The Walter Rodney Foundation has developed a number of programs, which preserve, promote, and further the legacy of Walter Rodney.
The Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
Since 2004, an annual symposium has been held in Atlanta, Georgia or virtually during the week of Walter Rodney’s birthday (23 March).
The goal is to bring together scholars, researchers, activists, students, and the community to discuss contemporary issues from a Rodney perspective.
In addition to what is listed below, many of the symposia posters, programs, and videos can be found in the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library’s Digital Collection.
Subscribe to our newsletter for information on the next Symposium.
The 21st Annual
Walter Rodney Symposium
Day One
Friday, March 22nd, 2024
4pm - 9pm EST
Free and Open to the Public — RSVP Required
Revolutionizing & Decolonizing Health Systems:
Pathways to Reparative Justice
Keynote address from Dr. Natalia Kanem
A celebration of Dr. Patricia Rodney
Panels on:
The Intersectionality of Public Health and Social Justice
Unraveling Health System Inequities
Cultural performances
Day Two
Saturday, March 23rd, 2024
11am - 3pm EST
Free and Open to the Public — RSVP Required
Honoring Women’s Work:
A Women’s History Program
Distinguished address from Dr. Nikky Finney
CRAFTing Justice: A conversation with trailblazing women
**POSTPONED** Live stage performance of Shirley Chisholm: Unbossed & Unbowed, A One-Woman Show by Ingrid Griffith **POSTPONED**
Featuring:
Co-hosted by:
Sponsored by:
Africana Studies – Morehouse College
Dr. Mack Henry Jones Department of Political Science – Clark Atlanta University
Dihvinely Konnecked Productions
Global South Research Consortium
James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership
International Comparative Labor Studies – Morehouse College
W.E.B. Du Bois Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy
Browse Past Symposia
The 20th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium (2023)
The 19th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium (2022)
The 18th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium (2021)
The 17th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium (2020 - Postponed)
The 16th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium (2019)
The 15th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium (2018)
The 14th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium (2017)
The 13th Annual Walter Rodney Syposium (2016)
The 20th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
Repairing Historical Injustices
An amplified call for reparations for all peoples of African descent & reparative justice for Walter Rodney
2023
Friday, March 24th
Rodney & Davis’ lives intersected when they met at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania; they are both grounded in historical truth, and in their commitment to human dignity, liberation, resistance, and scholar-activism.
The Symposium featured the US film premiere of Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know and featured a discussion with the film producers, Arlen Harris and Daniyal Harris-Vajda. For more information on the film, please check out its webpage.
Keynote:
Angela Y. Davis
Panelists:
Horace Campbell
Verene Shepherd
Performances:
Ras Miguel “Steppa” Williams
Akua Taylor
The 19th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
50 Years of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
2022
Saturday, March 26th
Keynote:
Dr. Joyce Ladner
Distinguished Speaker:
Presenters:
Vijay Prashad
Tamnisha John
Cindy Peters
Issa Shivji
Natasha Shivji
Devyn Springer
Fatma Alloo
Walter Bgoya
Horace Campbell
Zophia Edwards
Kamau Franklin
The 18th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
Democracy Under Duress
2021
Sunday, March 21st
The Symposium, Democracy Under Duress, explored the fragility of the democratic state and strategies for creating and protecting a true democracy.
Rodney & Davis’ lives intersected when they met at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania; they are both grounded in historical truth, and in their commitment to human dignity, liberation, resistance, and scholar-activism.
The Keynote Address started at 1:30 p.m. The Symposium also featured two panels:
Walter Rodney, Human Rights, and Decolonization
Imperialism, State Violence and the Assassination of Walter Rodney
Keynote:
Angela Y. Davis
Presenters:
Adisa Douglas
Ben Mable
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Beverly Guy Sheftall
Budd Hall
Caroline Cooper
Charles Ferrell
Charisse Burden-Stelly
Donald Rodney
Donald Ramotar
Hashim Gibrill
Hon. Mohabir Anil Nandlall
Horace Campbell
Keith C. Scotland
Mawuli Davis
Mireille Fanon Mendès-France
Nevel Greenridge
Nigel Westmaas
Patsy Edwards
Robin D. G. Kelley
Rupert Lewis
Vanda Radzik
Verene Shepherd
Vijay Prashad
Walter Bagoya
Wazir Mohamed
The 17th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
Angela Y. Davis
2020
Saturday, March 21st
The Keynote Address was to be held at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College, 830 Westview Dr. SW, Atlanta, GA 30314. Doors opened at 2 p.m., and Angela Davis was scheduled to take the stage at 3:00 p.m. Participants were required to RSVP for the event through Eventbrite. The event was free.
—- 03/14/20 —- Due to developments with the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the 17th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium – scheduled to take place on March 21, 2020 at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia – was postponed. The private event scheduled to take place later that evening at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library was also postponed.
Angela Davis is a revolutionary who has worked tirelessly against oppression, the death penalty, racism, and sexism. She has advocated for prison abolition, prison education, criminal justice reform, human rights, and LGBTQ rights while opposing the Vietnam War, apartheid South Africa, the war on terror, and the occupation of Palestine. Davis is a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Rodney & Davis’ lives intersected when they met at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania; they both are grounded in historical truth, and in their commitment to liberation, resistance, and scholar-activism. Davis wrote the Foreword to How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Verso Press 2018.)
