The Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has stood as a consistent presence on campus since 1970. This fall, the department will celebrate 50 years with an anniversary symposium featuring faculty, alumni, and friends.
After Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in 1968, Black students approached the university with 13 demands to redress grievances that had gone without adequate administrative response. This encounter was part of a groundswell of protest on university campuses across the country against the Vietnam War and the culture of racism in the United States. When the university failed to respond by the students’ deadline, the Black Student Strike of 1969 began.
Reports indicate that nearly 2000 student protestors, Black and white, held rallies, marched to the Capitol, and disrupted business as usual on campus by taking over classrooms and blocking access to buildings, including Van Hise Hall with the university president’s office was located. Then governor Warren P. Knowles activated 900 soldiers in the Wisconsin National Guard to support local law enforcement in quelling the demonstrations, but this sparked more protest. The strike lasted for 2 weeks.
The first of the non-negotiable demands was for a Black Studies department where students could earn an undergraduate degree in Black Studies. This department was to be controlled by Black students and faculty. Two months after the strike, then Chancellor Edwin Young convened a steering committee that created a proposal for a Department of Afro-American Studies. The proposal was approved in November 1969 and the department offered its first classes in 1970.
Since then, the department has experienced a number of milestones. In 1980, it added to its curriculum by adding a master’s degree program. The certificate program began in 2013. In 2022, the department changed its name to African American Studies. In addition to this year’s anniversary celebration, the department will move to Levy Hall, which is set to be completed in 2026.
The African American Studies faculty are second-to-none. There are 9 full time faculty and 2 lecturers teaching a range of undergraduate and graduate courses across the humanities and the social sciences. There are also a number of faculty affiliates across campus in departments like Community and Environmental Sociology, Communication Arts, and departments across the School of Education (including myself). The interdisciplinary interests of the department faculty, combined with the breadth of expertise of the affiliate faculty, create a dynamic department that is only enhanced by adjunct faculty like Dr. Alex Gee, who taught a course this spring. In a time of heightened contempt for Black history and culture, the type of expertise that the Department of African American Studies possesses within its faculty, affiliates, staff, and students is invaluable.
Current department chair, Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara, has elevated the department’s profile across campus and beyond. The department has strengthened long-standing ties with the Madison community while also building new connections. Supporters can now subscribe to a spectacular semiannual newsletter or engage with the department on social media. Donor engagement has also increased under her tenure.
On September 25-28, the Department of African American Studies will take over the Pyle Center to celebrate its 55th anniversary with a symposium themed “Celebrating Fifty-five Years of Scholarship, Leadership, and Activism.” The roster of speakers is evidence of the stellar students that the department has produced over the years. Featured speakers will include Dr. Gee (class of 1985); Melvina Young (class of 1990), Master Writer and Creative at Hallmark Cards, Inc.; Dr. Crystal Moten (class of 2006), Curator of Collections and Exhibition at the Obama Presidential Museum, and Dr. Tanisha Ford (class of 2005), Professor of History at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, among others. Current undergraduate students will also participate in a panel titled “New Visions, Bold Futures: Students Transforming African American Scholarship” on Saturday. There will be a reception that evening.
Amidst this celebration of a brilliant history, the symposium will look toward an event more stellar future for the Department of African American Studies at UW-Madison and for the field of African American Studies writ large.
For more information about the African American Studies Symposium and the Department of African American Studies, including how you can support their work, please visit https://africanamericanstudies.wisc.edu
