Berkeley

New Dorm to Honor David Blackwell, Berkeley’s First Tenured Black Professor

Published

7 years ago

February 20, 2018

By Will Kane

UC Berkeley’s newest residence hall will be named after David Blackwell, the first Black professor to ever receive tenure at UC Berkeley and a preeminent statistician, Chancellor Carol Christ announced last week.

Blackwell, who died in 2010, is an “exemplar of what Berkeley stands for: scholarly excellence of the highest caliber tied to a mission of social justice and inclusion,” Christ wrote in a letter nominating Blackwell.

The new dorm at Bancroft Way and Dana Street will house some 750 undergraduates and is slated to open in time for the fall semester, helping to ease UC Berkeley’s undergraduate housing crunch. The building will have commercial space on its first floor and also house Stiles Hall, a community center for students.

In choosing Blackwell, Christ honored a dedicated teacher and statistician who made UC Berkeley his home for almost 50 years. He once said he loved to teach mathematics because “in transmitting it, you appreciate its beauty all over again.”

“He never introduced himself as a professor, he always called himself a teacher,” his son, Hugo Blackwell, told Berkeley News upon his father’s death.

Scores of suggestions for naming the new residential unit were submitted by students, staff, faculty and alumni groups, which were then reviewed by a committee of students, faculty and staff. Four “exceptional individuals” were submitted to Christ, who chose Blackwell.

Not only was Blackwell a gifted instructor who made the dizzying theorems of statistics accessible to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students, he was a distinguished researcher who invented dynamic programming, a statistical method still used today in finance and areas like genome analysis.

The new Blackwell Hall is slated to open in time for the fall 2018 semester.

That invention, and his development of a fundamental theorem still underpinning modern statistics, helped propel Blackwell, in 1965, to be the first Black man inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.

“He went from one area to another, and he’d write a fundamental paper in each,” Thomas Ferguson, an UCLA emeritus professor of statistics, told Berkeley News when Blackwell died. “He would come into a field that had been well-studied and find something really new that was remarkable—that was his forte.”

But the world of mathematics was not always welcoming to Blackwell, who was born in small-town Illinois in 1919. His father, a railway worker, and mother, who raised Blackwell and his three siblings, sent Blackwell to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at age 16. By 22, he had graduated with a Ph.D. in math and set his sights on finding a home in academia.
Blackwell applied to 104 historically Black colleges and universities, telling an ethnographer recording his oral history in 2002 that he assumed doors were closed to Blacks at non-Black institutions.

While a professor at Howard University, in 1941, Blackwell was approached by the chair of Berkeley’s math department and interviewed to join the faculty.

Blackwell didn’t get the job, assuming his inexperience and the military draft had made a female competitor for the job a better candidate. Only when he finally joined Berkeley’s faculty in the 1950’s did he learn that his race had been the reason he didn’t get the job, Blackwell said in a 2002 interview.

But times changed, and within 10 years Blackwell was offered a full-time position at Berkeley. He made tenure and eventually served as chair of the newly formed statistics department between 1957 and 1961.

Blackwell also served as assistant dean of the College of Letters and Science, where his job was to review requests from students about their classes, school policy or grades.

“I enjoyed that a lot, helping students,” he said in the 2002 interview. “The student was asking to be excused from some regulation or be given some exemption or something of that sort. And I almost always said yes. We would have lively debates in the council of deans, and sometimes I’d win and sometimes I wouldn’t.”

“I enjoyed that,” Blackwell added. “And I think I was helpful to the students.”

Berkeley News reporter Robert Sanders contributed to this report.

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Protesters Gather in Oakland, Other City Halls, to Halt Encampment Sweeps

The coordinated protests on Tuesday in San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo, Fresno, Los Angeles and Seattle, were hosted by Poor Magazine and Wood Street Commons, calling on cities to halt the sweeps and focus instead on building more housing.

Published

4 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

The California Poor People’s Campaign’s Victoria King erected encampments for unhoused Oaklanders. Victoria King and her committee erected these emergency tents to symbolize the needs of unhoused Oaklanders. Photos by Post Staff.

By Post Staff

Houseless rights advocates gathered in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other city halls across California and Washington state this week protesting increased sweeps that followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision over the summer.

“What we’re dealing with right now is a way to criminalize people who are dealing with poverty, who are not able to afford rent,” said rights advocate Junebug Kealoh, outside San Francisco City Hall.

“When someone is constantly swept, they are just shuffled and things get taken — it’s hard to stay on top of anything,” said Kealoh.

Local houseless advocates include Victoria King, who is a member of the coordinating committee of the California Poor People’s Campaign. She and Dr. Monica Cross co-chair the Laney Poor People’s Campaign.

The demonstrations came after a June Supreme Court ruling expanded local governments’ authority to fine and jail people for sleeping outside, even if no shelter is available. Gov. Gavin Newsom in California followed up with an order directing state agencies to crack down on encampments and urging local governments to do the same.

Fresno, Berkeley and a host of other cities implemented new rules, making it easier for local governments to clear sidewalk camps. In other cities, such as San Francisco, officials more aggressively enforced anti-camping laws already on the books.

