This Thursday, February 8th, the German Program, School of Business, and Career Center at the College of Charleston will host the 2nd German-American Business Summit in the Stern Center Ballroom. The summit will consist of a job and internship fair with 15 German companies from 11:30am-1:45pm, a keynote presentation by the CIO of Americas SAP, and a panel discussion on innovation in German-American Industry. For more information, see the summit website or listen to Dr. Morgan Koerner’s interview about the summit on ETV Radio’s South Carolina Business Review. To register, contact John King, kingj1@cofc.edu.

Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture
Renovation Announcement (Updated January 2018)

The College of Charleston’s Avery Research Center for African American History and culture will be closed to the public starting January 15, 2018, through August 31, 2018, to implement a major improvement project to replace the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems throughout the building.

During this renovation phase, the Avery building will be closed with LIMITED ACCESS to selected Avery Research Center’s archival collections, no new archival acquisitions, and no public or private on-site tours or events. The Avery Research Center’s faculty and staff will be temporarily relocated to the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library. They can still be reached via their individual College of Charleston emails throughout the renovation. For general Avery Research Center inquiries throughout the renovation, email averyadmin@cofc.edu or call 853-953-7609.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding reference requests, please contact Barrye Brown, Reference and Outreach Archivist, at brownbo@cofc.edu or by phone at 843-953-7613. We are very excited about these renovations and apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for your support!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the dates of the renovation?
   1. The renovation will be from April 2018 to August 2018. From January 2018 to March 2018, the Avery Research Center’s faculty and staff will be packing and moving collections out of the building.
2. When will the Avery Research Center reopen?
   1. We are aiming to reopen in time for Fall 2018. Please watch the Avery Research Center’s website and Facebook page for any information on delays.
3. What is being completed as a part of the renovation?
   1. The Avery Research Center will be getting a new HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) system in place, so we can maintain better environmental conditions for the collections and personnel.
4. Will the Avery Research Center be open for tours, public meetings, and public programming?
   1. No, there will not be any tours, public meetings, or public programming in the building during the renovation period.
5. Will there be access to the Avery Research Center’s collections for research, exhibition, loans, or student assignments?
   1. There will be LIMITED access to selected collections from Avery Research Center’s collections for the duration of the renovation. A list of the available collections will be available on the website in March 2018.
6. Where will the collections be stored?
   1. The collections will be stored off-site and on-campus.
7. Are there any digital collections that I can access?
   1. Yes, we encourage you to review our collections on the Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL) and explore the exhibitions on the Lowcountry Digital History Initiative.
8. Can I schedule an instruction session or workshop for my students or group?
   1. Yes, please contact Avery Research Center’s Reference and Outreach Archivist, Ms. Barrye Brown, at brownbo@cofc.edu or 843-953-7613 for assistance and direction. Note that the types of material available for classes will be limited.
9. I have an item/collection to donate, may I still bring it to the Avery Research Center?
   1. Avery Research Center will not be acquiring any materials during the renovation. Please contact the Manager of Archival Services, Ms. Aaisha Haykal, at haykalan@cofc.edu and/or Reference and Outreach Archivist, Ms. Barrye Brown, at brownbo@cofc.edu or 843-953-7613 for assistance and direction. We will be glad to discuss with you the collection and arrange for potential donation after the renovation is completed.
10. How can I contact the Avery Research Center’s Archival faculty and staff?
    1. Beginning March 2018, the Archival faculty and staff will be at the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library. To arrange a meeting or research consultation, please contact them via their individual College of Charleston emails.
11. I have a research inquiry, who should I contact?
    1. Please direct any research questions to the averyresearchcenter@cofc.edu or Reference and Outreach Archivist, Ms. Barrye Brown, at brownbo@cofc.edu.
12. I have a general inquiry, who should I contact?
    1. Please direct any general inquiries about the Avery Research Center to averyadmin@cofc.edu or call 843-953-7609.
13. Where should I expect updates to be posted?
    1. Updates on the progress of the renovation will be posted to the Avery Research Center’s website at http://avery.cofc.edu/ and on the Avery Research Center’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/averyresearchcenter/.

The Conseula Francis Emerging Scholar Lecture Series was established to provide a platform for junior faculty in the field of African American Studies to present their scholarship to the College of Charleston campus. On Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 6:00 pm, Dr. Clifton Granby, an assistant professor of Ethics and Philosophy at Yale Divinity School, will be delivering the first of two 2017–18 Conseula Francis Emerging Scholar Lectures. His talk, titled “Resilient Injustices, Unyielding Resolve,” will examine the significance of James Baldwin and Howard Thurman for ongoing struggles against racial, gender, and economic injustice. He reads these two figures as models of self-care, as critics of domination, and as practitioners of freedom. In different ways, each invites us to consider the ways in which our ethical projects of self-formation are bound up with the politics of organizing persons, powers, and interests. In doing so, they wrestle with the tensions between love, power, and justice; the challenges of ignorance, complicity, and social identity; and the difficulty of pursuing lofty ideals while navigating the demands of each day. Since it’s possible to organize better or worse ways of freedom and justice-making, we do well to consider the character of the persons who make such efforts. Dr. Granby’s lecture will illuminate how Baldwin and Thurman equip us to pursue such work with greater sensitivity and care.