Keynote:
Angela Y. Davis
The 16th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
Pan-African Discussions
History - Movements - Resistance - Struggle
2019
Friday, March 19th
We convened for two days of Pan-African discussion, including:
Special guests from Canada, Cuba, and the UK
Historic launching of three new/republished Walter Rodney books
Much more.
We enjoyed seeing you all there and grounding with you.
Keynote:
Mireille Fanon-Mendès-France
Presenters:
Abiola Sow
”Able” Mable Thomas
Akinyele Umoja
David Austin
Damani Aaquil
Devyn Springer
Franklin “Jah Frank” Hasfal
Geoffroy de Laforcade
Keith Waithe
Marcelo Brodsky
Ward Churchill
The 15th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
Reflecting on 50 Years of Struggle
2018
Friday, March 23rd &
Saturday, March 24th
1968 was a truly momentous year in the history of global social movements, a year of global revolution. It comprised the primary year of the shift from the Civil Rights to Black Power movements and Black Consciousness; the emergence of Black and Ethnic Studies programs; the “Rodney Riots” in Jamaica; innumerable assassinations, uprisings, and student movements globally; open social conflicts as seen in the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that year; the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.; the Poor People's Campaign, and the Olympics Black Power salute which followed thereafter.
It was a critical time in which relations within the global Pan-African world shifted, and out of necessity radicalized. Most historians consider 1968 the apex of the Global 1960s movements when power relations and social movements for justice erupted in intense conflict.
The 15th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium reflected on the 50th anniversary of 1968, including the 50th anniversary of one of Walter Rodney's most important books: The Groundings with My Brothers (GWMB), and 50 years of Black Studies in the US.
Keynote:
Dr. John Carlos
Presenters:
2Kee
”Able” Mable Thomas
Akinyele Umoja
avry jxn
Basil Waine Kong
Devyn Springer
Ewart A. C. Thomas
Franklin “Jah Frank” Hasfal
Kurt Young
Lindy Carter
Matthew Smith
Mawuli Davis
Mengue Moli Jacques Bertrand
Mr. “Bongo Jerry” Small
Pellom McDaniels III
Robert “Bobby” Hill
Samuel T. Livingston
Seneca Vaught
Tanya M. Washington
Tiffany Smith
The 14th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
Justice Denied: People’s Power
The Struggle Continues
2017
Friday, March 24th &
Saturday, March 25th
Justice Denied: People’s Power, The Struggle Continues, explored issues of racism, discrimination, injustice, and inequity by examining ongoing fights for human rights and equal justice in Guyana in the 1970s and 1980s, and in the United States and globally today.
The 1st day of the symposium addressed these issues within the context of the 1980 assassination of Walter Rodney. Speakers discussed the societal structure and political environment of Guyana at that time, including the Jonestown Massacre, as well as the overarching international human rights context. A panel reviewed the 2016 Commission of Inquiry (COI) Report into Rodney’s murder, which provides revelations of state terrorism and conspiracy, use of a military assassination, and government cover-up, and outlined the necessary next steps to achieve justice.
The 2nd day addressed social injustices that are faced today, and how to use education, politics, civic engagement, and radical pedagogy as strategies to effect change. There was also a focus on the International Decade for People of African Descent. Following, in the tradition of Walter Rodney’s The Groundings With My Brothers, the symposium featured a groundings community session in which the audience exchanged information and ideas about social justice issues.
Keynotes:
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles
Dr. Joyce King
Presenters:
”Able” Mable Thomas
Bettina Love
Collette Pichon Battle
Damani Aaquil
Donald Rodney
Fielding M. McGehee, III
Hilaire Sobers
John H. Eaves
Keith Jennings
Keith C. Scotland
Mawuli Davis
Max Hilaire
Ras Kofi da Farmah
Sa-Roc
Sol Messiah
The 13th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium
Youth Matters: Global Groundings
2016
Friday, March 18th &
Saturday, March 19th
The theme of the 2016 symposium was “Youth Matters: Global Groundings.” The symposium sought to address matters of significance to youth and did include sessions on movements and activism, intergenerational dialogue, international voices, education, and juvenile justice. In addition to the Atlanta symposium, we had several simultaneous meetings of local youth in other states and in countries across the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and within the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa.
Youth is often described in the Pan-African world as persons under 40 years old. Dr. Walter Rodney was officially within this recognized definition of “youth” as he was 38 years old when he was assassinated, a fact that we often forget as we explore his relatively short life as an academic, scholar, historian, and activist. Both Dr. Rodney’s life and the causes for which he gave it should be an inspiration to all of us, especially youth, who strive for justice, domestically and internationally.
Keynotes:
Dr. Raphael G. Warnock
Jasiri X
Aurielle Marie
Presenters:
”Able” Mable Thomas
Aiden Salgado
Aljosie Aldrich Harding
Amira Rossih Martinez Sinisterra
Avery Jackson
Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Chairman John H. Eaves
Charles Black
Dazon Dixon Diallo
Dr. Rev. C.T. Vivian
DeShawn Dominique Jenkins
Devyn Springer
Emery Wright
Esker Copeland
Jesus Carabali
Jesus “Chucho” Garcia
Mawuli Mel Davis
Melanie R. Medalle
Prince Ifoh
Ralph Cantave
Samuel T. Livingston
Stephanie Guilloud
Teri Platt
Tiffany R. Smith
More Programs