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IN MEMORIAM: Harvey Knight, 82

You are invited to attend the funeral services on Friday, Dec. 27, at Evergreen Baptist Church, Bishop L. Lawrence Brandon, senior pastor, 408 W. MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA at 11 a.m. Rev. Dr. Jacqueline A. Thompson, pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church will bring the eulogy.

Published

4 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Harvey Knight. Photo provided by his family.

Special to the Post

Harvey Knight, Jr., “Pops” to so many young men from Oakland, passed away at 82 on Dec. 5. Harvey was married to Brenda Knight, founder of Ladies In Red, for 51 years.

He was born on April 6, 1942, in Laurel, Mississippi.

After completing high school, Harvey moved to Oakland, California, to live with his father’s sister. He knew this would become his home. He loved the Bay Area for the sports it offered him as a basketball, baseball, and football fan.

He worked for UC Berkeley for over 43 years and part-time for the Oakland Coliseum for approximately 15 years as a security guard, where he could be close to his favorite pastime.

After establishing himself with jobs and his place to live, he knew something was missing. He found the love of his life, married her, and knew his life was complete.

Three sons were born to their union: Leonard, Harvey III, and Michael. He and his sons enjoyed the life of sports by going to the games and later supporting them in baseball at school and through Babe Ruth Baseball. His love of sports was passed on to his sons. All three played baseball while attending college.

Harvey was a soft-spoken man who provided life gems to many young boys playing baseball with his sons. Many of them would end up at the Knight family table for dinner or to listen to the man they all called ‘Pops.’

Harvey loved to travel and take in the history he experienced on his many trips with his wife, Brenda, and the organization she founded, Ladies In Red. Although Harvey did not like the color red, he enjoyed the travel provided throughout the United States. He often researched to provide his wife with information to assist her in planning the trips.

His favorite trip was to Selma, Alabama, where he learned so much about Selma’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in the name of Harvey Knight, to Foot Soldiers Park in Selma, Alabama. Go online to: footsoldierspark.org or mail to: Foot Soldiers Park INC, 1018 Water Avenue, Selma. AL 36701.

He leaves to mourn his passing, his wife Brenda; sons; Leonard, Harvey III and Michael; eight grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and a host of relatives and friends.

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Activism

A Student-Run Group Is Providing Critical Support Services to Underserved Residents

During his three years volunteering at the program, Resource Director Zain Shabbir, says he noticed that many of the people who come in do not know how to navigate social services support systems, particularly online. This knowledge deficit, Shabbir says, is due to age or limited exposure to technology.

Published

4 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

UC Berkeley Law Students help a clinic attendee with legal advice at their Tuesday night services. The Clinic offers a variety of resources, including medical, to those in the community who have little access to these services. Photo by Magaly Muñoz

Part 2

By Magaly Muñoz

Resource Director Zain Shabbir is a jack-of-all-trades at the Suitcase Clinic, a student-run resource center that provides health and other services to underserved residents of Berkeley and surrounding areas.

Shabbir was once a clinic director. Now, he manages the General Clinic, floating around when case managers need assistance. And he has big plans for a new initiative.

During his three years volunteering at the program, Shabbir says he noticed that many of the people who come in do not know how to navigate social services support systems, particularly online. This knowledge deficit, Shabbir says, is due to age or limited exposure to technology.

So, he teaches clients the basics of using email, writing in word documents, and backing up files to their phones.

Shabbir shared a story about an interaction he had with a woman who came in seeking help to create a template to message property owners and realtors as she was seeking housing. Until that point, the woman was composing separate messages to each listing she was interested in, and that process was taking up too much of her time. With Shabbir’s help, she created a standard template she could modify and use for each housing inquiry or application.

He’s also hoping to use the technology to help people create resumes to find jobs.

“[The intent] is to help people find work in the city or wherever they live — or help them find housing. As most are probably aware, the two really go together because for housing, you need income verification, and for a job you need housing,” Shabbir said.

Having a warm place to go and a hot meal may seem basic buy it is critical for people who are struggling, clinic leaders say.

Mark, a frequent attendee of the Tuesday clinic, told the Oakland Post that he’s been receiving services from the program for nearly 25 years.

Mark said he was able to receive a referral to dental care through the Clinic, which he’s been using for about 20 years now. He also utilized the chiropractor, a service that is no longer offered, for pain and aches he acquired over the years.

Many program participants say they visit the clinic now for services provided by Berkeley medical students, who rely on osteopathic care rather than traditional methods. Osteopathic medicine is a medical philosophy and practice that focuses on the whole person, rather than just symptoms.

Executive director Nilo Golchini said that many clinic patients tend to appreciate and trust this type of medicine over mainstream practices because of sub-standard care they have received in the past because they are homeless or poor.

Acupuncture is also an extremely popular station at the Clinic as well, with participants saying it “soothes and calms” them.

Attendees of the clinic are generally in happy spirits throughout the hours they’re able to interact with fellow residents. Some even participate in arts and crafts, moving from table to show their friends their new creations.

“It’s a program that’s going strong,” said Golchini. “There’s a space for everyone” who wants to volunteer or receive services, and they’ll keep going as long as the community needs it.

The Suitcase General Clinic is open every Tuesday from 6:30 to 9:30pm. Women’s and Youth Clinics are held every Monday from 6 to 9pm.