Dr. Clifton Granby
“Resilient Injustices, Unyielding Resolve”
Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 6:00 pm in Addlestone 227

This lecture is sponsored by the African American Studies Program with additional support from the Avery Research Center, Religious Studies Department, and Philosophy Department.

Racial Disparities Report

The establishment of the Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) was a direct response to the murder of Walter Scott and the massacre at Mother Emanuel in 2015. These tragedies were only the latest evidence of anti-black violence in Charleston County, part of a long history of white supremacy in the Lowcountry since the seventeenth century. To capture the racial disparities that emerged out of this history, RSJI commissioned a comprehensive study of racial inequality at the local level, which they recently released in a report titled “The State of Racial Disparities in Charleston County South Carolina 2000-2015.” This report reveals the massive disparities between African Americans and other racial groups in Charleston County, pointing to the ways in which white supremacy is embedded in the very structures and institutions that are designed to protect and support the county’s residents. The findings combine statistical data and a critical analysis of structural inequalities along racial lines, focusing especially on income, housing, education, health, and policing. In addition to describing and analyzing the contours of white supremacy in Charleston County, this report also offers policy proposals for addressing these disparities. Our hope in African American Studies is that these findings, as disturbing as they are, prompt the College of Charleston and Charleston County to confront these underlying issues of racial inequality with the fierce urgency and compassion they deserve.

Some highlights of the findings:

• Black people in Charleston County earn 60% of what their white counterparts make.
• Forty-two percent of black children under age 18 are living below the poverty line, compared to 11% of white children.
• Of more than 22,000 traffic stops in 2014 in North Charleston that did not result in a citation or arrest, 16,730 involved African Americans—almost 76% of stops, much higher than the city’s black population. Most of those (10,600) involved black men.
• During the 2014–15 school year, K–12 suspensions in the Charleston County School District (CCSD) totaled 8,018; black students, who make up a little more than 40% of the student population, were 6,636 (83%) of those suspensions.
• Statewide in 2014–2015, black students were more than six times as likely as their white peers to be referred to the juvenile justice system for charges of “disturbing schools.”
• The black population in Charleston experiences poorer health for a wide-range of health indicators than any other racial/ethnic groups in the region.These include greater rates of obesity, infant mortality, diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory problems, and death from numerous conditions including heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes.

“But it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.” –James Baldwin, “My Dungeon Shook” from The Fire Next Time

Today I remember Freddie Gray. I remember his life cut short by the Baltimore Police Department. I remember his spine nearly severed as he was flung around the back of a police van. I remember the hours it took before he received medical treatment. I remember the week his family watched as life left his body. I remember the zero convictions of the officers who killed him. (We soil the memory of Freddie Gray to see mere indictments as a victory. Indictments that relieve killers of culpability are a paltry consolation prize for the dead and the survivors.) I remember the anger boiling over on the streets—the flames, the rocks, the broken windows. I remember the media obsessing over “thugs” and “violence” and “black rage,” and yet neglecting the root cause of this rage, police brutality against black bodies.

I remember Freddie Gray on this day because white students at the institution where I work mock his suffering. They flaunt his suffering—wear his suffering as a literal costume, display his suffering like a trophy, smile at and spread his suffering. I am writing a book about the legacies of lynching, but it doesn’t take a scholar of white supremacist violence to see that past rhyming with this present. I can’t help but think, as I prepare to teach James Baldwin’s short story, “Going to Meet the Man,” today, how freely and comfortably these students trivialize and celebrate black death. I am left wondering (But am I? Is there much to wonder at anymore? Don’t I know by now?) what they think of their African American classmates and professors, and the black Charleston community they are actively displacing through gentrification. And so, I turn back to my lesson plans with an unsatisfying sigh that fails to expel the disgust and anger I feel. There is a mountain of grim work ahead.

For the last 10 months, I’ve been working as a community organizer in Charleston and North Charleston. I work for the Charleston Area Justice Ministry (CAJM), which is a local nonprofit made up of 28 congregations and organizations in the area. We’re an interfaith organization and consists of Catholic parishes, Baptist and Methodist churches, as well as the synagogue and a mosque. We work together and are united in our pursuit for justice.

My job as an organizer is to build relationships with members of the community so that we can make systemic changes. We go through an annual process with three focus areas. First, we conduct house meetings throughout the area to listen to community problems. Members of the community share personal stories about how a community problem is affecting them. Then we vote on the top problem that emerged out of our house meetings. Secondly, we research the problem by meeting with experts to make sure we are finding best practices. Thirdly, we conduct an investment drive to ensure that we are financially stable. Using this process, CAJM has made some lasting changes in the community. Our work has resulted in two hundred extra pre-K slots added per year throughout the Charleston County School District and schools that now use programs to teach students conflict resolution. We have also worked with the four local police departments to implement an objective scoring tool in interactions with juveniles, and we’re currently pushing Charleston and North Charleston to audit the police force for racial bias.

