Pan-African Studies at Cal State LA celebrates 50 years

Pan-African Studies commemorated 50 years at Cal State LA with a ceremony honoring Black leaders and community members. More than 200 faculty, staff, students and supporters gathered for the Department of Pan-African Studies 5th Annual Black Community Honors Dinner, an evening that looked back on the department’s history and recognized the contributions of individuals who have committed their lives to the liberation and empowerment of the Black community. “This moment affords us an opportunity to vision the world we want to live in—not simply reform what is, but vision and build what we want it to be,” said Melina Abdullah, professor and then-chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies at Cal State LA. “Think about what we’re celebrating tonight—50 years of Pan-African Studies.” The event marked the launch of a yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary.

Pan-African Studies is part of the Black Studies discipline, which includes academic programs that examine the history, culture, politics, economics and worldviews of people of African descent. The Department of Pan-African Studies at Cal State LA is the second-oldest Black Studies department in the nation, founded amid the social and political turmoil of the late 1960s. The Cal State LA Black Student Union, which was pushing for more Black students and faculty members, helped lead the effort to establish a Black Studies program in 1967. It became a department in 1969. Two of the Black Student Union’s earliest members attended the night’s event: Hiram Channell, who now works in admissions at Cal State LA, and Ayuko Babu, who is executive director and a founder of the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. As a student, Babu helped found the Department of Pan-African Studies.

The night’s honorees were U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, who represents the 13th Congressional District in the Bay Area; Cal State LA Pan-African Studies alumnus Akinyele Umoja, chair of African American Studies at Georgia State University; Teri Williams, president and chief operating officer of OneUnited Bank, the largest Black-owned bank in the nation; and Nana Lawson Bush, V, professor of education and the newly appointed chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies at Cal State LA. “I visit many, many colleges and universities around the country and I get a chance to meet professors and heads of departments and students, and I just have to say that this is number one if you ask me,” said Lee, who received the Black Community Honors 2018 Peace and Justice Award. “What a moment this is—in the middle of all that I am doing—to be here with you to be revived and rejuvenated and inspired and motivated to keep fighting the good fight.” Pan-African Studies is housed in the College of Natural and Social Sciences, which is headed by Dean Pamela Scott-Johnson. Abdullah, who introduced the night’s honorees, also recounted her experience taking Black Studies courses while attending Berkeley High School in the Bay Area and the profound impact it had on her life. “It planted seeds in me,” said Abdullah, who served as chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies for nearly nine years. “So for me, the work that we do in Pan-African Studies is definitely about the subject matter, but more than that it’s about the pedagogy and the epistemology—it’s about the way that we teach and the way that we do our work in communities.”