BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//132.216.98.100//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.20.4// BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20250710T020816EDT-6851dAE5tu@132.216.98.100 DTSTAMP:20250710T060816Z DESCRIPTION:The Congress was one of the most important Black international gatherings of the post-Second World War period. The idea to organize a Con gress of Black Writers was first proposed by Raymond Watts\, an accomplish ed musician who moved to Montreal from London to work as a train porter in order to support his family. Watts and fellow Trinidadian Wally Look Lai had been members of a study group that met in the London home C.L.R and Se lma James in the early sixties\, a group that included young Caribbean int ellectuals such as Jamaica’s Joan French\, Orlando Patterson\, Richard Sma ll\, and briefly Robert Hill\, and Walter Rodney of Guyana.\n\nThe Congres s\, held at ϲ between October 11th and 14th\, 1968\, was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King\, Jr. and Malcolm X\, whose images\, along with Frantz Fanon\, Patrice Lumumba\, and other black political fig ures\, adorned the walls of the student union ballroom. Following King’s a ssassination\, there was a shift in consciousness of the Student Nonviolen t Coordinating Committee towards the Black Panther Party. This shift was e xplicit in the gathering’s statement of purpose\, signed by co-chairs Elde r Thébaud of Haiti\, a future New York psychiatrist\, and Rosie Douglas\, future prime minister of Dominica. The statement declared that “modern whi te oppression… has always sought to justify its oppressive control over th e other races by resorting to arrogant claims of inherent superiority\, an d attempting to denigrate the cultural and historical achievements of the oppressed peoples.” “Here\, for the first time in Canada\,” the text conti nued\, “an attempt will be made to recall\, in a series of popular lecture s by black scholars\, artists and politicians\, a history which we have be en taught to forget...in short\, the history of the black liberation strug gle\, from its origins in slavery to the present day.”\n\nCongress partici pants included Trinidadian-American Stokely Carmichael\, as well as Americ ans James Forman\, Alvin Poussaint\, Ted Joans\, Harry Edwards\, Trinidadi an C.L.R. James\, Darcus Howe who traveled from the UK\, Richard B. Moore of Barbados\, Jamaicans Richard Small and Robert A. Hill\, Walter Rodney o f Guyana\, and Canada’s Burnley “Rocky” Jones\, the only Canadian to play a prominent role in the conference.\n\nMoving Against the System: The 50th Anniversary of the Congress of Black Writers features newspapers\, docume nts\, and books associated with this historic event that both anticipated the gathering and came in its aftermath. Materials are courtesy of Kristen Young\, the Alfie Roberts Collection\, The ϲ University Archives and Maitre Daniel Boyer. Special thanks to the ϲ Institute for the Study of Canada and the ϲ Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.\n \nThe exhibition was curated by Kristen Young.\n DTSTART:20181001T151500Z DTEND:20181025T220000Z LOCATION:Rare Books and Special Collections\, 4th floor\, Reading Room\, Mc Lennan Library Building\, CA\, QC\, Montreal\, H3A 0C9\, 3459 rue McTavish SUMMARY:Exhibition | Moving Against the System: The 50th Anniversary of the Congress of Black Writers URL:/library/channels/event/exhibition-moving-against- system-50th-anniversary-congress-black-writers-290240 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR