President Welcome Letter

Welcome to Our 46h Annual Conference!

As the end of my term as president of the National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) draws near I want to express what a profound honor it has been to serve in this leadership role for the world’s premier organization of Africana Studies for students, faculty members, retirees and independent scholars. I look forward to continuing my service on the NCBS Board of Directors, serving on its Executive Committee as Immediate Past President, for the next two years. The NCBS is not another group related to my professional life, it is an extension of my family. Thus. I would like to make this letter more of a chat with the fam. First of all, this year’s theme speaks to the family experience that I and many others in the African heritage community know well: Women have been at the center of it all. I was raised by my mother and grandmother. I lost my father last year and will forever love him, but it was the women in my home, school and community life that were my leaders and the foundation that nurtured and guided me. As an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Sandy Darity and Dr. John Warfield were my most important academic mentors and role models, but it was from community leaders, Dorothy Turner and Velma Roberts, that I learned the necessity and lessons of continuous struggle. Over the years of my activism in the NCBS, the role of women in Africana Studies has always impressed me as a story that is not shared and understood well enough. Thus, the theme of this years annual meeting was conceived and together with Vice President Alphonso Simpson and the conference committee we have put together a virtual annual meeting that we hope inspires deeper reflection on the role of women — past, present and future — in our transformative discipline, the transdisciplinary of African/Black Studies. Secondly, let me highlight a few of our sessions so intrinsically related to our theme: “Our Sisters Spoke Up: Women Gender and Sexuality in Africana Studies.” First of all, don’t miss our opening session Black Studies and Black Sexuality Studies: Toward a Shared Generative Discourse and Productive Practice featuring presentations by Valerie Grim of Indiana University, NCBS Past President James Stewart, and Maulana Karenga of California State University-Long Beach. Next there is our plenary session, Our Sisters Speak! Honoring & Building on the Legacy of Dr. Bertha Maxwell Roddey, Co-founder and First President of the National Council for Black Studies. This special roundtable features Leslie Alexander, Past President of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora & NCBS Board Member, of Arizona State University; Georgene Bess Montgomery, NCBS Past President, of Clark Atlanta University; Valerie Grim, NCBS Board Member, of Indiana University; and Shirley N. Weber, NCBS Past President and California Secretary of State. There is also the roundtable Making the Call: Dr. Bertha Maxwell-Roddey, UNC Charlotte, and the Early Formation of NCBS that the biographer of our first president, Sonya Ramsey of the University of North Carolina Charlotte has organized colleagues that will whet our appetites for her forthcoming book.

We also have a professional development offering from Dr. Irma McClaurin of a Public Writing Workshop: From Academic Scholar to Citizen Scholar/Journalist/Public Writer as well as a dynamic session on Africana Womanism keynoted by the paradigm’s creator, Dr. Clenora Hudson-Weems of the University of Missouri, joined by an array of scholars. Finally, I wish to give honor, praise and thanks to all the presenters in this year’s virtual conference. Let me also express our appreciation to all of you that have renewed your membership, paid the registration fee, and attend the sessions. You are the heart of the Africana Studies project and what keeps the NCBS going. The global pandemic has hit us hard. We have buried loved ones, been in and out of hospitals and quarantine, we have endured social distancing protocols trying to keep ourselves and others healthy and alive. With your help and support We look forward to meeting in person in 2023, in Gainesville, Florida. For details, come to our National Business meeting and become an active member of our committee—membership, international, media & advocacy, student, etc. Let’s build back better and make the NCBS stronger together! Amilcar Shabazz, NCBS President 2018-2022