I became interested in community organizing when I did my Capstone project for African American Studies. I researched the similarities and differences between the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter Movement. My research led me to focus on the role of the church in the Civil Rights Movement, particularly how the church served as the institution where leaders organized. I noticed that the church wasn’t functioning in the same way in today’s movements. As a part of my analysis, I researched Civil Rights leaders and their methods of organizing. Out of all of the leaders I researched, Ella Baker influenced me the most. Baker and her work with Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and her advice to the students who founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) stuck out to me. Baker argued, “strong people don’t need strong leaders.” What she meant was that everyone has a place in organizations, and successful movements don’t need one leader telling them what steps they should take. It was this paper and research that encouraged me to look more into church-based community organizing.

Brandon Chapman is a community organizer for the Charleston Area Justice Ministry. He graduated from the College of Charleston in 2016 with degrees in African American Studies and Political Science.

Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Baginksi, whose essay ““Geträumte Geschichte: Oskar Loerkes Traumwirrsal” has just appeared in Der Traum im Gedicht. Hrsg. von Bernard Dieterle und Hans-Walter Schmidt-Hannisa. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017: 169-183.

The African American Studies Program’s Spring 2017 Film Festival explores the complexities of political and cultural (dis)connections between African Americans, Asian Americans, and Asians in film. Taken together, these films raise questions about the possibilities for trans-Pacific and domestic political alliances among people of color as well as the line between Afro-Asian cultural syncretism and appropriation. The film screenings will be held in the Septima Clark Memorial Auditorium (Education Center Room 118) and will begin at 6:30 pm.

Enter the Dragon (1973)  ¾ Monday, March 20
The Last Dragon (1985)  ¾ Monday, March 27
Black Dynamite (2009)  ¾ Monday, April 3
Yojimbo (1961)  ¾ Monday, April 10
Afro Samurai (2007)  ¾ Monday, April 17

[Note: Liz Wayne and Xine Yao, the hosts of the PhDivas podcast, deserve all the credit for the title of the film festival, “When Bruce Lee Meets Bruce Leroy.” In an episode of the podcast by the same name, they discussed the potential for what Vijay Prashad has called a polycultural politics between African Americans and Asian Americans.]

Suggested Readings:
Gateward, Frances. “Wong Fei-Hung in Da House: Hong Kong Martial-Arts Films  and Hip-Hop Culture.” In Chinese Connections: Critical Perspectives on Film, Identity, and Diaspora, edited by Tan See-Kam, Peter X Feng, and Gina Marchetti. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.

Hewitt, Kim. “Martial Arts is Nothing if Not Cool: Speculations on the Intersection between Martial Arts and African American Expressive Culture.” In Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections Between African Americans and Asian Americans, edited by Fred Ho and Bill V. Mullen. Durham,       NC: Duke University Press, 2008.

Ho, Fred. “Kickin’ the White Man’s Ass: Black Power, Aesthetics, and the Asian Martial Arts.” In Afro-Asian Encounters: Culture, History, Politics edited by Heike            Raphael-Hernandez and Shannon Steen. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

Ona-Jua, Sundiata Keita. “Black Audiences, Blaxploitation, and Kung Fu Films, and Challenges to White Celluloid Masculinity.” In China Forever: The Shaw Brothers and Diasporic  Cinema edited by Poshek Fu. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Prashad, Vijay. Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting. Boston: Beacon Press, 2002.

Whaley, Deborah Elizabeth Whaley. “Graphic Blackness / Anime Noir: Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks and the Adult Swim.” In Watching While Black edited by Beretta E. Smith-Shomade. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013.

Wilkins, Fanon Che. “Shaw Brothers Cinema and the Hip-Hop Imagination.” In China Forever: The Shaw Brothers and Diasporic Cinema edited by Poshek Fu. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

In conjunction with Professor Mari Crabtree’s First-Year Seminar, “When Bruce Lee Meets Bruce Leroy: Afro-Asian Political and Cultural (Dis)Connections,” the African American Studies Program has invited Dexter Thomas to deliver a lecture titled “‘Niggers and Japs’: The Logic of Japanese Hip-Hop Nationalism.” Thomas is a journalist with VICE News who has previously worked at the Los Angeles Times, and he is also a PhD Candidate in Asian Studies at Cornell University. His research examines Japanese hip-hop, most especially in the 1990s, and his lecture will focus on the right-wing Japanese nationalist rhetoric in the work of some Japanese hip-hop artists. He will explore how the infusion of Japanese nationalism into this music is largely the result of a problematic distortion of the black nationalist themes and imagery used by African American hip-hop artists like Public Enemy. The lecture will be held on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 6:00 pm in Robert Scott Small 252.

This lecture was made possible by the generous support of the Asian Studies Program, International Studies Program, First-Year Experience Program, and Music Department.