University of Pennsylvania professor Mary Frances Berry recalled a police officer terrorizing black residents in her neighborhood when she was a child. Syracuse University doctoral candidate Jordan West described being pepper sprayed and thrown down two flights of stairs by a police officer for playing music too loudly at a party when she was 19.

Both women cited those incidents as among the first to spark their interest in civil rights activism.

“My father used to have … conversations like ‘driving while black’ and knowing where to put your hands when you get pulled over, and knowing what to say and what not to say,” West said.

West and Berry were among a panel of black leaders who discussed issues affecting America’s black community on Wednesday. SU students and faculty gathered in the Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium to engage with the panel, which included NAACP Chairwoman of the Board Roslyn McCallister Brock and preacher and activist Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou in addition to West and Berry.

Central to the discussion were the issues of police brutality, the future of black protest movements and the changing nature of civil rights organizations.

Berry said, while political institutions like voting are important, little is achieved or changed without active, visible protest.

“Politics doesn’t do anything without continual protest, without ceasing,” Berry said. “Use the structure, but don’t buy into (it).”

The leaders also called attention to the apparent lack of faculty and administration at the panel, and lack of engagement and interaction with protest movements by SU’s administration.

“There’s no reason the administration can’t die-in with you when you die-in,” Berry said, citing the silent die-in protest that occurred earlier Wednesday on the University Place promenade.

The panelists suggested that the ideologies, attitudes and goals of black protest movements have morphed in recent years, particularly upon the emergence of Black Lives Matter.

“We are living in what I would describe as the ‘age of Ferguson’ … characterized by three fundamental things,” Sekou said. “It’s characterized by the occupation of public space, the rejection of traditional leadership and a rejection of modernity.”

Sekou went on to say there is an increasing tendency within black justice groups to decline complying with the current structure of American life, opting instead to try to change its infrastructure.

“It was significant for us to advance within the preexisting frameworks,” said Sekou. “When you look at what previous generations have sought to become a part of … this generation is calling those aims into question.”

Sekou added that there is a changing face within black protest movements like Black Lives Matter, citing the increasingly female and LGBT leadership of such movements.

“My leaders are literally 23-year-old queer black women,” Sekou said. “That’s who I’m listening to.”

Questions from the audience regarding the future of the black community and the NAACP were met by the panel with optimism and enthusiasm, as panelists cited their hope and confidence that young black leaders are up to the task.

“The Black Lives Matter movement energizes me, because there’s a next generation of warriors who … are willing to push the envelope forward and think outside of the box,” Brock said. “The baton has been passed to you.”

Published on October 5, 2016 at 11:45 pm

Contact Bridget: blmcalli@syr.edu