By Kirk Laughlin
Celebrating “Black History, Culture, and Issues,” the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences inaugurated the Saturday Academy series on the study of Africans worldwide Sept. 8.
The Saturday Academy ran from 1991 until 2002 under the leadership of Jefferson County Public Schools, and was revived in 2006 by the College of Arts and Sciences under Dean Dr. Blaine Hudson. The mission of the Saturday Academy is to provide the greater community with awareness of African history.
The Academy, which is held in the Duvalle Education Center at 35th and Bohme Streets at 11 a.m. every Saturday, holds alternating lectures each semester. Last year, the academy reviewed the history of continental Africa and the civil rights movement. This year, topics will cover the post-civil rights era, offering Kentucky and Louisville perspectives.
Congressman John Yarmuth was set to deliver a lecture, but cancelled due to a scheduling conflict with the promotion of a Louisville-area Army General to four stars. Hudson and Raoul Cunningham, the NAACP director for Louisville, delivered lectures to the audience of 50.
In providing the introduction to this year’s lectures, Hudson said, “African Americans are attached to multiple world mechanisms. African Americans are not isolated. They are not orphans, but rather they have a large, extended family we ought to know.”
“We wanted to create an informal setting where we can bring the classroom to the community,” Hudson said. “It fits in with U of L’s mission to tie itself into the community and become a citizen of the city.”
Cunningham discussed the recent Supreme Court decision that declared Jefferson County Public Schools’ bussing system unconstitutional because it is based on race. The Supreme Court decision has left JCPS without the mechanism it has used to balance out the racial makeup of its schools across the county.
The Saturday Academy will hold open lectures the first and fourth Saturdays of every month, while the second Saturday will focus on race relations in society, with the third Saturday focusing on the female perspective on Black America.
“We are absolutely open to having university students attend these Saturday Academies,” Hudson said. “If there is any individual or group interested in African history, they should come down on Saturday morning.”
“This is an incredible offering that the community has,” Dr. Ricky Jones, head of the pan-African studies department, said. “It reflects the university and the College of Arts and Sciences’ commitment to public service and involving and educating the community on these issues.”
Jones said, “It speaks well of Dean Hudson and the efforts he has made for this field of study. The man is my idol and he has done a remarkable job in molding and supporting this program.”
