African-centered scholar visited N.O.

Professor James Small, an African-centered scholar who has led tours to continental Africa and throughout the African Diaspora and lectured extensively on African history, culture, ingenuity and spirituality, was in New Orleans last week, the most African city in America, to present lectures to students at Southern University at New Orleans and the community.

This was Professor Small’s first visit to the Crescent City since Hurricane Katrina.

Southern University at New Orleans, in collaboration with OurStory Network, held its annual celebration of Kwanzaa on Monday, November 16, 2015 because the student body will be on break during the actual celebration season of Kwanzaa.

The significance and the difficult journey Black history has traveled over the past 500 years was the theme of the celebration.

JAMES SMALL

Dr. James Small is a widely heralded professor in the Black Studies Department at the City University of New York. He has taught numerous courses, including Traditional African Religions, Malcolm X, Pan Africanism, Crime in the Urban Community and many other related subjects.

Professor Small, who served as chief body guard to Malcolm X’s sister, Ella L. Collins, when she assumed the Presidency of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, has interacted with Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Kwame Ture, H. Rap Brown, Eldridge Cleaver, Zaid Shakur and Lumumba Shakur.

In addition to his appearance at SUNO, Professor Small delivered “A Discussion on Economics, Politics, Culture and Spirituality in the Black Community,” at the Craige Cultural Center in Algiers.

This article originally published in the November 23, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.