The Penn State Consortium for Social Movements and Education and the Africana Research Center will host “Reflections on Organizing and Power: Anti-Black Police Brutality and the Popular Uprisings,” a virtual conference that will examine racism and injustice.

The symposium will run from 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Friday, September 18 via Zoom.

The forum will provide students with frameworks and tools to analyze recent Black Lives Matter protests within a broader context of Black freedom movements, articulate demands for structural change, and share their own experiences. Pre-symposium activities will also be held.

Speakers from Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and State College will be featured throughout the event, including:

• Chenjerai Kumanyika, assistant professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and Organizer with 215 People’s Alliance and the Debt Collective
• Koby Murphy, youth organizer with the Philadelphia Student Union
• Valentina McKenzie – frontline grassroots organizer of a workers center and the Black Visions Collective in Minneapolis, speaking from her personal perspective and experience 
• Jennifer Black and Lorraine Jones, co-leaders of the 3-20 Coalition

Earlier this year, Black faculty, staff, and students across the country issued petitions and statements asking their respective universities to provide resources to fight institutionalized racism. Local leaders have also hosted numerous rallies in State College to protest police brutality and racial injustice.