Purdue News
Purdue News
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October 13, 2000 Purdue Black Cultural Center lecture offers reality checkWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue University Black Cultural Center will offer a lecture by Oba T'Shaka, "Applying African Philosophy to Today's African-American Realities." The lecture will be Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 314. The event is free and open to the public. T'Shaka, a professor at San Francisco State University, is a master scholar whose activism extends from 1960 to the present. Between 1963 and 1966, T'Shaka chaired San Francisco Congress of Racial Equality and led a campaign for jobs for blacks in San Francisco and throughout California. "His most important achievement was increasing jobs for blacks at the Bank of America in California," said Renee Thomas, director of the BCC. "This achievement was the largest employment victory in the civil rights movement, causing Bank of America to hire more than 300 blacks within a year." T'Shaka also led the first successful coalition in the United States to gain control of the War on Poverty Program in San Francisco, resulting in the establishment of low-income cooperative housing. In addition, he formed the only coalition between the Chinese-American community, the Mexican-American community and the African-American community. He served as chair of the Black Studies Department at San Francisco State University from 1984 until 1996, T'Shaka was instrumental in the development of an African-centered discipline that incorporated physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics into the core requirements of Black Studies. He assisted in the development of an African-Centered Urban Leadership Academy that serves as the central concentration in the black studies major. His articles have appeared in many journals including "Black Scholar" and "Black Books Bulletin." He is the author of four books and is currently working on his fifth book "Mastering the Masters: An African Centered Pedagogy." Currently, he is national vice chair for the National Black United Front. and is working to build a $3.5 million leadership training center in Oakland, Calif. T'Shaka has addressed audiences in the United States, Britain, France and Ghana. He also chaired the North American political delegation to the historic Sixth Pan African Congress in Tanzania. Established at Purdue in 1969, the BCC is nationally recognized and acknowledged by the Association of Black Culture Centers as one of the best centers of its kind. The center, according to Thomas, helps black students gain a greater understanding of their heritage and supports and enhances cultural diversity on campus and in the community. Thomas said the BCC serves as a catalyst for a host of cultural, educational, artistic, social and technological initiatives and provides an environment that fosters cross-cultural exchanges and noteworthy research, as well as artistic expression through music, dance, drama and creative writing. CONTACT: Renee Thomas, (765) 494-3091, rathomas@hfs.purdue.edu.
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