KBIA

Association for Black Culture Centers comes to MU COLUMBIA, MO (KBIA) - For seventeen years, the Association for Black Culture Centers has worked to reclaim culture through the availability of cultural centers.

Robbin Williams is a graduate assistant at MU's Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center. He says the conference usually takes place east of the Mississippi River.

Holding it at MU, Williams says, will allow many of those who live farther west to attend the conference. Williams says about 200 are expected to attend.

The conference is taking place nearly a week after the death of Black Studies Professor Julius Thompson.

"There's a certain irony associated with the fact that we've lost him immediately prior to this conference and we're doing what we can to carry this on and to kind of make this a tribute to his legacy."

For the first time, the conference will offer a student track of workshops, which will be more geared toward leadership and student interests.

For all, the conference will feature keynote addresses from Julianne Malveaux, the president of Bennett College for Women; James B. Stewart, an African-American studies professor at Penn State and Darlene Clark-Hine, an African-American studies professor at Northwestern.
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