Forty years ago, a group of African-American students deposited hundreds of books at the undergraduate library circulation desk and declared them irrelevant to their historical experience.

This symbolic gesture is only one of many that took shape on Cornell’s campus in the late 1960s. Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, rising racial tensions at Cornell reached a climax when a group of black students occupied Willard Straight Hall during Parents’ Weekend on April 19, 1969, garnering national attention.

After some white students attacked those leading the occupation, organizers inside the Straight brought guns into their seizure. Thirty-six hours later, black students marched out of the Straight with their weapons lowered and the prospect of a new program that would reflect their history.look: Tiffany Mui ’10 and Andrew Murphy ’11 visit Johnnson Museum’s “Africana @ 40” exhibition on Saturday.

Emerging from these tumultuous times was the development of an Africana studies curriculum and the creation of the Africana Studies and Research Center, which holds all the Africana studies courses.

Today, the ASRC is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a series of events, which kick started on Oct. 30 with “Africana @ 40: Looking Back, Moving Forward — Origins and Institutionalization of the Africana/Black Studies Movement” symposium.

The Johnson Museum also joined in the celebration by putting up an exhibit that displayed prominent African and African-American works from pioneer artists, Henry O. Tanner, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Wifredo Lam, Ibrahim El Salahi and David Hammons.

Upon entering the museum lobby, visitors take in Geraldine McCullough’s “Housing Project Totem,” an immense sculpture constructed from welded sheet copper, ceramic and glass. Elizabeth Catlett’s linocut of Harriet Tubman and John Elizy Wilson’s poignant etching of Martin Luther King Jr.’s face line the staircase descending to the basement exhibit. Once on the lowest level, a range of pieces from contemporary mixed media to a section of traditional African art and artifacts adorn the walls or sit in glass cases.

“Artwork offers a different way to experience the Africana issues. I enjoyed the wealth of style and thought behind the collection,” said Zach Murray ’11, an Africana studies major.

This semester, students can still attend the last session of the Black Authors / New Books Series, where Prof. Kenneth McClane, English, the WEB Du Bois Professor of Literature, will discuss his book Color: Essays on Race, Family & History.

“To me, a noted accomplishment is that you can literally go to Barnes & Noble, and there are shelves after shelves of books written by academics to reflect the experiences of African people. That is not what you would see 40 years ago,” said Prof. Ayele Bekerie, Africana studies.

Since its inception, the ASRC has insisted on maintaining a library. On April 1, 1970, arsonists lit fire to the original building. Subsequently, ASRC reached out to the university and the local community to raise funds to replace lost materials. During the 1984-85 academic year, the Africana Center and University library agreed to transfer the ASRC into the University library system.

The 35th anniversary of the ASRC marked the library’s relocation to North Campus, where it currently houses 20,000 volumes of books, Africana librarian Eric Kofi Acree wrote on the Cornell Library website. Bekerie appreciates the new building for its traditional African architecture and its closer proximity to where students work.

“The establishment of the center is an accomplishment in itself,” said Prof. Salah Hassan, Africana studies and research center and director of the ASRC.

Cornell is the first to establish an Africana Studies department in the Ivy League, second in the nation only to San Francisco State. Unlike most Africana Studies curricula, the ASRC opened as a department and not as a program.

“Being a department means stability—we are not dependent on other departments for hiring,” Hassan said.

With this stability, the ASRC conducted a successful search for three senior faculty positions in 2006-07, which brought renowned scholars, Prof. Carole Boyce Davies, Prof. Judith Byfield, and Prof. Riché Richardson, to Cornell. In addition, Prof. Travis Gosa joined the Africana Studies faculty this year.

“In hiring, we do not just look for good, productive scholars, but ones who bring new, progressive theory,” Hassan said. He described the ASRC’s “New Frontiers” effort to include perspectives of gay and lesbian, women, Afro-Latino diaspora, and Afro-European diaspora in the department.

Along with new faculty, the ASRC announced the addition of 17 new courses to its undergraduate curriculum in April 2009, according to the University. Specifically, the expansion of the African language program has garnered much attention in the curriculum revision and update. Cornell has taught Swahili since 1977, with over 60 students enrolled this semester, according to Bekerie. In 2005, Hassan announced the addition of Zulu and Yoruba to this selection.

In part, language expansion aims to strengthen relationships abroad. Previous conferences, such as the 2008 Darfur/Ethiopia Conference at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Hassan hopes that the ASRC can work more closely with African and Caribbean universities in the future.

“I have written many recommendation letters for students interested in studying in Africa,” Bekerie said.

Currently, the ASRC is developing study abroad opportunities to Ethiopia, Ghana and South Africa, according to its 2008 press release.

Bekerie, the only current faculty member who is also an alumnus from Cornell’s Africana program, underscored the fact that ASRC derived from student demand. When he received his degree from Cornell, it was home to the only Africana department in the country. Now, the ASRC has written a proposal for a doctoral program and hopes to expand its graduate field further.

“I am the product of [the department’s] progress,” Bekerie said.

Some students of the current generation echo Bekerie’s sentiments.

“Africana Studies emerged in the university because of undergraduates. The students 40 years ago fought for, and made sacrifices […] Moral protest won it over. This is a good lesson for today,” Murray said.