Photojournalist, activist and scholar Ron Wilkins will make a return visit to Conversations on Race and Policing on Wednesday, Nov. 16, when he presents “Struggling Against Police Terror: The Community Alert Patrol and Its Initiation of Strategies to Police the Police.”

The program will take place at 1 p.m. on Zoom. The talk is free and open to the public, and can be accessed from a PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android at https://csusb.zoom.us/j/97960458784.

Wilkins, who last spoke at the March 17, 2021, program, “Reflections on Resistance: The Community Alert Patrol and the Struggle Against Police Terror,” has been a force in the struggle for the liberation of Black people for more than 50 years. In addition to his work with CAP, he was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was the target of extensive police harassment and surveillance. Later, he was active in a variety of Pan-African causes, including support for the revolutions in Grenada and Zimbabwe. During the 1980s, he played a critical role in solidarity work around South Africa and Namibia.

Wilkins, who has served as an adjunct professor at several campuses in Southern California, has conducted extensive research and political work around the themes of Black/Brown unity and has produced an extensive photographic library on African people, both on the continent and throughout the diaspora.  

Conversations on Race and Policing, also known as CoRP, began in the aftermath of the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd while in the custody of four Minneapolis, Minn., police officers. A video of the incident posted on social media led to widespread protests, the firing of four police officers, the arrest and conviction of one officer on a second-degree murder and related charges, the other three on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder – and a spotlight worldwide on race and policing.

The series has featured scholars, journalists, law enforcement officers, lawyers, activists, artists, educators, administrators and others from throughout the nation who shared their experience and expertise on issues related to race and policing.

More than 50 forums have taken place, and video recordings of the sessions are posted online on the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive. 

The next program in the fall lineup of Conversations on Race and Policing will be “Policing’s Small Toolbox: Race and the Rise of Surveillance Policing,” with Matthew Guariglia, affiliated scholar at the Hastings Center for Criminal Justice, UC Hastings Law, set for 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 30

The series is organized by CSUSB students, staff and faculty, including recent history master of arts graduate, Cecelia Smith; history master of arts student Matt Patino; Mary Texeira, professor emerita, sociology; Jeremy Murray, professor of history; Robie Madrigal, public affairs/communication specialist for the CSUSB John M. Pfau Library; and community member Stan Futch, president of the Westside Action Group.

For more information, contact Robie Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Jeremy Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.