NAACP Syracuse University Announces 2015 Blacktivism Conference

The Syracuse University Unit of the NAACP has announced that the 2015 Blacktivism Conference will take place on Saturday, Nov. 14. The conference will include a lecture by Black Panther Party co-creator Bobby Seale, along with panels, workshops, a breakfast and a dinner. The event will take place in the Newhouse complex and is open to all.

Tickets are on sale at the Schine Box Office. The price is $5 for SU/ESF students and $15 for non-SU students.

Panels will consist of SU professors, students and guests, including social activists DeRay Mckesson, Kwame Rose and Sankofa Brown and media mogul Tionna Smalls. Martese Johnson, a victim of police brutality and student at the University of Virginia, will give the keynote speech at the dinner.

Blacktivism is defined by the unit as conscious action, support and involvement in creating political, social and economic change for people of the African diaspora. The intent of the conference is to bring awareness to, celebrate, encourage and discuss the current state of black activism. Attendees will be able to engage with activists and experts on activism, leaving with new insight on what it means to be a Blacktivist.

The Syracuse University unit of the NAACP is a newly revived student organization. NAACP SU is focused on shedding light on the injustices that students of color on campus face, in addition to working on NAACP’s national goals.

“Since being re-established in 2013, the organization has been instrumental in fighting racism on campus,” says Olivia Taylor Johnson, president of NAACP Syracuse University. “From the #itooamSU movement to the creation of THE General Body and #DATmovementSU, NAACP SU has been quick to move in times of need.”

The concept of the conference was created by students at Harvard University and held there in Octoberof 2014. The Syracuse University unit of the NAACP admired the message that the conference sent to students of color on their campus and across the country and would like to bring that vigor to the Syracuse University campus and region.