The Institute for Ethnic Studies' 2025 Spring Celebration will be held on March 27, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. in the Wick Alumni Center. The event is free and open to the public.
"Celebrating 100 Years of Malcolm X, Omaha, & Global Black Freedom: A Conversation with Dr. Erik S. McDuffie" will feature the Associate Professor of History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Drawing from his new book The Second Battle for Africa: Garveyism, the US Heartland, and Global Black Freedom (Duke University Press, 2024), McDuffie and associate professors Patrick Jones and Jeannette Eileen Jones will discuss the significance of Omaha in shaping the life and legacy of the preeminent Black nationalist spokesperson Malcolm X on the eve of the centenary of his birth in Nebraska’s largest city.
McDuffie will discuss the diasporic journeys of Malcolm X's parents, Louise and Earl Little, and how their grassroots involvement in Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), together with their encounters in Omaha, laid the foundations for Malcolm’s Black radical internationalism. Through tracing his early years, the discussion will highlight the underappreciated importance of Omaha and, more broadly, the Midwest in advancing global Black freedom, then and now.
The Institute's annual awards will be given, and Luis Othoniel Rosa, associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, will read a very brief sneak preview from his new collection of poetry.
Select image below to enlarge.
