This weekend, Macalester College will host the fifth annual African American Studies Conference.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Fifty Years Since Brown v. Board of Education: Where Are We Now?”

“There’s a lot about desegregation that people don’t know,” said Assistant Professor of Psychology Kendrick Brown, who is a moderator for the conference. “The conference will focus on the concept historically and in a contemporary setting.”

The American Studies Department and the African American Studies Conference Planning Committee, which is made up of Macalester faculty members, organized the conference.

Kathleen Cleaver, the first female member of the Black Panther Party’s central committee, is the keynote speaker. The conference begins tonight at 7 p.m. in the Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel with Cleaver’s address and continues through the weekend.

Cleaver is a Yale Law School graduate. She has worked as a professor at Emory University School of Law and as a senior lecturer at the African American Studies Department at Yale University.

“Kathleen Cleaver’s address will provide a wonderful opportunity for students, staff and faculty members,” said Kathie Scott, American Studies Department coordinator.

The conference has received attention from the Twin Cities media. On Wednesday morning, Cities 97 (91.7 KTCZ-FM) interviewed Cleaver.

According to Brown, who helped plan the conference, Cleaver’s name came up quickly when the African American Conference Planning Committee chose the theme for the conference. “She is a legal scholar and she also has an interesting perspective [on desegregation and the Civil Rights movement],” Brown said.

Brown said other key planners were American Studies Department Chair Duchess Harris, MAX Center Multicultural Counselor Sedric McClure, History Professor Peter Rachleff and Scott.

The conference features four panels, each of which covers various elements of desegregation and its historical and contemporary implications. An additional session will be presented at the University of St. Thomas. This is the first year that Macalester will be cooperating with University of St. Thomas for a portion of the conference.

This is the second year that the conference includes a performance from St. Paul’s Penumbra Theater, a St. Paul theater that, according to its web site, “presents art…from an African American perspective.” Conference attendees will see “The Diva Daughters Dupre,” a play written by Kim Yvonne Euell, at the theater.

The conference will also feature a photography exhibit from Macalester graduate and LIFE magazine photographer Flip Schulke ’54. Schulke, a native Minnesotan, is famous for his photographs of Fidel Castro and President John F. Kennedy, but he is especially well known for his work during the civil rights movement.

Schulke spent several years traveling with and photographing Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders. The photographs will be on display in the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Gallery.

Brown and Harris both said that the conference has a national appeal and scope.

“We’re glad that this is the second year that we’ve done national searches for papers,” Harris said. “The research comes from [beyond] the Twin Cities.”

“We have an extensive mailing list for participants,” Brown said. “Academics, graduate students, undergraduates, people from all across the nation [will attend].”

According to Brown, in years past the Political Science Department was largely responsible for organizing the event. However, with the recent formation of the American Studies Department, the responsibilities shifted.

“[Having the department] provides an academic home that Kathleen Cleaver was responsive to given her background,” Harris said. “Every year goes so well, the challenge is trying to out do ourselves, trying to hold up to the standard.”