andall Robinson, founding president of TransAfrica Inc./TransAfrica Forum in Washington D.C., will be the keynote speaker at the University�s 20th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr./Black History Month Luncheon. The event will be held Wednesday, Feb. 10, at noon in the Campus Center Ballroom. It is free and open to the public.
As founding president of TransAfrica Inc./TransAfrica Forum, Robinson has led the struggle to maintain economic sanctions against Zimbabwe and staged massive daily protests for more than 400 days in front of the South African embassy during the apartheid era. He testifies regularly on Capitol Hill for foreign policy legislation that favorably impacts Africa and the Caribbean.
�Randall Robinson has the uncanny ability to shine the light of truth on America�s race relations at home and abroad,� said Carl Martin assistant vice president for Student Life. �He does it in a way that enables everyone to see it, understand it and be moved to do something about it.�
His recent book, a memoir, Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America, has received international acclaim for its revealing and devastating portrait of racism. At the same time, it is a call for activism aimed at redirecting future American policies. Actor Danny Glover said, �I cannot recall reading a more powerful rendering of the black world�s triumphs and despairs, hopes and dilemmas as seen through the lens of a single courageous man�s struggles.� Robinson will sign copies of the book immediately after his talk.
The co-founder of the Free South Africa Movement, he received the Humanitarian Award in 1986 and the Distinguished Service Award in 1987 from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. He was also given the Drum Major for Justice Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1970.
Prior to his current role, Robinson worked on Capitol Hill as assistant to Congressmen Charles Diggs and William Clay. As a Ford Foundation Fellow, he lived in Africa for one year, conducting research on the Africanization of European law and its social impact on the population of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. TransAfrica is the American lobby for Africa and the Caribbean. It is dedicated to organizing popular opinion in the U.S. to advocate for policies and practices impacting U.S. foreign policy toward the nations of Africa and the Caribbean.
University at Albany
State University of New York