Griot Newsletter: April 8, 2025

April 8, 2025

Dear Griot Friends and Family,
With just three weeks left in the semester and events winding down across campus, we hope that many have had opportunity to reflect on our theme Decolonial Education and Liberatory Learning. The interdisciplinary and intergenerational composition of each conference panel made for rich analysis and question sessions. Thank you to the TLC and FLS series for co-hosting a well-attended student-led conversation that helped to kick off the conference in a meaningful way with voices often not centered. For those who registered for and attended the conference, we thank you for the meaningful conversations and connections made. The panelists and keynote speakers expressed deep gratitude for the intellectual space to grapple with the ever-pressing issues of decoloniality and liberatory education, learning, and living. Each panel, keynote event, discussion over meals, and the launch of Professor Wendy Thompson’s Black California Gold generated new ideas and several potential research and teaching collaborations. Thank you to Bucknell University Press for co-hosting the book launch of Black California Gold. For those unable to attend in person, several panels were recorded and will be available on MediaSpace later this year.

As a reminder, this May marks the 150th year since Edward McKnight Brawley graduated from Bucknell, the first African American to do so. He studied here during a time of legal regression for Black people in the United States, particularly as Reconstruction was coming to a close and Jim Crow Laws were being conceived and then became the overt framework for nearly a century(from the late 1870s to the 1960s). These laws caused significant political and economic losses that continue to compound inequitable experiences for Black laborers across the United States. Brawley continued his studies at Bucknell for three more years, completing his master’s degree in 1878. He may have been the first African American awared a BA and an MA in the state of Pennsylvania. He became a minister and religious scholar, worked as a journalist, and served as president of Selma University. went on to help found Morris College in Sumter, SC where he served as President. His son, Benjamin Brawley, became a noted scholar, author, college professor and served as the first dean of Morehouse College.

Coming in the Fall of 2025 particularly during Homecoming Weekend, there will be several additional opportunities across campus to commemorate Brawley’s historic presence at the university and the legacies of the generations of African American and Black students who have followed him up to the present. Brawley’s achievements in challenging circumstances were first honored by the Black Alumni Association in 1993 with the establishment of a scholarship fund to support student learning. Brawley’s impact has also been marked with a bust designed by Bucknell Professor Joe Meiser. This likeness in front of Vaughan Literature Building was designed with input from the Brawley family. The bust was the idea of Dr. Carmen Gillespie and financially supported by the Office of the President and the Black Alumni Association, in collaboration with Art & Art History, former Provost Barbara Altmann, the Griot Institute for Africana Studies, the President’s Diversity Council, Development & Alumni Relations, Communications, Facilities, and the Samek Art Museum.

Our final event of the semester is today, April 8 at 12 noon. It is our student-focused book group on The Anxious Generation co-hosted with and inspired by the Center for Social Science Research (CSSR). Please join us in Willard Smith for a thoughtful discussion. Our students have been busy with research in the archives and around campus, so please look to their digital projects on our website. Additionally, you can catch up on Griot happenings and other campus events relevant to Black lives and cultures through our students’ insightful blogs.

Sincerely,
Cymone Fourshey
Professor of History and International Relations, Director of The Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Cultures