calendar with events happening locally, nationally and internationally. You may also click on the Richard Wright Centennial webpage for more information about the author and his works.
Randal M. Jelks on Obama and Rev. Wright
(5/19/08)
Randal M. Jelks, Spring 2008 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor and incoming Professor of American Studies and African & African American Studies at KU blogs on the Barack Obama and Rev. Wright controversy.
April 2008
Aimé Césare, Martiniquan poet and political activist, dies at age 94.
(4/17/08)
“Césaire’s “Cahier” takes all that we have, Senghor, Guillén and Hughes, and flings it at the moon, to make of it a space-ship of the dreams of all the dreamers in the word” Langston Hughes (“Draft Ideas,” LHP, December 3, 1964, Collected Works, v. 9, 408)
The Langston Hughes Center
(4/1/08)
The Langston Hughes Center, formerly the Langston Hughes Resource Center, is relaunching its activities at the University of Kansas and throughout the region.
"So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you." -- Langston Hughes (“Theme for English B,” 1949)
