In honor of Black History Month, before it ended On February 28, The Coalition Against Student Apathy hosted their Figures of Activism event in honor of different figures in black history and their achievements. Seven members of the coalition shared their favorite historical figures and what they meant to them.
Marinda Noel is a University of Massachusetts Boston senior and member of the coalition; she joined because she wanted to be with her friends while a advocating for a good cause. The figure that she choose to cover is Malcolm X, muslim minister and civil rights activist, who is famous for his view on many different subjects concerning black issues and culture. As well as having a real critical view on the country and its systems of power holding them accountable for the way that they treated black Americans in the country. Malcolm X was a devoted follower of the nation of Islam. He had converted during a seven year stint in prison.
Kaia Walters is a UMass Boston sophomore and women and gender studies major. She is actually a cofounder of the Coalition Against Student Apathy. She says that she and a classmate decided to start the Coalition in order to address some of the problems around campus with the communication with the administration concerning students of color and to raise student attention to important issues on campus. The figure that she chose highlight was Angela Davis, a political activist and author famous for her radical activism and affiliation with the polarizing Black Panther Party. Davis was very a open advocate of communism which drew negative attention from many Americans uncomfortable with the thought. Davis is still living today and is continuing to impart her wisdom to budding activists and future agents of change.
Harrison Clarkson is a UMass Boston sophomore, biology major, and member of the coalition. He shared his thoughts and research on African American singer-songwriter Nina Simone and some of her activism and life’s work. He played a video depicting Simone’s performance of Four Women, a song that she wrote full of raw emotion after the 16th street baptist church bombing an act orchestrated and carried out by the Birmingham branch of the Ku Klux Klan, which claimed the lives of four young women. Harry said that he had watched the video three more times after his first viewing because he was so captivated by what he saw. Harrison likes to model in his spare time so he has a healthy appreciation for fashion. one of the things that he noted about Simone was her great sense of style which was its own kind of subtle protest in a period of time rife with social injustice and inequality.
Senait Efrem is a UMass Boston sophomore and Computer science and biology double major. She joined the coalition because the mission statement of the coalition really aligned with her beliefs and aspirations about the world. The figure that she chose to cover is Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who suffered from cervical cancer and ultimately lost her battle October 4, 1951. After her death, her cells were harvested without consent from her family and this led to the development of the HeLa cell, or the first immortalized cell line, which aided in the development and advancement of many vaccines and forms of cell cloning and gene mapping.
Miren Parkinson is a UMass Boston sophomore and environmental science major. The figure that she chose was writer Audre Lorde. Parkinson recommended one of Lorde’s works, ‘The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House’ and then played a video reading. “There is no hierarchy of oppression which supported the thought that both struggle and support is intersectional and equal amongst all oppressed communities.” Miren herself noted that she adored Lorde but took some issue with this thought. She believes that in order for any change to occur there must be some prioritization and organization with activism.
Julianna Hargrow is A UMass Boston Sophomore and a aspiring criminal justice major. The figure that she chose to cover was the historically controversial figure, Muhammad Ali, a wildly successful professional boxer and Muslim activist. Ali was very open critic of the Vietnam War to the point that he infamously rejected the draft in 1967 due to his nonviolent beliefs at the time. This action earning him the ire of more nationalistic citizens half of the country dubbing him a “Draft Dodger” for his actions. Because of this Ali was arrested and stripped of a title and his boxing licence. Hargrow said that she really resonated with Ali and recited one of his quotes, “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a declaration it’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential; impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
Cynthia Pages is a UMass Boston sophomore and a independent major in the history of Diverse People. She had spoke on her favorite black activist and black historical figure James Baldwin, an activist author and essayist. Cynthia chose to highlight the more candid photos of Baldwin as she wanted to emphasize that he was a living human being who lived with many emotions. Baldwin wrote a great number of essays, books, and plays all of which grappled with the struggles that black Americans faced at the time. Four of his works have been adapted into very positively received movies the latest of them being ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’; which was released late last year to gain critical acclaim. Pages had chosen to highlight a video in which Baldwin was in the middle of conversation with a professor on the Dick Cavett show in which he expressed the societal danger of being black in America. Pages says that this clip strongly resonated with her as she felt it gave validation to her own worries about being a woman of color.
After the presentation there was a discussion held launching of the prompt of where do you stand in history? The conversation covered many different topics like being raised in an immigrant family in America, personal experiences with inequality, and the prevalence of cancel culture.