Honoring Africana Studies and its Founding Faculty

  • Students, staff, faculty and guests hold large signs made from the original 1960's protests while walking.

    Attendees march together to the Black House, holding signs and photos copied from the originals that were carried during the protests in the late 1960's. Those protests were featured in the documentary "Storm at Valley State." Photo by David J. Hawkins.

  • Guests are lined up outside of the entrance of the Black House.

    Guests line up to enter the Black House for festivities to mark the closing of Africana Studies Week, 2022. Photo by David J. Hawkins.

  • Dr. Marquita Gammage speaks at a podium.

    Chair of Africana Studies Dr. Marquita Gammage speaks at the plaque dedication ceremony. Photo by David J. Hawkins.

  • Dr. Barbara Rhodes speaks at the podium next to Dr. Marquita Gammage and Dr. Rehema Grey.

    Africana Studies founding faculty members Dr. Barbara Rhodes (center) and Dr. Rehema Gray (right) stand alongside Department Chair Dr. Marquita Gammage (left). Photo by David J. Hawkins.

  • Former Black Student Union president lectures in front of guests seated and standing in the Black House.

    Former Black Student Union President Nitsiki speaks in front of students and guests in the Black House. Photo by David J. Hawkins.

  • Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students William Watkins addresses the attendees at the plaque dedication. Photo by David J. Hawkins.

  • Guests listen to Dean Yan Searcy from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the plaque dedication. Photo by David J. Hawkins.

Students, alumni, faculty and staff gathered together outside Sierra and Richfield Halls on Friday, Nov. 4 for a special plaque dedication honoring CSUN’s Africana Studies Department and its first faculty members. The event was the culmination of the 53rd annual Africana Studies Week.

CSUN’s ethnic studies programs, including Chicana/o Studies and Africana Studies, as well as the Education Opportunity Program (EOP) were among the first of their kind in the nation. They were created as a result of student protests on campus during the 1960’s. Those protests were the subject of the documentary “Storm at Valley State.”

Following the plaque dedication, participants then marched to the Black House for a showing of the documentary. Marchers carried signs that had been copied from the originals that were carried during the protests that occurred in late 1968 and 1969.

The plaque will be formally installed during Black History Month in February, 2023.

, , , , , ,