'Thoughtful reflection' on black issues
Lecture series celebrates 20 years
Archived article from Feb 11, 2000
By Carla Capizzi
The speakers are as varied as the issues they've examined over the last two decades: Sterling Stuckey discussing Paul Robeson; actress Esther Rolle reflecting on Afro-Americans and humor; civil-rights activist James Farmer recalling his struggles; percussionist Max Roach looking at sacred and secular black music; and economist Robert Weaver examining the black urban experience.
Since it was inaugurated in 1981, the Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series has taken in-depth, thought-provoking looks at issues with a deep impact on the past, present and future of New Jersey, its African-American population and black Americans in general. On Feb. 18-19, the series marks its 20th anniversary with a measured examination of "Time … Africa and the Diaspora."
The conference begins at the Newark Museum at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, with a discussion and demonstration by Professor Robert Quincy Troupe of the University of California-San Diego on the use of time in the music of jazz musician Miles Davis. This will be followed by a jazz performance by musicians Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Steve Colson and Reggie Workman, all Montclair residents.
The conference shifts to the Robeson Campus Center on the Newark campus Saturday, Feb. 19, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Ali Mazrui, a professor at SUNY-Binghamton, who is considered one the world's leading experts on African studies, will deliver a paper raising such questions as: Did traditional African societies have a linear view of time? How did they measure or calculate time? What role does time play in music and dance for persons of African descent?
The series will address this topic Feb. 19 through scholarly, in-depth research presentations by Mazrui and other nationally known experts, including Sterling Stuckey of the University of California-Riverside and Joseph Adjaye of the University of Pittsburgh. Rutgers-Newark Professor Said Samatar will offer comments on the Mazrui paper.
The annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series, which is part of the campuswide celebration of Black History Month, was created by Newark Professor Clement Price and Giles Wright of the New Jersey Historical Commission. Price and Wright felt something was missing from most Black History Month events: the "history" in the title. What was needed, they thought, were programs that took a more in-depth and reflective look at the issues important to the black experience in America.
The end result was the series, named in honor of the first black female professional historian and a pioneer in black New Jersey historiography. The lectures, open to the public at no charge, draw participants of all races, ages and educational backgrounds from throughout the metropolitan area, including busloads of schoolchildren.
"The diversity of our audiences contributes to the uniqueness of the series," observes Giles Wright. It's also rare, he notes, for such high-caliber scholars to make their work accessible to the general public. "All of the presenters remark that they have never participated in a conference such as this. It's a great opportunity for them as well as for the audience."
A relatively recent, and popular, addition to the series are the break periods and lunch sessions, as well as a wine and cheese gathering at day's end. These replaced a formal question period and provide a valuable opportunity for interaction between participants and speakers, who are encouraged to continue informal discussions of the day's topics.
Throughout the two decades, the goal of the Marion Thompson Wright series has remained the same: to foster "thoughtful reflection" on historical issues that are "very rele-vant to the present," according to Price. "There's nothing quite like this series anywhere in the nation, that I know of."
Who was Marion Thompson Wright? Marion Manola Thompson Wright was born in East Orange, N.J., on Sept. 13, 1904, the youngest of four children. She attended Barringer High School in Newark. One of only two black students at what was then Newark's most prestigious high school, she graduated at the head of the class.
Wright later attended Howard University, where she majored in sociology and was active in student government and intercollegiate debating. She was elected to Kappa Mu Honorary Society, which was the forerunner to the Howard Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated magna cum laude. In 1928, she earned a master's degree in education.
During the 1930s, she worked for the Newark Department of Public Welfare and the New Jersey Emergency Relief Administration. She was the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. from Columbia University, which in 1941 published her dissertation, "The Education of Negroes in New Jersey." It was later reissued by the New York Times book series as a major contribution to the history of blacks in the United States. Her writings also appeared in the Journal of Negro Education, the Journal of Negro History and New Jersey History.
In 1940, she joined the Howard University faculty as an assistant professor of education, at that time one of only two female assistant professors on the Howard faculty. She remained on the Howard faculty until her death in 1962.
--Clement A. Price
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