SEPTEMBER 18, 2020: 1:00 to 4:15pm

Reflections on Organizing and Power:
Anti-Black Police Brutality and the Popular Uprisings

The Penn State Consortium for Social Movements and Education and the Africana Research Center present: “Reflections on Organizing and Power: Anti-Black Police Brutality and the Popular Uprisings.” This ZOOM symposium will take place September 18, 2020, from 1:00-4:15 pm with pre-symposium activities throughout the week.

Throughout the spring, Black faculty, staff, and students across the country - from Penn State to the University of Missouri -  have issued petitions and statements calling on their universities to commit resources to combat institutionalized racism on their campuses. While these demands have a long history of their own, they are also an extension of the broader movement for social change that is taking place in the streets.

The symposium will provide frameworks and tools for students to analyze the recent Black Lives Matter protests within the broader context of Black freedom movements, articulate demands for structural change, and speak from their own experiences. The week prior to the symposium, students will be invited to Padlet, an online space, to share ideas, questions, reflections, and tools to prepare for the symposium. Breakout sessions will offer students structured spaces to interact with social movement activists and with topics regarding the mechanisms of social change.